This next video focuses primarily on the Late
Empire, so as ancient Rome is starting to decline, but I didn't quite finish up the
Pantheon in the last video in the last video, so I'm just gonna say a few more things about that and then
move on to the Late
Empire. So the Pantheon -- just remind you -- is this temple dedicated to all
the gods
commissioned under Hadrian -- the Emperor Hadrian -- so this
Emperor that was in power as Rome
was at a very large extent. It's at its largest extent under Trajan, so it
remains very, very large under Hadrian. He was very interested
in interesting architectural projects, especially with domes,
so we see that of course here as we look at the upper part up the Pantheon. So you
can see
you have an oculus at the center which allows light to enter in and it may have also
had some sun symbolism associated with it
as well. If we zoom in to the inside, which we didn't have a chance to look at,
you can see that this is a wide-angle photo but you can see variety
of stones that are used on the interior which would have been typical in Rome at
this time
demonstrating the extent that the Empire -- stones like porphyry
which were available in Egypt, so all these different
colored stone would indicate the extent of the Roman Empire.
You have this single opening with the oculus here -- symbolic the sun,
28 ribs -- possibly symbolic of the twenty gates before each new moon.
So certain art historians have tried to read into some of the
symbolism of numbers and shapes that are incorporated into this structure,
but primarily what we should note is that there is this perfect sphere that
can fit within the inside, and
that basically circles and squares are
a dominant design feature of this structure.
And this was important structure for Hadrian when he was in Rome -- he didn't really
like being in Rome --
but this was a structure he seems to have been quite proud of and
was an important architectural achievement of his. As we move
into the later empire, we see an emperor called Marcus Aurelius.
Marcus Aurelius became very well known following the movie "Gladiator".
He is known as a good emperor -- someone who
was an effective ruler. He carried out a number military campaigns.
These seem to have been difficult campaigns, and this is reflected
in things like his column. He has a column just like Trajan
that records some of his military campaigns, but in his column
the military campaigns seem a lot more violent and a lot more difficult.
And we can see some of this on his face, so if you actually zoom in on this
sculpture a little bit more -- if you look at his face -- you can see he looks a little bit
tired. He tends to be represented with heavier eyelids,
looking a little bit grim and a little tired after all of his work.
So rather than seeing these eternally youthful rulers like we saw with
Augustus,
we're starting to see these rulers that are showing some signs of wear and tear
after all it their difficulties with their rule.
So in this representation,
it's very, very important because we see him actually in a sculpture made of
bronze
and bronze usually doesn't survive because it tends to be melted down --
very valuable material, very useful during times of war,
and when it comes down to it, people often melt these sculptures for other
purposes,
however this sculpture was believed to be a representation of
Constantine, who is known as the first Christian
Roman Emperor, and so because this was believed to be Constantine, they decided not
to melt it down.
It because this important sculpture and now
we know -- if we compare to other sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
done in marble or other materials -- it's pretty clear to see that it is Marcus
Aurelius rather than Constantine. Constantine
is usually -- that is, we don't we Constantine represented with a beard.
In this representation Marcus Aurelius is represented a little bit large in
comparison to the horse,
and so this makes him seem more powerful -- hieratic scale, so indicating
his importance
in terms of size or indicating his
importance based on his size
being extra large. So you can see him looking quite large in comparison to
his horse;
he also extends his hand out probably in a gesture of clemency.
So possibly there was a figure -- an extra figure -- over here
a but he seems to be making a kind
gesture of clemency, which was a virtue that should be associated with emperors --
listening to people, but also offering mercy
in certain cases, so we can see that in this representation.
The statue now has been moved into a museum, but there is a replica
now on the Capitoline Hill and so you can see it out in this very important
government
site in Rome, so you could see one outside that is the replica and the
original is now in the museum.
So if we move on you can see a representation of
Commodus as Hercules which is a very striking image.
