The main advantage of ancient Roman sculpture is the realism and authenticity of the images. First of all, this is due to the fact that the Romans had a strong cult of ancestors, and from the earliest period of Roman history there was a custom to remove posthumous wax masks, which were later taken by sculptors as the basis for sculptural portraits.

The very concept of "ancient Roman art" has a very arbitrary meaning. All Roman sculptors were Greek in origin. In an aesthetic sense, all ancient Roman sculpture is a replica of the Greek one. The innovation was the combination of the Greek desire for harmony and Roman rigidity and the cult of strength.

The history of ancient Roman sculpture is divided into three parts - the art of the Etruscans, the plastic of the era of the Republic and the imperial art.

Etruscan art

Etruscan sculpture was intended to decorate funerary urns. These urns themselves were created in the form human body. The realism of the image was considered necessary to maintain order in the world of spirits and people. The works of the ancient Etruscan masters, despite the primitiveness and sketchiness of the images, surprise with the individuality of each image, their character and energy.

Sculpture of the Roman Republic

The sculpture of the times of the Republic is characterized by emotional stinginess, detachment and coldness. There was an impression of a complete isolation of the image. This is due to the exact reproduction of the death mask when creating the sculpture. The situation was somewhat rectified by Greek aesthetics, the canons, according to which the proportions of the human body were calculated.

Numerous reliefs of triumphal columns, temples, which belong to this period, amaze with the elegance of lines and realism. Especially worth mentioning is the bronze sculpture of the "Roman she-wolf". The fundamental legend of Rome, the material embodiment of Roman ideology - this is the significance of this statue in culture. The primitivization of the plot, incorrect proportions, fantasticness, do not in the least prevent one from admiring the dynamics of this work, its special sharpness and temperament.

But the main achievement in the sculpture of this era is a realistic sculptural portrait. Unlike Greece, where creating a portrait, the master somehow subordinated to the laws of harmony and beauty all the individual features of the model, the Roman masters carefully copied all the subtleties of the appearance of the models. On the other hand, this often led to the simplification of images, the roughness of lines and the removal from realism.

Sculpture of the Roman Empire

The task of the art of any empire is to exalt the emperor and the state. Rome is no exception. The Romans of the era of the empire could not imagine their home without sculptures of ancestors, gods and the emperor himself. Therefore, many examples of imperial plastic art have survived to this day.

First of all, the triumphal columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius deserve attention. The columns are decorated with bas-reliefs telling about military campaigns, exploits and trophies. Such reliefs are not only works of art that amaze with the accuracy of images, the multi-figured composition, the harmony of lines and the subtlety of work, they are also priceless historical source, which allows you to restore household and military details of the era of the empire.

The statues of emperors in the forums of Rome are made in a harsh, rude manner. There is no longer a trace of that Greek harmony and beauty that was characteristic of early Roman art. Masters, first of all, had to portray strong and tough rulers. There was also a departure from realism. Roman emperors were portrayed as athletic, tall, despite the fact that rarely any of them had a harmonious physique.

Almost always during the Roman Empire, the sculptures of the gods were depicted with the faces of the ruling emperors, so historians reliably know what the emperors of the largest ancient state looked like.

Despite the fact that Roman art, without any doubt, entered the world treasury of many masterpieces, in its essence it is only a continuation of ancient Greek. The Romans developed ancient art, made it more magnificent, majestic, brighter. On the other hand, it was the Romans who lost the sense of proportion, depth and ideological content of early ancient art.

The most famous sculptures in Rome

The greatest cultural and archaeological heritage of the Eternal City, woven from different historical eras, makes Rome unique. An incredible number of works of art have been collected in the capital of Italy - real masterpieces known throughout the world, behind which are the names of great talents. In this article we want to talk about the most famous sculptures in Rome, which are definitely worth seeing.

For many centuries, Rome has been the center of world art. Since ancient times, masterpieces of creations of human hands have been brought to the capital of the Empire. During the Renaissance, pontiffs, cardinals and representatives of the nobility built palaces and churches, decorating them with beautiful frescoes, paintings and sculptures. Many newly erected buildings from this period have donated new life architectural and decorative elements of antiquity - ancient columns, capitals, marble friezes and sculptures were taken from the buildings of the times of the Empire, restored and installed in a new place. In addition, the Renaissance gave Rome an endless number of new brilliant creations, including the work of Michelangelo, Canova, Bernini and many other talented sculptors.

Sleeping hermaphrodite

Capitoline she-wolf

The most significant for the Romans is the "Capitoline she-wolf", stored today in the Capitoline Museums. According to the legend about the founding of Rome, the twins Romulus and Remus were raised by a she-wolf near the Capitoline Hill.

It is generally accepted that the bronze statue was made by the Etruscans in the 5th century BC, but modern researchers tend to assume that the She-Wolf was made much later - during the Middle Ages. The figures of twins were added in the second half of the 15th century. Their authorship has not been established for certain. Most likely they were created by Antonio del Pollaiolo.

Laocoön and sons

One of the most famous sculptures Rome is located in the Pio Clementine Museum, part of the Vatican Museums. This work is a marble Roman copy, realized between the 1st century BC. and I century A.D. after a Greek bronze original. The sculptural group depicting the scene of the struggle of Laocoön and his sons with snakes, presumably decorated the private villa of Emperor Titus.

The statue was discovered at the beginning of the 16th century in the territory of the vineyards located on the hill of Oppio, owned by a certain Felice de Fredis. In the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, on the tombstone of Felice, you can see an inscription telling about this fact. Michelangelo Buonarroti and Giuliano da Sangallo were invited to the excavations, who were to evaluate the find.

This sculptural group during the Renaissance produced a strong resonance in the circles of creative people and influenced the development of Renaissance art in Italy. The incredible dynamism and plasticity of the forms of the antique work inspired many masters of that time, such as Michelangelo, Titian, El Greco, Andrea del Sarto, and others.

Sculptures by Michelangelo

Great master of all times, whose name is known to almost everyone - Michelangelo Buonarroti - sculptor, architect, artist and poet. Despite the fact that most of the works of this talented person are in Florence and Bologna, in Rome you can also get acquainted with some of his works. In the Vatican, in St. Peter's Basilica, the world masterpiece of all eras is kept - the sculptural group Pieta by Michelangelo, depicting the Virgin mourning Jesus, who was taken down from the cross after the crucifixion. At the time of the production of this work, the master was only 24 years old. In addition, Pieta is the only hand-signed work of the master.

Pieta

Another work by Buonarroti can be admired in the Cathedral of San Pietro in Vincoli. There is a monumental tombstone of Pope Julius II, the creation of which stretched over four decades. Despite the fact that the original project of the funeral monument was never fully implemented, the main figure that adorns the monument and personifies Moses makes a strong impression.

