DSBcB25 Roman Art

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Taught in person.
Teacher(s)
PhDr. Marie Pardyová, CSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
PhDr. Marie Pardyová, CSc.
Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Erlebachová
Supplier department: Department of Classical Studies – Faculty of Arts
Prerequisites (in Czech)
! DSBcB025 Roman Art
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The aim of the course is to get students acquainted with the basic tendencies and characteristics of the development of visual arts and architecture in the cultural areas influenced by the Greco-Roman civilization, including its beginnings, specific features, gradual external inspiration, as well as its climax in the Principate and the promotion of new intentions and forms in late antiquity.
Learning outcomes
After the completion of the course, the students will be
- capable of explaining basic features and specifics of Roman art and its developmental stages including the relationship to the art of the Etruscans and the Greeks
- able to identify and describe the basic features of prominent monuments of the Etruscan and Roman art and architecture
Syllabus
  • 1. Typical features of Roman visual arts, its self-definition towards Greek and Etruscan cultual impact. Why was Rome immportant and what did it mean for the survival of the civilizing contribution of Greek creativity? In what areas has it substantially advanced the civilizing development of the ancient world and its structures? The significance of Roman culture for the Renaissance. Chronology of the Roman visual arts development - the most important periods and their specific features.
  • 2. Early Rome – formation of the primary urban structure and its development in the Roman Kingdom, the Etruscan influence in the 6th century BCE, Early Republic and contacts with Magna Graecia. Urban development and the gradual expansion of its closest economic background. Early and Middle Republic, Roman expansion in Italy, architectural and technological rise (roadys and aquaeducts), Urbanism.
  • 3. Late Republic, expansion to the Hellenistic world, proliferation of Greek culture and its infiltration into Roman ways (luxuria), together with its own Romanization. Synthesis efforts demonstrated by decorative features of Greek style in Roman architecture, including temple decorations, Patrician houses, and suburban villas. New technologies. Influx of Greek artists, the so-called Neo-Attic school in Campania and Rome.
  • 4. Rise of the Principate – Rome as a hegemony in the Mediterranean. Augustus´ time, its ideology and echoes in teh decorative programme of Augustus´ and Agrippa´s Rome. Concrete, brick, and marble in architecture. Arts as a tool of propaganda, blending mythology and the present in the centre as well as in provinces. Development of pictorial typology.
  • 5. Julio-Claudian dynasty, the development of iconography and visual arts schemata of Roman representation (topoi). Roman painting. Public buildings designed for the entertainment of the masses. Roman private and rent houses, Nero´s Domus aurea.
  • 6. Flavian dynasty – Urbanism (Rome, Pompeii, Ostia). Flavian amphitheatre (Colosseum), imperial baths, functional and representative imperial estate on the Palatine hill.
  • 7. Traian´s era – synthesis of Roman classicism and its representative form (forum, imperial arch, ideological and decorative programme of its reliefs).
  • 8. Hadrian´s era – administrative alignment of the centre and the provinces in public life and culture. Greek-oriented classicism and the conception of the decoration in Hadrian´s villa in Tivoli. Baroque features in Roman architecture - dome buildings (Pantheon). New spiritual conceptions and their reflection in visual arts expression.
  • 9. Arts in the period of the Antonines and early Severan dynasty – the supreme phase of Roman culture and the hints of crisis. Baroquizing of forms and the search for functional expressionism. Marcus Aurelius´ imperial arch, sarcophagi.
  • 10. The 3rd century CE arts – increasing expressionism, sharpening of emotionalism and inwardness at the expense of external plastic form, new tendencies in portraiture. Classicism in the middle of the century. Strengthening abstraction and formalism in the Dominate. First pieces of evidence of hristian-oriented visual arts, its message, and formalism.
  • 11. Late antiquity and its consequences in the 4th century CE – emergence of recycling, simplifying of forms. The heyday of Christian culture, its specific features, and gradual infiltration into the system of Late Roman arts. Early Christian iconography and dependence on the existing formalism.
  • 12. Late antiquity in the 5th and 6th centuries. Fading of the sculptural expression, remaining significance of mosaics in the tradititional flooring decorations, expansion of the encrustation of marble and glass mosaics on the walls and vaults of the interior. The definition of late antiquity and Early Byzantium, formal conclusion of the continuity of ancient visual arts development. Late antique arts - degradation of form or search for a new expression?
