[laurelofolympia-blog]

This structure is called the Markets of Trajan. It is located in Rome on the Quirinal Hill and looks out over the forum. Apollodorus of Athens had it built to house both stores and offices. It was made from concrete, and its architect was a master of designing in this medium.

The first picture gives an aerial view of the Markets of Trajan. These markets resemble a modern day shopping mall. The second picture is of what is known as the Via Biberatica. This portion of the market is interesting because it is one of the first examples of using exposed brick as a design feature. Exposed brick was beginning to be recognized as an aesthetically pleasing building material rather than just a more economically logical way to build. The shops of this building were stacked on different levels. They opened out onto paved roads that were further up the hill, or onto a magnificent indoor market located even higher up the hill.

The third and fourth pictures are of the upper floor shops. These shops were illuminated by skylights. These skylights were also able to illuminate the shops on the ground floor of the market through sophisticated “groin vaults.” These groin vaults had been used in earlier constructions, but never with as much elegance or effectiveness. These rooms had previously only been lit by torches, but now the natural light was able to reach them. This brought a new sense of edginess and distinctness to Roman architecture.

Kleiner, Fred S. A History of Roman Art. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2007.

[the-trill-iad-blog]

This is an awesome analysis, Kenzie! You picked a captivating piece of architecture! You did an excellent job of describing the shopping center. If anything, try to focus on why certain material choices were made (such as the exposed brick and concrete) and the civic impact of the buildings. Is there a more specific date of building within Apollodorus’ lifetime? Do we know who the architect was that made these buildings? All in all, you did a really fantastic job analyzing this piece!

[laurelofolympia-blog]

I actually made a mistake in my original post that I am so glad you caught. I said that Apollodorus had these markets built, but they were actually commissioned by Trajan. Apollodorus was the architect, and they were built ca. 100-112. It was during this period of time that exposed brick was beginning to be used aesthetically. However, the natural color of the brick was still covered with stucco. I am sure this building had great impact civically as well as economically. Thank you so much for the feedback!

[kayleigh0301-blog]

The Arch of Augustus at Rimini was built in 27 BCE as the east gate for the city of Ariminum, which is now Rimini. It is not as ornate as some of the arches that follow it, nonetheless, it is still impressive. This arch looks like it has the front of a temple placed on it, with the Corinthian columns and the pediment. I imagine there would have been statues in the pediment because of the art culture at this time, but I have not read anything about that. Just under the pediments are what might have been triglyphs and metopes. This is interesting because temples with Corinthian columns usually had a frieze without triglyphs and metopes.

The busts that are above the arch on the right and left sides are of Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, and Roma, the goddess of Rome. The left busts in both the left and right images I believe are Jupiter and Neptune because they are usually portrayed with beards. However, I do not know which is which. The right bust in the right picture is probably Roma, and Apollo is probably the right bust in the left picture. Roma and Apollo  seem to be sculpted in the archaic fashion because their hair looks beaded  and they seem to have the archaic smile and expression. It is difficult to know for sure because of the images I could find. Just above the cornerstone is the bust of what appear to be a bull.

Here is an illustration from 1818 of the construction of the arch for your enjoyment.

Bibliography:

Alessandro Bornaccini.   History of Rimini, plate XXI: Erecting triumphal arch in 

     honor of Augustus (L'Arco di Augusto). 1818. The Warburg Institute Library.

Kleiner, Fred S. A History of Roman Art. Boston: Wadsworth, 2007.

Rimini: Arch of Augustus: Ext.: facade: det. ArtStor Slide Gallery, University of 

     California, San Diego.

Rimini: Arch of Augustus: general view. ArtStor Slide Gallery, University of 

     California, San Diego.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

This is such an interesting piece of architecture! Do you know if it was connected to anything of significance or if its location was important in being able to interpret its importance? How would the density of this arch made the people feel as they entered the city? What is this arch supposed to convey? Also, out of personal curiosity do you know if it was commissioned by Augustus or just named after him? Overall you did a great job!!

[laurelofolympia-blog]

This structure is called the Markets of Trajan. It is located in Rome on the Quirinal Hill and looks out over the forum. Apollodorus of Athens had it built to house both stores and offices. It was made from concrete, and its architect was a master of designing in this medium.