Moses

The sculpture looks so realistic that it fully conveys the character and mood of the biblical character.

Sculptures by Lorenzo Bernini

Another genius whose name is closely associated with Rome is Jean Lorenzo Bernini. Thanks to his work, the Eternal City acquired a new look. According to the projects of Bernini, palaces and churches were erected, squares and fountains were equipped. Bernini, together with his students, designed the Bridge of the Holy Angel, created an incredible number of sculptures, many of which still adorn the streets of Rome.

Bernini. Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona. Fragment

Sensual marble figures, with graceful soft forms and special sophistication, amaze with their virtuoso performance: the cold stone looks warm and soft, and the characters sculptural compositions- alive.

Among the most famous works of Bernini, which are definitely worth seeing with your own eyes, the first place on our list is occupied by the “Abduction of Proserpina” and “Apollo and Daphne”, which make up the collection of the Borghese Gallery. Read more about these works, as well as other masterpieces of the Borghese Gallery.

Apollo and Daphne

The Ecstasy of Blessed Ludovica Albertoni, another masterpiece of the Renaissance, deserves special attention. This sculpture, created as a funeral monument at the request of Cardinal Paluzzi, depicts the scene of religious ecstasy by Ludovica Albertoni, who lived at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. The sculpture adorns the Altieri Chapel, located in the Basilica of San Francesco a Ripa in the Trastevere area.

Ecstasy of Blessed Ludovica Albertoni

Another similar work is kept in the Basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria. "The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" was sculpted by Lorenzo Bernini by order of the Venetian cardinal at the end of the 17th century. main character works - St. Teresa, immersed in a state of spiritual insight. Nearby, against the background of sparkling golden rays, is the figure of an angel directing an arrow into the languid body of the saint. The plot for the sculptural group was the story described by the Spanish nun Teresa about how in a dream she saw an angel who pierced her womb with an arrow of divine light, which caused her to experience the torment of voluptuousness.

Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Paolina Borghese by sculptor Antonio Canova

Another masterpiece of world significance is the tender and romantic Paolina Borghese, made in the first decade of the 19th century in the neoclassical style. famous sculptor Antonio Canova. The sculpture depicting Paolina Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, was commissioned on the occasion of her marriage to Camillo Borghese, a Roman prince.

The sculptures described in this article are only a negligible part of the many world masterpieces located in Rome, the genius of which is beyond doubt and which is definitely worth seeing at least once in a lifetime.

Without the foundations laid by Greece and Rome, there would be no modern Europe. Both the Greeks and the Romans had their own historical vocation - they complemented each other, and the foundation of modern Europe is their common cause.

The artistic heritage of Rome meant a lot in the cultural foundation of Europe. Moreover, this legacy was almost decisive for European art.

In conquered Greece, the Romans behaved at first like barbarians. In one of his satires, Juvenal shows us a rude Roman soldier of those times, “who did not know how to appreciate the art of the Greeks,” who “as usual” broke “cups made by glorious artists” into small pieces to decorate his shield or shell with them.

And when the Romans heard about the value of works of art, the destruction was replaced by robbery - wholesale, apparently, without any selection. From Epirus in Greece, the Romans removed five hundred statues, and having broken the Etruscans before that, two thousand from Vei. It is unlikely that all these were one masterpieces.

It is generally accepted that the fall of Corinth in 146 BC. the Greek period of ancient history ends. This blooming city on the coast ionian sea, one of the main centers Greek culture, was wiped off the face of the earth by the soldiers of the Roman consul Mummius. From the burned palaces and temples, consular ships took out countless artistic treasures, so that, as Pliny writes, literally the whole of Rome was filled with statues.

The Romans not only brought a great multitude Greek statues(in addition, they also brought Egyptian obelisks), but copied the Greek originals on the largest scale. And for that alone, we should be grateful to them. What, however, was the actual Roman contribution to the art of sculpture? Around the trunk of Trajan's column, erected at the beginning of the 2nd century BC. BC e. on the forum of Trajan, over the very grave of this emperor, a relief winds like a wide ribbon, glorifying his victories over the Dacians, whose kingdom (present-day Romania) was finally conquered by the Romans. The artists who made this relief were undoubtedly not only talented, but also well acquainted with the techniques of the Hellenistic masters. And yet it is a typical Roman work.

Before us is the most detailed and conscientious narration. It is a narrative, not a generalized image. In Greek relief, the story of real events was presented allegorically, usually intertwined with mythology. In the Roman relief, from the time of the republic, one can clearly see the desire to be as precise as possible, more specifically convey the course of events in its logical sequence along with characteristic features persons who participated in them. In the relief of Trajan's column, we see Roman and barbarian camps, preparations for a campaign, assaults on fortresses, crossings, merciless battles. Everything seems to be really very accurate: the types of Roman soldiers and Dacians, their weapons and clothes, the type of fortifications - so that this relief can serve as a kind of sculptural encyclopedia of the then military life. By its general idea, the whole composition, rather, resembles the relief narratives of the abusive exploits of the Assyrian kings already known to us, however, with less pictorial power, although with a better knowledge of anatomy and from the Greeks, the ability to place figures more freely in space. The low relief, without plastic identification of the figures, may have been inspired by the paintings that have not survived. The images of Trajan himself are repeated at least ninety times, the faces of the soldiers are extremely expressive.

These same concreteness and expressiveness make up distinguishing feature of all Roman portrait sculpture, in which, perhaps, the originality of the Roman artistic genius was most clearly manifested.

The purely Roman share, included in the treasury of world culture, is perfectly defined (just in connection with the Roman portrait) by the greatest connoisseur of ancient art O.F. Waldhauer: “... Rome exists as an individual; Rome is in those strict forms in which ancient images were revived under her dominion; Rome is in that great organism that spread the seeds of ancient culture, giving them the opportunity to fertilize new, still barbarian peoples, and, finally, Rome is in creating a civilized world on the basis of Hellenic cultural elements and, modifying them, in accordance with new tasks, only Rome and could create ... a great era of portrait sculpture ... ".

The Roman portrait has a complex background. Its connection with the Etruscan portrait is obvious, as well as with the Hellenistic one. The Roman root is also quite clear: the first Roman portraits in marble or bronze were just an exact reproduction of a wax mask taken from the face of the deceased. It is not yet art in the usual sense.

In subsequent times, accuracy was preserved at the heart of the Roman artistic portrait. Precision inspired by creative inspiration and remarkable craftsmanship. The heritage of Greek art here, of course, played a role. But it can be said without exaggeration: the art of a brightly individualized portrait, brought to perfection, completely exposing the inner world of a given person, is, in essence, a Roman achievement. In any case, in terms of the scope of creativity, in terms of the strength and depth of psychological penetration.

