Sabrina Erdmann

Ancient Roman Architecture

28 January 2016

Starting in 753-509 BCE, Etruscan temples resembled Greek stone gable-roofed

temples but had widely spaced unfluted wood columns only at the front, sun-dried mud-brick
walls. The entrance was a narrow staircase at the center of the front of the temple, which sat on
a high podium, the only part of the building made of stone. Columns were only at the front of the
building, creating a deep porch occupying roughly half the podium and setting off one side of the
structure as the main side. An example of an etruscan temple would be the Temple of Minerva
which is divided into two partsa deep front porch with widely-spaced Tuscan columns and a
back portion divided into three separate rooms, known as a triple cella. This temple was built in
the honor of the Greek goddess Athena (Roman=Minerva).
Transitioning into The Republic time period from 509-27 BCE, the year 211 BCE was a
turning point both for Rome and for Roman art. Marcellus, conqueror of the wealthy Sicilian
Greek city of Syracuse, brought back to Rome the citys artistic patrimony. Exposure to the
Greek sculpture and painting and to the splendid marble temples of the Greek gods increased
as Romans expanded their conquests beyond Italy. An example of this type of structure is the
Temple of Portunus. The mixing of Greek and Etruscan forms is the primary characteristic of the
temple of Portunus, the Roman god of harbors. Its plan follows the Etruscan pattern with a high
podium and a wide flight of steps only at the front. The six freestanding columns are all in the
deep porch. This was constructed out of stone, overlaid originally with stucco, a fine plaster
used for coating wall surfaces or molding into architectural decorations.
The Pantheon, the temple of all gods is an example of High Imperial Art. The
Pantheons traditional facade masked its revolutionary cylindrical drum and its huge
hemispherical dome. The interior symbolized both the orb of the earth and the vault of the
heavens. The coffered dome of the Pantheon is 142 feet in diameter and 142 feet high. The light
entering through its oculus forms a circular beam that moves across the dome as the sun
moves across the sky.
Late Imperial Art was discovered in the late empire in 192-337 CE. The Arch of
Constantine consisted of triple passageway arches. It was constructed under the imitation of the
earlier sculptural decoration from monuments of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius. Some art
historians have cited the Arch of Constantine as evidence of a decline in creativity and technical
skill in the waning years of the Late Roman Empire due to the recutting of the heads of the
earlier emperors to substitute Constantines features. The Arch of Constantine is the
quintessential monument of its era, exhibiting a respect for the past in the reuse of second-
century sculptures while at the same time rejecting the norms of Classical design in the fourth-
century frieze and thereby paving the way for the iconic art of the Middle Ages.

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