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 1 st 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 GREEKROMAN  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)