In a Roman portrait, the spirit of ancient Rome is revealed to us in all its aspects and contradictions. A Roman portrait is, as it were, the very history of Rome, told in faces, the history of its unprecedented rise and tragic death: “The whole history of the Roman fall is expressed here by eyebrows, foreheads, lips” (Herzen).

Among the Roman emperors were noble personalities, the largest statesmen, there were greedy ambitious people, there were monsters, despots,

maddened by unlimited power, and in the consciousness that everything is permitted to them, shedding a sea of ​​​​blood, were gloomy tyrants who, by the murder of their predecessor, reached the highest rank and therefore destroyed everyone who inspired them with the slightest suspicion. As we have seen, the morals born of the deified autocracy sometimes pushed even the most enlightened to the most cruel deeds.

During the period of the greatest power of the empire, a tightly organized slave-owning system, in which the life of a slave was put in nothing and he was treated like working cattle, left its mark on the morality and life of not only emperors and nobles, but also ordinary citizens. And at the same time, encouraged by the pathos of statehood, the desire for ordering in the Roman way increased. social life throughout the empire, with full confidence that there could be no more stable and beneficial order. But this confidence turned out to be untenable.

Continuous wars, internecine strife, provincial uprisings, the flight of slaves, the consciousness of lack of rights with each century more and more undermined the foundation of the "Roman world". The conquered provinces showed their will more and more decisively. And in the end they undermined the unifying power of Rome. The provinces destroyed Rome; Rome itself has become country town, like others, privileged, but no longer dominant, no longer the center of a world empire ... The Roman state turned into a gigantic complex machine exclusively for sucking the juices out of its subjects.

New trends coming from the East, new ideals, the search for a new truth gave birth to new beliefs. The decline of Rome was coming, the decline of the ancient world with its ideology and social structure.

All this is reflected in Roman portrait sculpture.

In the days of the republic, when mores were more severe and simpler, the documentary accuracy of the image, the so-called "verism" (from the word verus - true), was not yet balanced by the Greek ennobling influence. This influence manifested itself in the Augustan age, sometimes even to the detriment of veracity.

The famous full-length statue of Augustus, where he is shown in all the splendor of imperial power and military glory (a statue from Prima Port, Rome, the Vatican), as well as his image in the form of Jupiter himself (the Hermitage), of course, idealized ceremonial portraits equating earthly lord to the celestials. And yet they show the individual features of Augustus, the relative poise and the undoubted significance of his personality.

Numerous portraits of his successor, Tiberius, are also idealized.

Let's look at the sculptural portrait of Tiberius in his younger years (Copenhagen, Glyptothek). Ennobled image. And at the same time, of course, individual. Something unsympathetic, obnoxiously closed peeps through his features. Perhaps, placed in other conditions, this person outwardly would have lived his life quite decently. But eternal fear and unlimited power. And it seems to us that the artist captured in the image of him something that even the insightful Augustus did not recognize, appointing Tiberius as his successor.

But for all its noble restraint, the portrait of Tiberius' successor, Caligula (Copenhagen, Glyptothek), a murderer and torturer, who was eventually stabbed to death by his close associates, is already completely revealing. His gaze is eerie, and you feel that there can be no mercy from this very young ruler (he completed his twenty-nine years terrible life) with tightly compressed lips, who liked to remind that he can do anything: and with anyone. We believe, looking at the portrait of Caligula, all the stories about his countless atrocities. “He forced fathers to be present at the execution of their sons,” writes Suetonius, “he sent a stretcher for one of them when he tried to evade due to ill health; immediately after the spectacle of the execution, he invited another to the table and forced all sorts of courtesies to joke and have fun. And another Roman historian, Dion, adds that when the father of one of the executed "asked if he could at least close his eyes, he ordered the father to be killed." And also from Suetonius: “When the price of cattle, which were fattened by wild animals for spectacles, rose, he ordered them to be thrown to the mercy of criminals; and, going around the prison for this, he did not look who was to blame for what, but directly ordered, standing at the door, to take everyone away ... ". Sinister in its cruelty is the low-browed face of Nero, the most famous of the crowned monsters of Ancient Rome (marble, Rome, National Museum).

The style of the Roman sculptural portrait changed along with the general attitude of the era. Documentary truthfulness, splendor, reaching deification, the sharpest realism, the depth of psychological penetration alternately prevailed in him, and even complemented each other. But while the Roman idea was alive, the pictorial power did not dry out in him.

Emperor Hadrian deserved the glory of a wise ruler; it is known that he was an enlightened connoisseur of art, an ardent admirer of the classical heritage of Hellas. His features carved in marble, his thoughtful gaze, together with a slight touch of sadness, complete our idea of ​​him, just as his portraits complete our idea of ​​Caracalla, truly capturing the quintessence of bestial cruelty, the most unbridled, violent power. But the true “philosopher on the throne”, a thinker full of spiritual nobility, is Marcus Aurelius, who preached stoicism in his writings, renunciation of earthly goods.

Truly unforgettable in their expressiveness images!

But the Roman portrait resurrects before us not only the images of emperors.

Let us stop in the Hermitage in front of a portrait of an unknown Roman, executed probably at the very end of the 1st century. This is an undoubted masterpiece, in which the Roman accuracy of the image is combined with traditional Hellenic craftsmanship, the documentary image - with inner spirituality. We do not know who the author of the portrait is - a Greek who gave his talent to Rome with its worldview and tastes, a Roman or another artist, an imperial subject, inspired by Greek models, but firmly rooted in Roman soil - as the authors are unknown (for the most part, probably slaves) and other wonderful sculptures created in the Roman era.

This image depicts an already elderly man who has seen a lot in his lifetime and experienced a lot, in whom you guess some kind of aching suffering, perhaps from deep thoughts. The image is so real, truthful, snatched so tenaciously from the thick of the human and so skillfully revealed in its essence that it seems to us that we met this Roman, are familiar with him, that's almost exactly like this - even if our comparison is unexpected - as we know , for example, the heroes of Tolstoy's novels.

And the same persuasiveness in another well-known masterpiece from the Hermitage, a marble portrait of a young woman, conventionally called the "Syrian" by the type of her face.

This is already the second half of the 2nd century: the depicted woman is a contemporary of the emperor Marcus Aurelius.

We know that it was an era of reassessment of values, increased Eastern influences, new romantic moods, ripening mysticism, which foreshadowed the crisis of Roman great-power pride. "Time human life- a moment, - wrote Marcus Aurelius, - its essence is an eternal flow; feeling vague; the structure of the whole body is perishable; the soul is unstable; fate is mysterious; fame is unreliable.

