ART 263 / MAN 263
The Business of Art

In Imperial Rome (first century B.C. - fifth century A.D.), emperors patronized the building of triumphal arches, baths, roads and aqueducts, among other things. The first Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar reigned from 31 B.C. until 14 A.D. During this time, the Roman empire enjoyed, peace, prosperity, and benefited from royal patronage of the arts. In his catalogue of achievements, known as the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (the Achievements of the Divine Augustus) which he deposited with the Vestal Virgins along with his will a year before his death, Augustus listed his many achievements. It has been said that Augustus found Rome a city of brick, and left it a city of marble. Some examples from the Res Gestae bear this out:

"I built the senate house...Temple of Apollo, temple of the divine Julius, the Lupercal, a portico at the Flamian circus...the temples on the Capitol of Jupiter Feretrius and Jupiter the Thunderer, the temple of Quirinus, the temples of Minerva and Queen Juno and Jupiter Libertas...the temple of the Lares, the temple of the Penates, the temple of Youth, and the temple of the Great Mother." (Chapter 19)

"I restored the Capitol and the theater of Pompey. I completed the Julian Forum and the basilica between the temples of Castor and Saturn...In my sixth consulship I restored eighty-two temples of the gods."(Chapter 20)

"I built the temple of Mars the Avenger and the Augustan forum...(and) the theater adjacent to the temple of Apollo." (Chapter 21)

"I replaced in all the temples of all the cities in the province of Asia the ornaments which my late adversary, after despoiling the temples, had taken." (Chapter 24)

Augustus set the precedent of being a patron of the arts for the later emperors. He also patronized writers, including Horace, Ovid and Livy.

As you walk through the ancient Roman forum, you still see Augustus’ mark (note the picture of Sally sitting among the ruins of the Roman forum).

Generally, royal patronage of the arts supports a political agenda. Augustus Caesar became an absolute ruler over a people who were accustomed to voting for their rulers in a republican system. Since 509 B.C. Romans had elected their consuls (presidents) and other officials. Augustus needed to prove that his leadership was good, and needed to promote himself - and his family members who would succeed him - as fit to rule.

The statue, Augustus Primaporta, of 20 B.C. (shown in the upper left) is a good example of a royal commission that serves the needs of political propaganda. This 6’8" tall statue, now in the Vatican, idealizes Augustus - a man who was skinny, balding and had blemished skin (according to one of his contemporaries) - to be a muscular, handsome, godlike commander. Augustus is portrayed barefoot, like a god, and has positive imperial iconography on his soldiers’ cuirass (breastplate). His cuirass includes personifications of the Roman provinces (such as Egypt and Spain) that were annexed during his rule, and a personification of the sun god chasing the moon goddess out of the sky, symbolizing peace across the entire empire. (Definition: personification: when an abstract concept or idea is portrayed by a human figure). In the center a Roman soldier receives the Roman standard back from a defeated barbarian, representing the victory of the Roman army over the Parthians. Cupid, son of the goddess of love, Venus, rides a dolphin next to Augustus’ leg, alluding to the Julian family (Augustus’) descending from the Roman goddess, and her descendant Aeneas.

The Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace) (see picture to the left) dating from 13 - 9 B.C. was commissioned by Augustus to memorialize his military conquests. Augustus’ reign was the beginning of the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), a period of stability that lasted nearly two hundred years. The Ara Pacis also included a panel portraying Augustus as pontifex maximus - head of the Roman religion - with members of his family - a type of document of who should succeed him. (note picture to the right).

In the fourth century A.D. the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, was a great patron of Christian Churches. (See the unit on church patronage to learn about Constantine the Great.)

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