This image you can see Commodus has a lot of the same features as his father
those heavy eyelids, curly hair, curly beard, but Commodus was known as
being very sure of himself and thinking of himself as a god --
conceiving of himself as a god and so here we see him
dressing as Hercules almost crossing the line
of carrying all those attributes. Does he truly believe that he is Hercules?
Hercules as
Commodus? How does this all connect? So we see him here
holding on to the apples of the Hesperides. We see him with
the skin of the lion that he's able to defeat.
So these are all signs that he has accomplished these labors that Hercules
is said to have accomplished.
The club is also a symbol of Hercules as well.
We also see Amazon that's kneeling showing his military victories,
and cornucopias showing plenty and bounty and things like that.
So it is supposed to speak very highly of Commodus -- showing that he's very
powerful,
showing that he is a military leader, showing that he brings about plenty,
but, in fact, this demonstrates also that maybe
he was a bit crazy at this point. He's not seen as a very good ruler, and in fact he's
assassinated, so apparently he was not well liked,
as his father was -- his father was Marcus Aurelius.
Moving on we're gonna look at this very important painted portrait,
so very unusual to have a painted portrait of the imperial family -- or the
Emperor and his family.
So here we have a ruler named Septimus Severus. He was actually from
northern Africa and these types of painted portraits were very common in Egypt. We see
them attached to mummies
frequently. They tend to survive quite well. Often they're done in
encaustic which is a wax-based paint, but this is actually done with tempera,
which is an egg-based paint. So Septimus Severus is here right at the center. You
see his crown. This is his wife Julia Domna with this wave pattern in her hair which
is typical
of this time. This is is son Caracalla who will become Emperor,
and this is Geta. Geta's face -- as you probably have already noticed -- has been
wiped out,
and this is because out there was a competition between the brothers. Caracalla
had his brother
killed, and Caracalla is the one that's named Emperor.
Geta -- There is declared a "Damnatio Memoriae" so his memory is
damned and so every architectural and every artistic representation of him
whether it's on architecture, painting, or sculpture
all that needs to be removed and so you see here his face has been rubbed out so
you can see that Geta's likeness has been removed.
This is a way of removing someone's memory, and it also reinforces the idea that
portraiture is so important in Rome, so to remove someone's face --
just the face because you can see his body remains here intact
but just to remove the face is a way of desecrating someone's memory and
ensuring that their memory does not survive.
But of course, because he did this, we tend to study it even more,
and find out about both Geta and Caracalla.
Caracalla eventually is known as a pretty ruthless leader
and he seems to cultivate this image in later portraiture. Here we see him as a
very
young man, but once he does become emperor, he looks quite cruel and intense
in his portraits.
Next, as you can probably tell, things are becoming
quite difficult in the system of rule, so
stories like Caracalla with his brother, Commodus
being assassinated, you start to see trends of some difficulties with some of
these bad Emperors.
We also enter into a period in the 3rd century of a period of soldier Emperors
where individual embers rule for only a few years, so we don't have a lot
art that survives or architecture that survives from these rulers.
So eventually they do have a ruler or an emperor named Diocletian, who rules pretty
effectively.
But he decides that they really need to change the way
the government system is working and the system of the emperors.
So they come up with this idea of the "Tetrarchy" and so in this Tetrarchy
you're gonna have to senior rulers and two junior rulers,
and so that's four total and each one will dominate one
area of the empire, so we just skip forward quickly,
you can see that the Empire I was divided into four parts: one, two
three, four; so one in purple; one in pink; one in green; one in
yellow in this map. And so each
each ruler would get a certain division so
here you can the district of Constantius,
Maximian, Valerius, and Diocletian, so each was divided up
to one of the Ausgusti or one Cesar
and so here you can see -- here you can see that Diocletian
is one of the senior rulers. He is an Augustus or named
one of the Augusti. Maximian also one of the senior rulers, then
you have Constantius and Galerius as the Caesars.
So you can see this is a system where you are bringing four rulers together and the
message here in this artwork is to
emphasize how they're very unified, right? They're all holding each other.