Melancholy contemplation, characteristic of many portraits of this time, breathes the image of the "Syrian Woman". But her pensive daydreaming - we feel it - is deeply individual, and again she herself seems familiar to us for a long time, almost even dear, so the sculptor's vital chisel with sophisticated work extracted from white marble with a gentle bluish tint her charming and spiritualized features .

And here is the emperor again, but a special emperor: Philip the Arab, who came to the fore in the midst of the crisis of the 3rd century. - bloody "imperial leapfrog" - from the ranks of the provincial legion. This is his official portrait. The soldier's severity of the image is all the more significant: that was the time when, in the general unrest, the army became a stronghold of imperial power.

Furrowed brows. A menacing, wary look. Heavy, fleshy nose. Deep wrinkles of the cheeks, forming, as it were, a triangle with a sharp horizontal line of thick lips. A powerful neck, and on the chest - a wide transverse fold of a toga, finally giving the entire marble bust a truly granite massiveness, laconic strength and integrity.

Here is what Waldgauer writes about this wonderful portrait, also kept in our Hermitage: “The technique is simplified to the extreme ... The facial features are worked out by deep, almost rough lines with a complete rejection of detailed surface modeling. Personality, as such, is characterized mercilessly with the highlighting of the most important features.

A new style, monumental expressiveness achieved in a new way. Is it not the influence of the so-called barbarian periphery of the empire, increasingly penetrating through the provinces that have become rivals of Rome?

In the general style of the bust of Philip the Arab, Waldhauer recognizes features that will be fully developed in medieval sculptural portraits of French and German cathedrals.

Ancient Rome became famous for high-profile deeds, accomplishments that surprised the world, but its decline was gloomy and painful.

An entire historical era has come to an end. The obsolete system had to give way to a new, more advanced one; slave-owning society - to be reborn into a feudal society.

In 313, the long-persecuted Christianity was recognized in the Roman Empire as the state religion, which at the end of the 4th century. became dominant throughout the Roman Empire.

Christianity, with its preaching of humility, asceticism, with its dream of heaven not on earth, but in heaven, created a new mythology, the heroes of which, the ascetics of the new faith, who accepted a martyr's crown for it, took the place that once belonged to the gods and goddesses, personifying the life-affirming principle earthly love and earthly joy. It spread gradually, and therefore, even before its legalized triumph, the Christian doctrine and the public sentiments that prepared it radically undermined the ideal of beauty that once shone with full light on the Athenian Acropolis and which was accepted and approved by Rome throughout the world subject to it.

The Christian Church has tried to put into concrete form the unshakable religious beliefs a new attitude in which the East, with its fears of the unsolved forces of nature, the eternal struggle with the Beast, resonated with the destitute of the entire ancient world. And although the ruling elite of this world hoped to solder the decrepit Roman power with a new universal religion, the worldview, born of the need for social transformation, shook the unity of the empire along with that ancient culture from which the Roman statehood arose.

The twilight of the ancient world, the twilight of the great ancient art. Majestic palaces, forums, baths and triumphal arches are still being built throughout the empire, according to the old canons, but these are only repetitions of what was achieved in previous centuries.

The colossal head - about one and a half meters - is from the statue of Emperor Constantine, who transferred the capital of the empire to Byzantium in 330, which became Constantinople - the "Second Rome" (Rome, Palazzo Conservatives). The face is built correctly, harmoniously, according to Greek patterns. But in this face, the main thing is the eyes: it seems that if you close them, there would be no face itself ... That which in the Fayum portraits or the Pompeian portrait of a young woman gave the image an inspired expression, is here taken to an extreme, exhausted the whole image. The ancient balance between the spirit and the body is clearly violated in favor of the first. Not a living human face, but a symbol. A symbol of power, imprinted in the look, power that subjugates everything earthly, impassive, adamant and inaccessibly high. No, even if portrait features are preserved in the image of the emperor, this is no longer a portrait sculpture.

The triumphal arch of Emperor Constantine in Rome is impressive. Its architectural composition is strictly sustained in the classical Roman style. But in the relief narrative glorifying the emperor, this style disappears almost without a trace. The relief is so low that the small figures seem flat, not sculpted, but scratched. They line up monotonously, clinging to each other. We look at them with amazement: this is a world completely different from the world of Hellas and Rome. No revival - and the seemingly forever overcome frontality is resurrected!

A porphyry statue of the imperial co-rulers - the tetrarchs, who at that time ruled over separate parts of the empire. This sculptural group marks both the end and the beginning.

The end - because it is decisively done away with the Hellenic ideal of beauty, smooth roundness of forms, harmony of the human figure, elegance of composition, softness of modeling. The rudeness and simplification that gave special expressiveness to the Hermitage portrait of Philip the Arab became here, as it were, an end in itself. Almost cubic, clumsily carved heads. There is not even a hint of portraiture, as if human individuality is already unworthy of the image.

In 395, the Roman Empire broke up into the Western - Latin and Eastern - Greek. In 476, the Western Roman Empire fell under the blows of the Germans. A new historical era has begun, called the Middle Ages.

A new page has opened in the history of art.

Roman sculpture is much more diverse than painting. As well as the fine arts, it was strongly influenced by Greek and Etruscan sculpture. A large number of Greek sculptors and local copyists from Hellenic sculptures lived in ancient Rome.

Although there is no particularly significant Roman sculpture left, the Roman sculptors improved the art of creating plastic figures in many ways. The masters were especially successful in creating a sculptural portrait, which developed as an independent form of creativity at the beginning of the 1st century BC.

Roman sculptural portrait

Unlike ancient Greek sculptors, Roman sculptors very carefully, in detail and vigilantly studied the face of the person from whom they sculpted the portrait. Therefore, the Roman plastic portrait is unusually realistic. It reflected the individual characteristics of the appearance of a particular person. And the sculptors showed the ability to observe the personality and generalize their observations in a certain artistic form.

Roman portraits can be traced life path man, the changes taking place in his appearance, the change of morals and ideals. It should be noted the extraordinary similarity of the Roman portrait with the original face of the person captured in it. If in any features of the original there was an irregularity, fuzziness, then the sculptor tried to embody it in portrait plasticity. Thus, optimal similarity was achieved. This technique was widely used when creating portraits of emperors and officials in order to preserve their true faces for history.

During the period of the Roman Republic, history is perceived as a sequential course of events. This manifests itself in "bas-reliefs with a continuous narrative". On the bas-reliefs in the Altar of Peace, a solemn procession making a sacrifice is fashioned. All figures are arranged parallel to each other and, as it were, go deeper, observing the symbolic hierarchy. In the absence of a clear rhythm, the intonations of the image are very strong.

Subsequently, portrait sculpture, for example, statues from the Prima Porta of the time of Augustus, repeat the features of previous periods, but the reliefs of the Arch of Titus are already significantly different. The plastic space is pictorially and perspectively organized, the reliefs give the impression of a window open inwards into the wall. Sculpted silhouettes convey the depth of space.

