The Pantheon

The Pantheon is perhaps Rome’s second most famous building after the Colosseum

The word Pantheon comes from the Greek words “pan” and “theion” meaning “all the gods”

It was literally a place for Romans to worship all the gods in their religion

THE PANTHEON

The Pantheon Cont’d

The Pantheon is the largest unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world

It was built around 126 AD by the emperor Hadrian

Pantheon Cont’d The Oculus (8 metres wide) is

the only source of light into the temple

The inside of the dome is covered with coffers, which are decorative inset squares

The coffers were meant to lessen the weight of the ceiling (a heavy dome would have collapsed)

Pantheon Cont’d

The Pantheon feature many elements borrows from the Greeks

Greek style pediments were placed over the interior columns

Corinthian capitals were also placed on the columns, which were originally designed by

Greek artists and architects

Pantheon Cont’d The front of the Pantheon was inspired by Greek

architecture and featured a portico in the post and lintel style found in many Greek and early Roman temples

The floor on the inside of the Pantheon featured a floor that was slightly slopped to allow draining (water made its way in from the oculus)

The Roman Empire:Sculpture

Roman Sculpture The Romans preferred

sculptures that were more realistic than the idealized sculptures of the Greeks

Human sculptures were often busts of important people (like emperors)

Emperor Augustus

One of the most famous sculptures of a Roman emperor

Augustus was the first Roman emperor, and took Rome from a republic to an empire

This sculpture is from the 1st c. AD

Roman Sculpture Cont’d

Roman sculpture borrowed a lot from the Greeks

More often than not, Greek artists either worked in Rome or were hired to copy Greek works of art

Most of today’s surviving examples of Greek art are actually Roman copies made by Greek and Roman artists

Some Examples

Examples

If you look closely you can notice one major similarity in all the sculptures

All of these examples are made of marble

The original Greek works were likely made of bronze

In order for the marble copies to stand upright and not break they needed something to lean against, which is why most of the figures are standing next to a tree stump (or something similar)

Roman Sculpture Cont’d

In summary, Roman sculpture was very similar to that of the Greeks

Greek artists continued to thrive in Roman society, as the Romans were very impressed with the Greeks

Roman sculpture tended to be more realistic rather than ideal, which is why figures are seen with wrinkles and appear aged

Roman Sculpture Cont’d

Compare GREEK ROMAN

Roman sculptures tended to show age, whereas Greek sculptures idealized the human body and made figures appear muscular and youthful

The End The Romans borrowed a lot from the Greeks, especially

their art and architecture

They did however innovate and invent many of their own things (the arch, concrete, etc.)

The Roman empire was at one point the largest empire in the world and spanned from Great Britain to the Middle East and North Africa

Their language, Latin (which again was influenced by Greek) became the basis for many European languages (French, Italian, Spanish)