The only differentiation is each of the
Augusti has a beard,
and also had his arm around the Caesar. So showing them as unified
rulers, and the whole idea of this system was eventually the Caesars
would become Augusti, and there would be new Caesars coming in.
This system ends up not working very well but
through this monument we can see it represented very clearly. This idea
of four joining together -- there's not a lot of differentiation;
that they're all working together; that they look very stable and strong; that
their emphasizing their military might
by holding on to their sword and also they're wearing
armor, but they're also great headpieces indicating status.
Also we're seeing proportions becoming a little shorter and squatter here, which
we'll start to see more and more of as we move
to the medieval period. Also we're seeing an increased interest in texture which we
see here
on their belts and on their swords, which we'll also see more of in the medieval period.
And this -- just as a side note was originally in
Constantinople -- now modern day Istanbul -- but was taken to
Venice later on as and something that was stolen as spolia
from Constantinople. This boot actually was discovered in Constantinople.
So the Tetrarchy does fail. It doesn't quite work out.
The rulers don't really all work together as
it was hope to work out, so Maxentius,
who was one of the son's of a tetrarch, controls
Italy as a sole ruler for about six years. Maxentius is then defeated by
Constantine
who is often known as "Constantine the Great" who was also a son
of one of the tetrarchs -- son of Constantius -- so he comes to power in 312.
So what we see here is the Arch of Constantine --
very, very famous arch in Rome that was commissioned by Constantine to celebrate
his victory
over Maxentius. So as we saw here,
Maxentius was defeated by Constantine in 312,
so after this victory this arch is commissioned and created.
It is a triple-span arch. You can see that it has extensive decoration and what
interesting is the parts that you see here in green were actually done by
artists under Constantine
but the other colors actually we're taken from monuments of other
good emperors -- so, for example, these purple circles that you see here come from a
monument dedicated to Hadrian,
these yellow portions here come from a monument dedicated
to Marcus Aurelius, and these kinda greenish or
yellowish, greenish portions here -- these kind of olive-colored portions
come from Trajan. So again this is Trajan,
right here, these little guys here -- these are Dacian captives
This area here comes from Marcus Aurelius, and then the circles come
from Hadrian. And there's a clear difference just in terms of the scale
and the proportions. We tend to see squatter shorter figures for the figures
that were created by the sculptors that were under Constantine, and we see
more elongated, Greek-style
figures --more in that classical style that we associate
with Greece and the early Roman Empire
that's what we tend to see with the other monuments, and so the pieces taken are
referred to as
"SPOLIA", so that's another term to be familiar with. So
this commemorates some of the victories and the good deeds of Constantine
in the new parts, and the heads of the emperors like Hardrian here
are recarved as Constantine, so they're
repurposed. Here's a portrait of Constantine
very, very large -- just the head is over eight feet tall -- and it was part of a large sculpture
that probably in the parts that were visible were made out of stone -- so
the head,
the hands, the feet were made of stone and then the body was probably made of wood
and covered with cloth so he looked almost like
a god figure -- so, so large. However Constantine does
create the Edict of Milan which makes at the persecutions Christians come to an
end,
and eventually and his death in 337 he will be baptized a Christian.
And here we can see the "Basilica Nova", which was a facility that was
begun
under Maxentius, however it's completed under Constantine.
And "Basilica Nova" that just means new basilica. So
most impressive -- that's where the sculpture of Constantine would have been
located -- right here in one of the
niches. And also very, very impressive in the structure,
you can see that it has an elaborate system of vaulting. You can see there's large barrel
vaults here on the side
and groin vaults in the center. So unfortunately this structure is in pretty
rough shape
in the Roman Forum today, but if you look at some of these reconstructions,
you can get a sense of the rich colors in the marble -- similar to the Pantheon --
and the very light and airy nature of this structure with all the lights coming
through the vaulting.
So a very impressive structure overall. Very
inspiring to later architects who came to see it, to draw, and to observe.