In Rome, monumental sculpture is widely used for political purposes. Monuments, arches and columns to prominent figures of the Roman state were erected throughout the city.

Historians of ancient Roman art, as a rule, associated its development only with the changes of imperial dynasties. Therefore, it is important to determine the boundaries of its formation, flourishing and crisis in the development of Roman art, taking into account changes in artistic and stylistic forms in their connection with socio-economic, historical, religious, religious, and everyday factors. If we outline the main stages in the history of ancient Roman art, then in in general terms they can be represented as the most ancient (VIII-V centuries BC) and republican (V century BC - I century BC) era.

The heyday of Roman art falls on the I-II centuries. n. e. Within this stage, the stylistic features of the monuments make it possible to distinguish early period: the time of Augustus, the first period: the years of the reign of the Julio-Claudians and the Flavians; second: the time of Trajan and early Hadrian; late period: the time of the late Hadrian and the last Antonines. From the end of the reign of Septimius Severus, the crisis of Roman art begins.

Having begun to conquer the world, the Romans got acquainted with new ways of decorating houses and temples. Roman sculpture continued the traditions of the Hellenic masters. They, like the Greeks, could not imagine the design of their home, city, squares and temples without it.

But in the works of the ancient Romans, unlike the Greeks, symbolism and allegory prevailed. The plastic images of the Hellenes among the Romans gave way to picturesque ones, in which the illusory nature of space and forms prevailed.

According to legend, the first sculptors in Rome appeared under Tarquinius Proud, that is, during the period of the most ancient era. In ancient Rome, sculpture was limited primarily to historical relief and portraiture.

In Rome, a copper image was first made by Ceres (the goddess of fertility and agriculture) at the beginning of the 5th century. BC e. From the images of the gods, it spread to a variety of statues and reproductions of people.

Images of people were usually made only for some brilliant deed worthy of perpetuation, at first for victory in sacred competitions, especially in Olympia, where it was customary to dedicate the statues of all the winners, and with a triple victory - statues with a reproduction of their appearance, which are called iconic by Pliny the Elder. Natural science about art. Moscow - 1994. p. 57.

From the 4th century BC e. begin to erect statues of Roman magistrates and private individuals. Mass production of statues did not contribute to the creation of truly artistic works.

Masters not only conveyed individual characteristics in sculptural images, but made it possible to feel the tension of the harsh era of wars of conquest, civil unrest, uninterrupted anxieties and unrest. In the portraits, the sculptor's attention was drawn to the beauty of the volumes, the strength of the skeleton, and the backbone of the plastic image.

In the years of August I - II centuries. portrait painters paid less attention to unique facial features, smoothed out individual originality, emphasizing in it something common, characteristic of everyone, likening one subject to another, according to the type pleasing to the emperor. A typical standard was created. The dominant aesthetic and conceptual idea that permeated the Roman sculpture of this time was the idea of ​​the greatness of Rome, the power of imperial power.

At this time, more than before, women's and children's portraits were created, which were rare before. These were images of the wife and daughter of the princeps. The heirs to the throne appeared in marble and bronze busts and statues of boys. Many wealthy Romans installed such statues in their homes to emphasize their disposition to the ruling family.

Also, from the time of the “divine Augustus”, images of chariots appeared with statues of victors harnessed by six horses or elephants by Pliny the Elder. Natural science about art. Moscow - 1994. p. 58.

At the time of the Julio-Claudians and the Flavians, monumental sculpture strove for concreteness. Masters even gave the deities the individual features of the emperor.

The style of imperial portraits was also imitated by private ones. Generals, wealthy freedmen, usurers tried to resemble the rulers in everything; sculptors gave pride to the landing of heads, and decisiveness to turns, without softening the sharp, not always attractive features of the individual appearance.

The heyday of Roman art falls on the reign of the Antonines, Trajan (98-117) and Hadrian (117-138).

In the portraits of this period, two stages can be distinguished: Trayan's, characterized by an inclination towards republican principles, and Adrian's, in the plasticity of which there is more adherence to Greek models. Classicism, even under Hadrian, was only a mask under which the proper Roman attitude to form developed. The emperors acted in the guise of generals chained in armor, in the pose of sacrificial priests, in the form of naked gods, heroes or warriors.

Also, the idea of ​​the greatness of Rome was embodied in various sculptural forms, primarily in the form of relief compositions depicting scenes of military campaigns of emperors, popular myths, where gods and heroes, the patrons of Rome, acted. The most outstanding monuments of such a relief was the frieze of Trajan's column and the column of Marcus Aurelius Kumanetsky K. History of culture of Ancient Greece and Rome: Per. from the floor - M.: Higher school, 1990. p. 290.

The late heyday of Roman art, which lasted until the end of the 2nd century, was characterized by the extinction of pathos and pomposity in artistic forms. Masters of that era used various, often expensive materials for portraits: gold and silver, rock crystal, and glass.

Since that time, the main thing for the masters was a realistic portrait. The development of the Roman individual portrait was influenced by the custom of removing wax masks from the dead. The masters sought a portrait resemblance to the original - the statue was supposed to glorify this person and his descendants, so it was important that the depicted face was not confused with someone else.

The plastic realism of the Roman masters reached its peak in the 1st century BC. BC BC, giving rise to such masterpieces as marble portraits of Pompey and Caesar. The triumphant Roman realism is based on the perfect Hellenic technique, which made it possible to express in facial features many shades of the hero's character, his virtues and vices. In Pompeii, in his frozen wide fleshy face with a short upturned nose, narrow eyes and deep and long wrinkles on a low forehead, the artist sought to reflect not the momentary mood of the hero, but his inherent characteristic properties: ambition and even vanity, strength and at that at the same time, some indecision, a tendency to hesitate Kumanetsky K. History of culture of Ancient Greece and Rome: Per. from the floor - M.: Higher school, 1990. p. 264.

In the round sculpture, an official direction is formed, which from different angles are portraits of the emperor, his family, ancestors, gods and heroes patronizing him; most of them are made in the traditions of classicism. Sometimes the portraits showed features of genuine realism. Along with the traditional plots of gods and emperors, the number of images of ordinary people increased.

Two stages can be distinguished in the development of late Roman art. The first is the art of the end of the principate (3rd century) and the second is the art of the era of domination (from the beginning of the reign of Diocletian to the fall of the Roman Empire).

From the end of the 3rd century BC e., thanks to the conquests, Roman sculpture begins to have a great influence Greek sculpture. When plundering Greek cities, the Romans capture a large number of sculptures; there is a demand for their copies. In Rome, a school of neo-Attic sculpture arose, which produced these copies. On the soil of Italy, the original religious significance of archaic images was forgotten. Kobylina M. M. The role of tradition in Greek art. With. thirty.

