ARTH Courses | ARTH 209 Assignments

Art and Architecture of the Age of Augustus

Second Seminar, November 27.

Our second seminar will be devoted to an examination of the art and architecture from the time of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. As we will see, the political transformation of Rome from the Republic to the Early Empire was paralleled by a shift in the art of the two periods. The art of the period of Augustus is frequently called Augustan Classicism. As we saw in our discussion of Hellenistic Art, the art of Augustus is intentionally retrospective and models itself on past models. This choice of style was intentional to reinforce the political message of Augustus as a restorer of Rome. Of particular importance will be the strong influences of Greek High Classical Art, especially that of the Parthenon and fifth century Athens, on the art of Augustus.

In preparation for the assignment read Ramage & Ramage, pp. 100-131. You should also consult the following webpages:

Augustus: Images of Power

Rome's Imperial Fora

Roman Art and Architecture

Roman Power and Roman Imperial Scupture

Among the major monuments we will be considering will be the portraits of Augustus. Special emphasis will be given to the so-called Augustus of Primaporta (for a 360 degree view of the work)

In the Survey course, I regularly compare this statue to the Doryphoros by Polykleitos and the Arringatore or Aulus Metellus:

(for a 360 degree view of the work)

The central group on the cuirass shows the return by the Parthians of the standards that had been lost in the humiliating defeat of Crassus in 53 B.C. Augustus's victory in 20 B.C. was a diplomatic one as opposed to a military one The symbolism of the elaborate cuirass, or breast-plate, that Augustus wears has been compared to the symbolism found in the following ode of Horace:

Horace, Carmen saeculare:
In 17 B.C., Augustus reinstituted the so-called Secular Games, a festival celebrating the preservation of the State and supposed to be held once every 110 years. On the third and last day of the games an ode was sung in Apollo's temple by a choir of boys and girls, and it was Horace who was commissioned to write it. Compare this ode to the statue of Augustus, the Augustus of Primaporta.

Diana, queen of forests, and Apollo,
O honoured and for ever to be honoured
Twin glories of the firmament, accord us
All we beseech today-
Day of devotion, when the Sybil's verses
Enjoin the chaste, the chosen youths and maidens
To chant their hymns of worship to the patron
Gods of our seven hills.2
Kind sun, bright charioteer, bringer and hider
Of light, newborn each morning yet each morning
Unaltered, may thou never view a city
Greater on earth than Rome.
Moon, gentle midwife, punctual in thy office,
Lucina, Ilithyia, Genitalis-3
Be called whichever title is most pleasing-
Care for our mother's health.
Goddess, make strong our youth and bless the Senate's
Decrees rewarding parenthood and marriage,
That from the new laws Rome may heap a lavish
Harvest of boys and girls.
So that the destined cycle of eleven
Decades4 may bring again great throngs to witness
The games and singing: three bright days and three long
Nights of the people's joy.
And you, O Fates, who have proved truthful prophets,
Your promise stands- and may time's sacred landmarks
Guard it immovably: to our accomplished
Destiny add fresh strength.
May Mother Earth, fruitful in crops and cattle,
Crown Ceres' forehead with a wreath of wheat-ears,
And dews and rains and breezes, God's good agents,
Nourish whatever grows.
Sun-god, put by thy bow and deign to listen
Mildly and gently to the boys' entreaties.
Moon, crescent sovereign of the constellations,
Answer the virgins' prayers.
Rome is your handiwork; in your safe-keeping
The Trojan band reached an Etruscan haven,
That remnant which, at your command, abandoned
City and hearth to make
The auspicious voyage, those for whom pure-hearted
Aeneas, the last pillar of royal manhood
Left standing in burnt Troy, paved paths to greater
Fame than they left behind.
Gods, by these tokens make our young quick pupils
Of virtue, give the aged peace and quiet,
Rain on the race of Romulus wealth, offspring,
Honours of every kind;
And when, tonight, with blood of milk-white oxen
The glorious son of Venus and Anchises5
Invokes you, grant his prayers. Long may Augustus
Conquer but spare the foe.
Now Parthia fears the fist of Rome,6 the fasces7
Potent on land and sea; now the once haughty
Ambassadors from the Caspian and the Indus
Sue for a soft reply.
Now Faith and Peace and Honour and old-fashioned
Conscience and unremembered Virtue venture
To walk again, and with them blessed Plenty,
Pouring her brimming horn.
Apollo, augur, bright-bowed archer, well-loved
Music-master of the nine Muses, healer
Whose skill in medicine can ease the body's
Ills and infirmities.
By thy affection for the Palatine altars
Prolong, we pray, the Roman State and Latium's
Prosperity into future cycles, nobler
Eras, for evermore.
Diana, keeper of the sacred hilltops
Of Aventine and Algidus, be gracious
To the prayers of the Fifteen Guardians,8 to the children
Bend an attentive ear.
That Jove and all the gods approve these wishes
We, the trained chorus, singers of the praises
Of Phoebus and Diana, carry homewards
Happy, unshaken hope.

Consider also the following gallery of portraits of Augustus:

Another major monument we will be considering will be the Ara Pacis, done between 13-9 B.C.

for additional images of the Ara Pacis

The Ara Pacis was constructed in the Campus Martius or the Field of Mars outside of the city of Rome. The Campus Martius represents the boundary between the military and civic authority in Rome. The altar was instituted on July 4, 13 B.C. and dedicated on January 30, 9 B.C (the birthday of Livia, the wife of Augustus). Augustus had returned from a three-year campaign in Spain and Gaul on July 3, 13 B.C. Augustus refused to have a triumph to mark his return and he also refused the Senate's offer to build an altar in the Senate chamber. These decisions were undoubtedly to avoid accusations of over-reaching. The altar was positioned to be a part of a gigantic sundial, whose gnomon was a hundred foot obelisk, which commemorated the conquest of Egypt and was dedicated between June 10 B.C. and June 9 B.C. The obelisk cast its shadow on an elaborate series of bronze lines that were set into the stone pavement. It has been argued that the obelisk's shadow was aligned to point directly to the center of the altar of the Ara Pacis on the fall equinox which was the birthday of Augustus. This alignment with the heavens was undoubtedly intended as part of the claim of universal domination of Augustus.

For the connection between Augustus and Aeneas see the excerpt from Vergil's Aeneid.