The first picture gives an aerial view of the Markets of Trajan. These markets resemble a modern day shopping mall. The second picture is of what is known as the Via Biberatica. This portion of the market is interesting because it is one of the first examples of using exposed brick as a design feature. Exposed brick was beginning to be recognized as an aesthetically pleasing building material rather than just a more economically logical way to build. The shops of this building were stacked on different levels. They opened out onto paved roads that were further up the hill, or onto a magnificent indoor market located even higher up the hill.

The third and fourth pictures are of the upper floor shops. These shops were illuminated by skylights. These skylights were also able to illuminate the shops on the ground floor of the market through sophisticated “groin vaults.” These groin vaults had been used in earlier constructions, but never with as much elegance or effectiveness. These rooms had previously only been lit by torches, but now the natural light was able to reach them. This brought a new sense of edginess and distinctness to Roman architecture.

Kleiner, Fred S. A History of Roman Art. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2007.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Art 3.10

Q: Why weren’t ancient buildings preserved better?? What would have made people more conscious and aware of their importance and what could have been done to prevent their deterioration?

C: Originally, the idea of giant bathing houses really grossed me out. I genuinely could not understand why they would have been so popular. Then I realized they were basically ancient swimming pools, and for some reason the idea of ancient Romans just hanging out in a giant pool really makes me laugh. :)

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Confessions 3

Q: What would this book have been like if it were written from the perspective of Augustine’s mom? What would she have had to say about his growth as a human being and the changes he went through??

C: Augustine made an interesting point when talking about the connection between the love and jealousy, suspicion, fear, temper, and quarreling. They go hand in hand and often it is hard to have one without the others. We’re stuck in the human condition of wearing our “chains with bliss but with torment too.”

[laurelofolympia-blog]

This wall painting is from the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing at Tarquinia. It was painted in the late sixth century BC.

The first picture contains a boy on the right with a sling shot. He is aiming at the birds flying above him, and he is elevated on a rock above the people in the boat. His elevation gives him the appearance of being larger, older, and maybe even more powerful than the others. The boys in the boat are fishing. There is a fish to the left of the boat leaping into the water. The birds and fish are not quite proportionate in relation to the size of the people.

In the second picture, a boy climbs up the side of a rock while the other person dives off the edge of the rock into the water. You can see small plants growing on the rocks in each of the pictures.

The colors in each of these are predominately earthly. The background color ranges from shades of mocha to a light tan. The main thing that makes this painting aesthetically pleasing is the color used to decorate the birds, people, landscape, and boat. They are painted in deep shades of red, purple, green, and blue.

These scenes portray everyday life, and they have a calmness about them. There is not an overwhelming amount of activity going on, and that allows everyday memories to be beautifully potrayed.

Ramage, Nancy, and Andrew Ramage. Roman Art. Fourth ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2005. 50-52.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Looking over my reflection I realize one thing I did not mention is the confidence portrayed in the body language of the people. Those in the boat seem confident that they will go home with a boat full of fish. The man with the slingshot knows he will not miss, the diver is sure he will gracefully glide into the water, and the man scaling the side of the cliff is sure of the steadiness of the rocks beneath his feet. Each of these men are painted to portray confident, stereotypical masculinity in ordinary activities.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Augustine ch. 2

Q: Augustine says, “and when I lacked opportunity to equal others in vice, I invented things I had not done, lest I might be held cowardly for being innocent, or contemptible for being chaste.” Augustine was not the only person who has ever done this. Most human beings prefer for others to think they are not innocent or chaste. They make things up just for bragging rights. Why is that???

C: Augustine stresses the importance of the friends we have through the story about the pear tree and I found that intriguing. Not only does he write the grief he feels for his sin, but he also explains the influence our friends have. He is not wrong— oftentimes we would not do the same things we do when influenced by our friends. We need to make sure we have good pals.