An abundant influx of Greek masterpieces and mass copying retarded the flourishing of their own Roman sculpture.

In the works of sculpture of the era of the dominant (IV century). Pagan and Christian subjects coexisted. Artists turned to the image of not only mythological, but also Christian heroes. Continuing what began in the III century. praising the emperors and members of their families, they prepared the atmosphere of unbridled panegyrics and the cult of worship, characteristic of the Byzantine court ceremonial. Face modeling gradually ceased to occupy portrait painters. Marble, which was warm and translucent from the surface, became less and less often the material of portrait painters, more and more often they chose basalt or porphyry for depicting faces less similar to the qualities of the human body.

INTRODUCTION

The problems of the history of Roman culture have attracted and are attracting close attention as broad circles readers and experts in various fields of science. This interest is largely determined great importance cultural heritage which Rome left for later generations.

The accumulation of new material allows us to take a fresh look at a number of established, traditional ideas about Roman culture. General cultural changes were reflected in art, respectively, affecting sculpture.

Sculpture of ancient Rome ancient greece, developed within the framework of a slave-owning society. Moreover, they adhere to the sequence - first Greece, then Rome. Roman sculpture continued the traditions of the Hellenic masters.

Roman sculpture went through four stages of its development:

1. The origins of Roman sculpture

2. The formation of Roman sculpture (VIII - I centuries BC)

3. The heyday of Roman sculpture (I - II centuries)

4. The crisis of Roman sculpture (III - IV centuries)

And at each of these stages, Roman sculpture underwent changes associated with cultural development countries. Each stage reflects the time of its era with its features in style, genre and direction in sculptural art that appear in the works of sculptors.

ORIGINS OF ROMAN SCULPTURE

1.1 Italic sculpture

“In ancient Rome, sculpture was limited mainly to historical relief and portraiture. The plastic forms of Greek athletes are always presented openly. Images like a praying Roman, throwing a hem of a robe over his head, are for the most part enclosed in themselves, concentrated. If the Greek masters consciously broke with the specific uniqueness of features in order to convey the broadly understood essence of the person being portrayed - a poet, orator or commander, then the Roman masters in sculptural portraits focused on the personal, individual characteristics of a person.

The Romans paid less attention to the art of plastic art than the Greeks of that time. Like other Italic tribes of the Apennine Peninsula, their own monumental sculpture (they brought a lot of Hellenic statues) was rare among them; dominated by small bronze statuettes of gods, geniuses, priests and priestesses, kept in domestic sanctuaries and brought to temples; but the portrait became the main type of plastic art.

1.2 Etruscan sculpture

Played a significant role in daily and religious life Etruscan plastic art: temples were decorated with statues, sculptural and relief sculptures were installed in the tombs, interest in the portrait arose, and decor is also characteristic. The profession of sculptor in Etruria, however, was hardly highly valued. The names of the sculptors have almost not survived to this day; only the one mentioned by Pliny who worked at the end of the 6th - 5th centuries is known. Master Vulka.

FORMATION OF ROMAN SCULPTURE (VIII - I cc. BC)

“During the years of the mature and Late Republic, various types of portraits were formed: statues of Romans wrapped in a toga and making a sacrifice (the best example is in the Vatican Museum), generals in a heroized appearance with a picture of military armor next to them (a statue from Tivoli of the Roman National Museum), noble nobles , demonstrating antiquity with a kind of busts of ancestors that they hold in their hands (repeating the 1st century AD in the Palazzo Conservators), orators speaking to the people (a bronze statue of Aulus Metellus, executed by an Etruscan master). Non-Roman influences were still strong in the statuary portrait plasticity, but in the tomb portrait sculptures, where, obviously, everything alien was less allowed, there were few of them. And although one must think that the tombstones were first executed under the guidance of the Hellenic and Etruscan masters, apparently, the customers dictated their desires and tastes in them more strongly. The tombstones of the Republic, which were horizontal slabs with niches in which portrait statues were placed, are extremely simple. In a clear sequence, two, three, and sometimes five people were depicted. Only at first glance they seem - because of the uniformity of postures, the location of folds, the movements of the hands - similar to each other. There is not a single person similar to another, and they are related by the captivating restraint of feelings characteristic of all, the sublime stoic state in the face of death.

The masters, however, not only conveyed individual characteristics in sculptural images, but made it possible to feel the tension of the harsh era of wars of conquest, civil unrest, uninterrupted anxieties and unrest. In the portraits, the sculptor's attention is drawn, first of all, to the beauty of the volumes, the strength of the frame, the backbone of the plastic image.

FLOWERING OF ROMAN SCULPTURE (I - II cc.)

3.1 Time of the principate of Augustus

In the years of August, portrait painters paid less attention to unique facial features, smoothed out individual originality, emphasized in it something common, common to everyone, likening one subject to another, according to the type pleasing to the emperor. As if typical standards were created.

“This influence is especially pronounced in the heroized statues of Augustus. The most famous is his marble statue from Prima Porta. The emperor is depicted as calm, majestic, his hand is raised in an inviting gesture; dressed as a Roman general, he seemed to appear before his legions. His shell is decorated with allegorical reliefs, the cloak is thrown over the hand holding a spear or wand. Augustus is depicted bare-headed and bare-legged, which, as is known, is a tradition of Greek art, conventionally depicting gods and heroes naked or half-naked. The staging of the figure uses motifs of Hellenistic male figures from the school of the famous Greek master Lysippus.

The face of Augustus bears portrait features, but is nonetheless somewhat idealized, which again comes from Greek portrait sculpture. Such portraits of emperors, intended to decorate forums, basilicas, theaters and baths, were supposed to embody the idea of ​​​​the greatness and power of the Roman Empire and the inviolability of imperial power. The era of August opens a new page in the history of the Roman portrait.

In portrait sculpture, sculptors now liked to operate with large, poorly modeled planes of the cheeks, forehead, and chin. This is a preference for flatness and a rejection of volume, which is especially pronounced in decorative painting, affected at that time in sculptural portraits.

In the time of Augustus, more than before, portraits of women and children were created, which were very rare before. Most often, these were images of the wife and daughter of the princeps; marble and bronze busts and statues of boys represented the heirs to the throne. The official nature of such works was recognized by everyone: many wealthy Romans installed such statues in their homes to emphasize their disposition to the ruling family.

3.2 Time Julii - Claudius and Flavius

The essence of art in general and sculpture in particular of the Roman Empire began to fully express itself in the works of this time.