Literature
    required literature
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. Přehled vývoje řeckého a římského sochařství (Introduction to the Greek and Roman Sculpture). 1st ed. Brno: Vzdělávací a poradenské centrum MU. 27 pp. Univerzita 3. věku. 2005. info
  • PELIKÁN, Oldřich. Dějiny antického umění. 1. vyd. Praha: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství. 143 s. 1971. info
  • ZANKER, Paul. Augustus und die Macht der Bilder. München: C.H. Beck. 368 stran. ISBN 3406320678. 1987. info
    recommended literature
  • ANDREAE, Bernard. Praetorium speluncae : Tiberius und Ovid in Sperlonga. Mainz: Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur. 240 s. ISBN 3515066438. 1994. info
  • ANDREAE, Bernard. Die römische Kunst : mit über 930 Illustrationen, davon ca. 180 Vierfarbigen auf Kunstdrucktafeln. Neubearb. und erw. Ausg. Freiburg: Herder. 640 s. ISBN 3451266814. 1999. info
  • BIANCHI BANDINELLI, Ranuccio. Die römische Kunst : von den Anfängen bis zum Ende der Antike. München: C.H. Beck. 318 s. ISBN 3406007341. 1975. info
  • FROVA, A. L`arte di Roma e del mondo romano. Torino, 1961. info
  • V. HEINTZE, H. Römische Kunst. Stuttgart, 1969. info
  • KÄHLER, H. Der römische Tempel. Berlin, 1970. info
  • KRAUS, Theodor and Bernard ANDREAE. Das Römische Weltreich. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag. 335 s. ISBN 354951026. 1990. info
  • MANSUELLI, Guido Achille. Roma e il mondo romano : da Traiano all'antichità tarda (I-III sec. d.C.). Torino: UTET. 427 s. ISBN 8802035741. 1981. info
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. Un portrait de Trajan remanié et réutilisé au IVe siècle (Recarved portrait of Trajan and reutilised in the 4th century). SPFFBU E. Brno: Univerzita J. E. Purkyně, vol. 28, No 1, p. 229-240, 1983. info
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. A propos des portraits romains d'enfants et d'adolescents, leur identification et datation (About Roman childerns and youths portraits. Its identification and datation.). In ANODOS. Studies of Ancient World. Symposium Mittelmeergebiet und Mitteleuropa in Kontakten und Konfrontationen seit den Bronzezeit bis zum Ausklang der Antike. Trnava, 2001. info
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. Protektivní prvky v antickém sochařství (Struts in the marble sculpture in antiquity). In Ve službách archeologie VII. 1st ed. Brno 2006: Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost v Brně. p. 449-464. ISBN 80-7275-066-6. 2006. info
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. La représentation de bataille sur le sarcophage de Portonaccio et sa composition (The representation of the battle at the sarcophagus of Portonaccio and his composition). In Eirene XLII. 1st ed. Praha: AV ČR. p. 135-151. ISBN 80-86410-41-2. 2006. info
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. Římské portréty jako palimpsesty (Roman portraits as palimpsests). Ve službách archeologie. Brno: Archeologický ústav SAV Nitra, vol. 2, No 208, p. 257-264. ISSN 1802-5463. 2008. info
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. Le sarcophage de Portonaccio et la composition de son décor (The sarcophagus of Portonaccio and its theme). SPFFBU N 9. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, vol. 9, 1., p. 55-76. ISSN 1211-6335. 2004. info
  • PARDYOVÁ, Marie. Změny sochařského konceptu a antické opravy sošných památek (Changes in Sculpture Conception and Ancient Repairs of Sculptures). In Ve službách archeologie VI. 1st ed. Brno: Muzejní a vlastivědná společnost v Brně. p. 513-527, 13 pp. ISBN 80-7275-060-7. 2005. info
  • TURCAN, Robert. L'art romain. Paris: Flammarion. 299 s. ISBN 2080106872. 2002. info
  • ZANKER, Paul. Un'arte per l'impero : funzione e intenzione delle immagini nel mondo romano. Edited by Eugenio Polito. Milano: Electa. 235 s. ISBN 8843572660. 2002. info
Teaching methods
Lectures accompanied by visual documentation. Interactive entries focused on analysis and understanding of specific evidence.
Assessment methods
Written test - 10 questions.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2021.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/DSBcB25