[joncastor-blog]

Odyssey Landscapes

Discovered in 1848, the Odyssey Landscapes are located on Esquiline Hill, and are some of the oldest pieces of landscape painting (Mazzoleni 174). The first scene is Odysseus at Circe’s Court (Mazzoleni 176), and is very interesting. The figures in the painting appear to be quite small next to their surroundings, emphasizing the landscape and would have created an excellent atmosphere in the room. A maiden and a man sit in the center of the painting, drawing the eye to them immediately, which suggests that this is probably Odysseus and Circe. The second painting is a beautiful scene with a lot of action occurring throughout it. One can easily pick out the characters, but the eye is drawn to the deep blue of the sea on the left and carries to the right following the ridge of the hilltop. It was interesting to see that on this hill, the vegetation has an extreme amount of detail, making it more lifelike to the eye. The columns are painted with a shadow to make them look more realistic, and they block out scenes of the painting, and making the mind think that if they were moved then the rest of the scene would be visible (Mazzoleni 175). Even the water in this second scene has reflections of the livestock, which is an incredible feature considering what the Roman’s had to work with.  The third scene is a continuation of the second with many more characters, however they appear to be running to the right allowing the eye to read the scene from left to right, almost like a story book. There are deep shades of purple and blue making the scene a little more ominous and dark, which ties in perfectly to the next scene of the entrance into Hades (Mazzoleni 176). This scene’s darkness in both the vegetation and shadow of the mountain, allows the reader to interpret it as Hades, while to the right is the scene of Odysseus attempting to get his men back from Circe (Mazzoleni 175). The final scene is the continuation of the realm of Hades with death and despair everywhere in this scene (Mazzoleni 175). The mountain even looms over the fallen figure, and appears at its peak as the head of some sort of beast, perhaps Cerberus, Hades’ guardian of the underworld.

Sources:

Mazzoleni, Donatella, Umberto Pappalardo, and Luciano Romano. Domus: Wall  Painting in the Roman House. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004. 

[laurelofolympia-blog]

This is a really beautiful painting! There is so much going on in each of the sections. I am curious about why you chose to talk about all of them rather than focusing on just one portion? I was also wondering why you did not focus more attention on the colors that were used? They have a huge impact not only one where your eye is drawn to, but also simply in the way the image looks. You had so much to work with, and I think you did an excellent job giving an overview!

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Confessions Book 1 and Rome Episode 4

Q: Why were children beaten in the time of Augustine if they did not learn what they were told to? What social norms at the time made that acceptable?

C: After hearing about the speculations surrounding the fall of Rome I think it would be incredibly fascinating to know what actually caused its decline.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

This wall painting is from the Tomb of Hunting and Fishing at Tarquinia. It was painted in the late sixth century BC.

The first picture contains a boy on the right with a sling shot. He is aiming at the birds flying above him, and he is elevated on a rock above the people in the boat. His elevation gives him the appearance of being larger, older, and maybe even more powerful than the others. The boys in the boat are fishing. There is a fish to the left of the boat leaping into the water. The birds and fish are not quite proportionate in relation to the size of the people.

In the second picture, a boy climbs up the side of a rock while the other person dives off the edge of the rock into the water. You can see small plants growing on the rocks in each of the pictures.

The colors in each of these are predominately earthly. The background color ranges from shades of mocha to a light tan. The main thing that makes this painting aesthetically pleasing is the color used to decorate the birds, people, landscape, and boat. They are painted in deep shades of red, purple, green, and blue.

These scenes portray everyday life, and they have a calmness about them. There is not an overwhelming amount of activity going on, and that allows everyday memories to be beautifully potrayed.

Ramage, Nancy, and Andrew Ramage. Roman Art. Fourth ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2005. 50-52.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Art 3.9 Architecture

Q: Were the strict architectural traditions based out of necessity due to geographical location, or did they originate from something else??

C: I love that Woodford stated that they were adding “a touch of Greek elegance that did not affect the basic Roman structure underneath.” I’m SO excited that the Romans are finally not basing their creative decisions entirely on the Greeks!!!!!!!!!

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Pliny letters & Meet the Romans

Q: Was Pliny the Younger suffering from survivors guilt? I think it would have been incredibly difficult to live with the fact that Pliny the Elder invited him to go, yet he chose to stay home and study. That makes me sad for him. :(

C: For some reason I never thought about the fact that not all gladiators would have died. Thinking about them as athletes makes SO much more sense. I also found it interesting that some of them went on to “settle down,” have families, and become Roman citizens.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

On October 27, 2016, Neil Silberman gave a lecture at the Parthenon entitled, “Rebooting Antiquity: How Holy Wars, Media Hype, and digital Technologies Are Changing the Face of 21st Century Archaeology.”

Silberman’s main focus was on the need to “reboot” archaeology.