Monumental sculpture took forms different from those of the Hellenic. The desire for concreteness led to the fact that the masters even attached to the deities the individual features of the emperor. Rome was decorated with many statues of the gods: Jupiter, Roma, Minerva, Victoria, Mars. The Romans, who appreciated the masterpieces of Hellenic sculpture, sometimes treated them with fetishism.

“During the heyday of the Empire, monuments-trophies were created in honor of the victories. Two huge marble Domitian trophies adorn the balustrade of the Capitol Square in Rome to this day. Majestic are also the huge statues of the Dioscuri in Rome, on the Quirinal. Rearing horses, mighty young men holding reins are shown in a decisive stormy movement.

The sculptors of those years sought, first of all, to impress a person. In the first period of the heyday of the art of the Empire, it became widespread,

however, chamber sculpture was also used - marble figurines decorating the interiors, quite often found during excavations of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia.

The sculptural portrait of that period developed in several artistic directions. During the years of Tiberius, the sculptors adhered to the classicist manner that prevailed under Augustus and was preserved along with new techniques. Under Caligula, Claudius and especially Flavius, the idealizing interpretation of the appearance began to be replaced by a more accurate transfer of facial features and character of a person. It was supported by the republican manner, which did not disappear at all, but was muted in the years of Augustus, with its sharp expressiveness.

“In the monuments belonging to these different currents, one can notice the development of a spatial understanding of volumes and an increase in the eccentric interpretation of composition. Comparison of three statues of seated emperors: Augustus from Kum (St. Petersburg, Hermitage), Tiberius from Privernus (Rome Vatican) and Nerva (Rome Vatican), convinces that already in the statue of Tiberius, which preserves the classic interpretation of the face, the plastic understanding of forms has changed . The restraint and formality of the posture of the Cuman Augustus was replaced by a free, relaxed position of the body, a soft interpretation of volumes that are not opposed to space, but already merged with it. Further development the plastic-spatial composition of the seated figure can be seen in the statue of Nerva with his torso leaning back, raised high right hand with a decisive turn of the head.

Changes also occurred in the plastic of upright statues. The statues of Claudius have much in common with Augustus from Prima Porta, but eccentric tendencies make themselves felt here too. It is noteworthy that some sculptors tried to counter these spectacular plastic compositions with portrait statues, solved in the spirit of a restrained republican manner: the setting of the figure in the huge portrait of Titus from the Vatican is emphatically simple, the legs rest on full feet, the arms are pressed to the body, only the right one is slightly exposed.

“If in the classicizing portrait art of the time of Augustus the graphic principle prevailed, now the sculptors recreated the individual appearance and character of nature by voluminous molding of forms. The skin became denser, more embossed, and hid the distinct head structure in republican portraits. The plasticity of sculptural images turned out to be richer and more expressive. This was manifested even in the portraits of Roman rulers that appeared on the far periphery.

The style of imperial portraits was also imitated by private ones. Generals, wealthy freedmen, usurers tried everything - with postures, movements, demeanor to resemble rulers; sculptors gave pride to the landing of heads, and decisiveness to turns, without softening, however, the sharp, far from always attractive features of the individual appearance; after the harsh norms of August classicism in art, they began to appreciate the uniqueness and complexity of physiognomic expressiveness. A noticeable departure from the Greek norms that prevailed in the years of Augustus is explained not only by the general evolution, but also by the desire of the masters to free themselves from foreign principles and methods, to reveal their Roman features.

In marble portraits, as before, pupils, lips, and possibly hair were tinted with paint.

In those years, more often than before, female sculptural portraits were created. In the images of the wives and daughters of emperors, as well as noble Roman women, the master

at first they followed the classicist principles that prevailed under Augustus. Then complex hairstyles began to play an increasingly important role in women's portraits, and the significance of plastic decoration became stronger than in men's. The portrait painters of Domitia Longina, using high hairstyles, in the interpretation of faces, however, often adhered to the classicist manner, idealizing the features, smoothing the surface of the marble, softening, as far as possible, the sharpness of the individual appearance. “A magnificent monument to the time of the late Flavians is the bust of a young Roman woman from the Capitoline Museum. In the depiction of her curly curls, the sculptor departed from the flatness seen in the portraits of Domitia Longina. In the portraits of elderly Roman women, the opposition to the classicist manner was stronger. The woman in the Vatican portrait is depicted by the Flavian sculptor with all impartiality. Modeling a puffy face with bags under the eyes, deep wrinkles on sunken cheeks, squinting like watery eyes, thinning hair - all reveal the frightening signs of old age.

3.3 Time of Trojan and Hadrian

In the years of the second heyday of Roman art - during the time of the early Antonines - Trajan (98-117) and Hadrian (117-138) - the empire remained militarily strong and flourished economically.

“Round sculpture in the years of Adrian classicism imitated the Hellenic one in many ways. It is possible that the huge Dioscuri statues dating back to Greek originals, flanking the entrance to the Roman Capitol, arose in the first half of the 2nd century. They lack the dynamism of the Dioscuri of the Quirinal; they are calm, restrained and confidently lead meek and obedient horses by the reins. Some monotony, sluggishness of forms make you think

that they are the creation of Adrian's classicism. The size of the sculptures (5.50 m - 5.80 m) is also characteristic of the art of this time, which strove for monumentalization.

In the portraits of this period, two stages can be distinguished: Trayan's, characterized by an inclination towards republican principles, and Adrian's, in the plasticity of which there is more adherence to Greek models. The emperors acted in the guise of generals chained in armor, in the pose of sacrificial priests, in the form of naked gods, heroes or warriors.

“In the busts of Trajan, who can be recognized by the parallel strands of hair descending to the forehead and the strong-willed fold of the lips, the calm planes of the cheeks and some sharpness of the features always prevail, especially noticeable both in Moscow and in the Vatican monuments. The energy concentrated in a person is clearly expressed in the St. Petersburg busts: a hook-nosed Roman - Sallust, a young man with a determined look, and a lictor. The surface of the faces in the marble portraits of the time of Trajan conveys the calmness and inflexibility of people; they seem to be cast in metal, not sculpted in stone. Subtly perceiving physiognomic shades, Roman portrait painters created far from unambiguous images. The bureaucratization of the entire system of the Roman Empire also left an imprint on the faces. Tired, indifferent eyes and dry, tightly compressed lips of a man in a portrait from the National Museum

Naples characterize a man of a difficult era, who subordinated his emotions to the cruel will of the emperor. Female images are filled with the same sense of restraint, volitional tension, only occasionally softened by light irony, thoughtfulness or concentration.

The conversion under Hadrian to the Greek aesthetic system is an important phenomenon, but in essence this second wave of classicism after the August wave was even more external than the first. Classicism, even under Hadrian, was only a mask under which it did not die, but developed a proper Roman attitude to form. The originality of the development of Roman art, with its pulsating manifestations of either classicism, or actually Roman essence, with its spatiality of forms and authenticity, called verism, is evidence of the very contradictory nature of the artistic thinking of late antiquity.

