2. Introduction
Roman culture is the result of different influences:
Primitive cultures of the area Rome was founded in (they were
peasants and warriors)
Etrurian civilization: urban, offering cult to the ancestors
Greek and Hellenistic: this was the model the aimed at
imitating.
3. Introduction
Results:
From the Italian origins:
Practical sense (functionalism)
Military expansion (imperialism)
From the Etrurian
Realistic sense
Cult to the ancestors
From Greece
Philosophy
Literature
Art
4. Introduction
General characteristics of Roman Art
It is practical and utilitarian
Interest in public works and engeneering
Monumentality
Great technical advances
Colossal to show Roman power
It is commemorative and propagandistic
5. General Characteristics
Special importance for the internal space
Integral view of the art combining:
Beauty and sumptuosity with
Utility and practical sense
Buildings are integrated in the urban space
6. General Characteristics
building system
Building systems:
Lintelled:
Copied from the Greeks
Spaces are closed by straight lines
Vaulted
Taken from the Etrurian
Use of arches
Barrel vaults
Use of domes
Strong walls so that they do not use external supports
7. General Characteristics
Materials:
Limestone
Concrete
Mortar
Arches:
They used half point or semicircular arches
They could use lintels above these arches
Pediments were combined with them
8. General Characteristics: Building techniques
Opus incertum Opus testaceum Opus reticulatum
Opus spicatum Mortar in the foundations Barrel Vault
11. General Characteristics
Greek shapes assimilation:
Architectonical orders were used more in a
decorative than in a practical way
Order superposition
The use of orders linked to the wall created a
decorative element
They used the classical orders and two
more:
Composite
Tuscan
12. Roman Town Planning
Cities were the centre of Roman life
Need for infrastructures
Water and sewer system
Transport and defence
Public spaces and markets
Psychological effect: power and control
There was a need of linking them throug paved roads
13. Roman Town Planning
The plan of the city was
based on the camp
It had two main axes
Cardus E-W
Decumanus N-S
Where the two
converged was the
forum
The rest of the space was
divided into squares in
which insulae or blocks
of flats were built
14. Roman Town Planning
The most important part of the city was the
forum, where political, economic,
administrative, social and religious activity were
centred.
Main buildings were in this forum
In big cities there were theatres, circuses,
stadiums, odeons.
16. Paved Roads
Paved roads were needed to reach to any point
of the empire
They facilitated both communication and
political control
17. Paved Roads
The roads were made with strong foundations
Different materials were put into different layers
To meassure the distance they created the
Milliarium or stones located in the sides
Section of a Roman paved road
18. Paved Roads
The roads were not completely flat
They consisted of several parts
The central and highest was the most important, it
was convex to conduct the water to the
Ditches that were built in the sides
19. Bridges
Roman engineers were true masters building them, since constructions
were essential elements for reaching places and cities often situated at the
bank of rivers.
This location was due to defensive and infrastructural reasons -supply and
drainage.
They are characterised by:
Not pointed arches.
Constructions of ashlars masonry often with pad shape.
Route of more than 5 m. wide.
Route of horizontal or slightly combed surface "few curved".
Rectangular pillars from their basis with lateral triangular or
circular cutwaters that end before the railings.
20. Aqueducts
Aqueducts were built in order to avoid geographic
irregularities between fountains or rivers and towns.
Not only valleys were crossed by superposed cannels,
but also mountains were excavated by long tunnels,
pits and levels of maintenance.
They were used to bring water to cities.
21. Ports and Lighthouses
Roman ships and those for commercial
trade should travel from port to port
with the speed and security adequate to
the life of a great Empire.
In these ports every necessity for the
execution of the usual works in a port
ensemble should be found:
gateways with stores and
bureaux,
shipyards for stationing ships,
roads for taking ships to earthly
ground,
drinkable water fountains and
machinery for loading and
downloading merchandises.
Indeed, a system of indication was
necessary in order to mark the right
access and exit to the port.
22.
23. Walls
Defence of cities has
been one of the capital
problems that
civilizations had to solve
in order to project the
future of their citizens,
goods, culture and ways
of life.
Romans were the first
in the technique of
improving different
kinds of defence, using
walls.