In the past, distinct borders, national costume, and national cuisine were valued. As cultures have conquered or intermingled with one another, those defining characteristics have become blurred. People have lost the ability to see how interconnected past and present cultures are, and antiquities are no longer valued or protected. He gave the example that the Holy Wars have played a big part in the destruction of Middle Eastern antiquities. Though not always caused by war, this type of mindless destruction is happening all over the world. There has also been a mindset shift caused by movies like Indiana Jones, and we have been trained to see archaeology as a treasure hunt. These factors are precisely why Silberman claimed we needed to “reboot” antiquity. He claimed that rather than just finding artifacts to collect, we should be finding new meaning in things we have already found. Silberman said, “The important thing is not the object but rather the process of involving people in the past.”

As I sat in the Parthenon surrounded by beautiful replicas of ancient antiquity, this idea that all culture is interconnected became real to me. It is because of the fact that the culture of ancient Greece is directly intertwined with 21st century Nashville that we must be involved in reviving the past.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

The Aeneid 9-12

Q: Is the relationship between Euryalus and Nisus what would be classified as the lover and beloved? (Also I can see the purpose behind this kind of relationship now. Its a unified brotherhood and a camaraderie in war. I couldn’t quite grasp that when reading Symposium.)

C: Aeneas sees himself in the devotion of Lausus to his father and in this solidarity chose to honor his death. Regardless of the fact that they were on opposing sides, Aeneas identified with Lausus and that caused Aeneas to be more in touch with his humanity. If people displayed this empathy in the present age, a lot of the issues clouding our country could be solved.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Aeneid 6

Was Aeneas almost too heavy to ride in Charon’s boat because he was living, or was he just a large human in general??

Virgil points out that in the grove with Dido and her old husband, Sychaeus, not only does he comfort her, but he “returns her love.” After seeing how much Dido loved Aeneas it seems outrageous that someone could love as hard and as fully as Dido did.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

Q: Not only did Dido quickly choose to get married, but she quickly jumps to the conclusion that Aeneas is running away from her, builds a pyre, and just kills herself. Why was Dido so rash? (Maybe is Dido’s sister had been more like Elsa all that craziness wouldn’t have happened.)

C: “she throws whole cities into panic,

As much a hardened liar as a herald of truth.”

I love the way Virgil chooses to describe Rumor. I had never thought about the fact that oftentimes rumors are rooted in a deep sense of truth.

[laurelofolympia-blog]

This sculpture is simply named Portrait of a lady. It was created around AD 120, and it is 2ft 1in tall.

When you look at this sculpture, your eyes are immediately drawn to her hair. This hairstyle was most likely initiated by one of the imperial wives of that day and caught on quickly among other trendy women. The curls are stacked high upon her head, and ringlets fall over her forehead. This would have been one of the most problematic, challenging hairstyles from this time period to sculpt. It was achieved by using a normal chisel as well as a drill. The center of the curls have holes in them. This produces shadowing and creates depth. The back of her hair is braided and twisted up into a low bun. You can see stray, wispy, imperfect hairs right below her ears. You can also see the muscle in her neck tensing as she turns her head up and to the left. Her neck is long, and it reaches up to meet her pointed chin. Her lips are soft and plump. Her nose comes to a sharp point and is the defining feature of her face. Her cheekbones are high, and her eyebrows are very defined. The softness and elegance of her skin contrasts beautifully with the well defined curls. This sculpture is simultaneously delicate and textured.

Ramage, Nancy, and Andrew Ramage. Roman Art. Fourth ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2005. 171-173.

[persephosydney]

I found your description really thorough about the physical features on the face but I wish you would have talked a little bit about the emotions and feelings portrayed through the piece. For example, I think that the tilt of her head makes her look like she could be looking into the distance at something she admires. I also find that, despite the idealism of most sculptures, this woman’s nose is slightly larger than average. I also think that the way the curls are stacked are slightly unrealistic, but beautiful nonetheless. Great job!

[laurelofolympia-blog]

That is a very good point. It does seem as though her gaze is focused on someone or something she admires. The tilt and highness of her chin also portrays a sense of superiority, which would make sense since she was modeled after an elite woman. I also found the nose and hair interesting. I wonder if the size of the nose was an accident or if that was something that actually would have been idealistic at the time. I am unsure how the imperial women managed to get their hair to stay that way! Thanks so much for your feedback!