3.4 Time of the last Antonines

The late heyday of Roman art, which began in the last years of the reign of Hadrian and under Antoninus Pius and continued until the end of the 2nd century, was characterized by the extinction of pathos and pomposity in artistic forms. This period is marked by an effort in the sphere of culture of individualistic tendencies.

“The sculptural portrait underwent great changes at that time. The monumental round sculpture of the late Antonines, while preserving Hadrian's traditions, still testified to the fusion of ideal heroic images with specific characters, most often the emperor or his entourage, to the glorification or deification of an individual. The faces of deities in huge statues were given the features of emperors, monumental equestrian statues were cast, the model of which is the statue of Marcus Aurelius, the magnificence of the equestrian monument was enhanced by gilding. However, even in the monumental portrait images of even the emperor himself, fatigue and philosophical reflection began to be felt. The art of portraiture, which experienced a kind of crisis in the years of the early Hadrian in connection with the strong classicist trends of the time, entered under the late Antonines into a period of prosperity that it did not know even in the years of the Republic and the Flavians.

In statuary portraiture, heroic idealized images continued to be created, which determined the art of the time of Trajan and Hadrian.

“From the thirties of the III century. n. e. in portrait art, new artistic forms are being developed. The depth of psychological characteristics is achieved not by detailing the plastic form, but, on the contrary, by conciseness, avarice in the selection of the most important defining personality traits. Such, for example, is the portrait of Philip the Arabian (Petersburg, the Hermitage). The rough surface of the stone well conveys the weathered skin of the "soldier" emperors: a generalized flax, sharp, asymmetrically located folds on the forehead and cheeks, processing of hair and a short beard only with small sharp notches focuses the viewer's attention on the eyes, on the expressive line of the mouth.

“Portrait painters began to interpret the eyes in a new way: the pupils, which were depicted plastically, crashing into marble, now gave the look liveliness and naturalness. Slightly covered by wide upper eyelids, they looked melancholy and sad. The look seemed absent-minded and dreamy, obedient submission to higher, not fully conscious, mysterious forces dominated. Hints of the deep spirituality of the marble mass echoed on the surface in the thoughtful looks, the mobility of the strands of hair, the quivering of the light bends of the beard and mustache. The portrait painters, making curly hair, cut hard with a drill into the marble and sometimes drilled deep internal cavities. Illuminated by the sun's rays, such hairstyles seemed like a mass of living hair.

Artistic image assimilated to the real one, getting closer and closer

sculptors and to what they especially wanted to portray - to the elusive movements of human feelings and moods.

Masters of that era used various, often expensive materials for portraits: gold and silver, rock crystal, and also glass that became widespread. Sculptors appreciated this material - delicate, transparent, creating beautiful highlights. Even marble, under the hands of masters, sometimes lost the strength of stone, and its surface seemed like human skin. The nuanced sense of reality in such portraits made the hair lush and moving, the skin silky, the fabrics of the clothes soft. They polished the marble of the woman's face more carefully than that of the man's; the youthful was distinguished by texture from the senile.

THE CRISIS OF ROMAN SCULPTURE (III-IV CENTURIES)

4.1 End of the principate era

Two stages can be more or less clearly distinguished in the development of late Roman art. The first is the art of the end of the principate (3rd century) and the second is the art of the era of the dominate (from the beginning of the reign of Diocletian to the fall of the Roman Empire). “In artistic monuments, especially of the second period, the extinction of ancient pagan ideas and the increasing expression of new, Christian ones are noticeable.”

Sculptural portrait in the III century. It has undergone significant changes. The techniques of the later Antonines were still preserved in statues and busts, but

the meaning of the images has become different. Alertness and suspicion replaced the philosophical thoughtfulness of the characters of the second half of the 2nd century. Tension made itself felt even in the women's faces of that time. In portraits in the second

quarter of the 3rd century The volumes became denser, the masters abandoned the gimlet, performed the hair with notches, achieved especially expressive expressiveness of wide-open eyes.

The desire of innovative sculptors by such means to increase the artistic impact of their works caused in the years of Gallienus (mid-3rd century) a reaction and a return to the old methods. For two decades, portrait painters again portrayed the Romans with curly hair and curly beards, trying at least in artistic forms to revive the old manners and thereby recall the former greatness of plastic arts. However, after this short-term and artificial return to Antoninov's forms, already at the end of the third quarter of the 3rd century. The desire of sculptors to convey emotional tension with extremely concise means was again revealed. inner peace person. During the years of bloody civil strife and the frequent change of emperors who fought for the throne, portrait painters embodied shades of complex spiritual experiences in new forms that were born then. Gradually, they were more and more interested not in individual traits, but in those sometimes elusive moods that were already difficult to express in stone, marble, and bronze.

4.2 Dominance era

In works of sculpture of the 4th century. pagan and Christian plots coexisted; artists turned to the image and chanting of not only mythological, but also Christian heroes; continuing what had begun in the third century. praising the emperors and members of their families, they prepared the atmosphere of unbridled panegyrics and the cult of worship, characteristic of the Byzantine court ceremonial.

Face modeling gradually ceased to occupy portrait painters. The spiritual forces of man, which were especially keenly felt in the age when Christianity conquered the hearts of the pagans, seemed cramped in the hard forms of marble and bronze. The consciousness of this deep conflict of the era, the impossibility of expressing feelings in plastic materials gave artistic monuments of the 4th century. something tragic.

Widely open in portraits of the 4th century. eyes that looked now sadly and imperiously, now inquiringly and anxiously, warmed the cold, ossified masses of stone and bronze with human feelings. Marble, which was warm and translucent from the surface, became less and less often the material of portrait painters, more and more often they chose basalt or porphyry for depicting faces less similar to the qualities of the human body.

CONCLUSION

From all that has been considered, it can be seen that sculpture developed within the framework of its time, i.e. she relied very heavily on her predecessors, as well as on Greek. During the heyday of the Roman Empire, each emperor brought something new to art, something of his own, and along with art, sculpture changed accordingly.

The antique sculpture is being replaced by the Christian one; to replace the more or less unified Greco-Roman sculpture, widespread within the Roman Empire, the provincial sculptures, with revived local traditions, are already close to the "barbarian" ones that are replacing them. Begins new era the history of world culture, in which Roman and Greco-Roman sculpture is included only as one of the components.

In European art, ancient Roman works often served as a kind of standard, which was imitated by architects, sculptors, glassblowers and ceramists. The priceless artistic heritage of ancient Rome continues to live on as a school of classical craftsmanship for the art of today.

LITERATURE

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