24. Forums
Forums were cultural centres in cities.
They were often placed at the crossroads of important urban ways: cardo maximus and
decumanus.
A great porticated square was the centre of a group of buildings around it.
They were communicated through it.
Temples for Imperial worship, schools, basilicae, markets or even termae had a direct
access through forum.
In many cases even buildings for spectacles -circus, theatres and amphitheatres- were
communicated so.
Forums were a way in for important persons to tribunals.
26. Religious: Temple
It copied the Greek model
It has only one portico
and a main façade
It tends to be
pseudoperiptero
The cella is totally closed
It is built on a podium
Instead of having stairs all
around, it only has them
in the main façade
27.
28. Religious: Temple
There were other kind of
temples:
Circular: similar to the
Greek tholos
Pantheon: combined
squared and circular
structures and was in
honour of all gods.
29. Civil Buildings: Basilica
It was the residence of the
tribunal
It is rectangular and has
different naves
The central nave is higher
and receives light from the
sides
The building ends in an
apse
It is covered with vaults
Barrel over the central nave
Edged over the lateral naves
30.
31. Civil Buildings: Baths
There were spaces for
public life
They consisted of
different rooms:
Changing rooms
Different temperature
rooms:
Frigidarium (cold)
Tepidarium (warm)
Caldarium (hot)
Swimming pool
Gymnasium
Library
33. Spectacles: Theatre
It is similar to the Greek but it
is not located in a mountain
but it is completely built
It has a semicircular scenery
The doors to facilitate peoples’
movement are called
vomitoria
It does not have the orchestra
because in Roman plays was
not a chorus
The rest of the parts are
similar to those of the Greek
theatre
35. Spectacles: Amphitheatre
It comes from the
fusion of two
theatres
It was the place for
spectacles with
animals and fights
(gladiators)
There could be filled
with water for naval
battles.
36.
37. Spectacles: Circus
It was a building for horse races and cuadriga
competitions.
It has the cavea, the area and a central
element to turn around, the spina.
38.
39. Commemorative monuments:
Triumphal Arches
They were usually placed at the main
entrance of cities in order to
remember travellers and inhabitants
the Greatness and strength of Roman
world.
At the beginning they were wooden
arches where trophies and richness
from wars were shown.
This habitude changed: Romans built
commemorative arches with
inscriptions.
They were a Roman creation and they
succeeded: many of them have been
constructed until the present days.
Arches were used not only for
commemorating Roman victories or
military generals: they also marked
limits between provincial borders.
40. Commemorative monuments:
Columns
They were columns
decorated with relieves
In them some important
facts were related
They were built in the
honour of a person.
The best instance of these
works is the famous Traian
Column at Rome. It is
decorated with a spiral of
relieves dealing with scenes
of his campaigns in Danube
and with inscriptions.
41. Houses: Insulae
There are urban houses
In order to take advantage from
the room in cities, buildings up
to four floors were constructed.
The ground floor was for shops
-tabernae- and the others for
apartments of different sizes.
Every room was communicated
through a central
communitarian patio decorated
with flowers or gardens.
42.
43. Houses: Domus
It was the usual housing for important people
in each city.
It was endowed with a structure based on
distribution through porticated patios:
the entry -fauces- gives access to
a small corridor -vestibulum-.
It leads to a porticated patio -atrium-.
Its center, the impluvium, is a bank for
the water falling from the compluvium.
At both sides -alae- there are many
chambers used as rooms for service slaves,
kitchens and latrines.
At the bottom, the tablinum or living-
room can be found, and close to it, the
triclinium or dining-room.
This atrium gave also light enough to next
rooms.
At both sides of the tablinum, little
corridors led to the noble part of the
domus.
Second porticated patio peristylium, was
bigger and endowed with a central garden.
It was surrounded by rooms -cubiculum-
and marked by an exedra used as a
chamber for banquets or social meetings.
44.
45. Houses: Villa
Houses far from cities, were
thought for realizing
agricultural exploitations
-villae rustica-, or else as
places for the rest of
important persons -villae
urbana-.
Entertaining villa was
endowed with every
comfortable element in its
age as well as gardens and
splendid views.
Country villae got stables,
cellars, stores and orchards
apart from the noble rooms.