AboutIrulan Serena Expertise Along with teaching classical Literature for over thirty-eight years, I have also taught history of the Greco-Roman cultures. History and Mythology are, in my opinion, inseparable; it is necessary to have a background in both to have a clear understanding of both ends of the spectrum, the myth and the fact.
Question How did the Romans go about acquiring Greek art?
Answer Hello Mendy,
Although the Romans were direct descendants of the Greeks their art and architecture was not as aesthetically pleasing as Greek art and architecture.
Greek art is distinguished by the depiction of living beings. It is concerned both with formal proportion and with the dynamics of action and emotion. Its main subject matter is the human figure, which may be represented by either gods or mortals, while monsters, animals, and plants were secondary themes unless they were part of the particular myth the artist was using as inspiration. The main themes of Greek art were taken from myth, literature, and daily life.
Roman art during the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire was practically identical with the Etruscan art of its past, however, a symbolic art instead of artistic true to form as compared to Greek art.
As the Roman Empire expanded throughout Italy and the Mediterranean the Romans came into contact with other artistic traditions, notably that of Greece, which pleased their aesthetic awareness of beauty and form which contrasted with the Etruscan which was not as beautiful nor as eye pleasing as Greek Art.
Art was not just the art of the emperors, senators, and aristocracy, but of all the peoples of Rome's enormous empire, including middle-class businessmen, freedmen, slaves, and soldiers in Italy and the provinces. Roman society preferred the stylish and classical lines of Greek art therefore slowly Greek art and architecture flourished in Roman society.
Starting in the middle of the second century BC, in every aspect of the private culture of the upper classes, Greek culture became increasingly popular. By the time of Augustus, cultured Greek household slaves taught the Roman children; chefs, decorators, secretaries, doctors, and hairdressers—all came from the Greek East. Greek statues embellished Hellenistic landscape gardening on the Palatine or in the villas, or were imitated in Roman sculpture yards by Greek slaves. Evnetually the whole cultural shift changed the aspect of the Roman culture from symbolic, harshly structured Etruscan art to the beautifully stylistic lines of Greek art.
