Week 12 of the Ancient Art History Survey focused on art from the late Roman Empire in the 2nd-4th centuries AD. Key topics included the damnatio memoriae practice of disgracing emperors after death, architecture projects under emperors Trajan and Hadrian like the Column of Trajan and Hadrian's Villa, and the rise of Early Christian art and architecture under Constantine following the Edict of Milan. Important sites mentioned were the Pantheon, Arch of Constantine, catacombs, and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia.
1. Ancient Art History Survey, Week 12
Remember: we did not meet in class last week, so there is no Week 11 handout
Damnatio Memoriae, Commodus, Column of Trajan, Trajan, forum, basilica, apse, nave,
Dacians, Hadrian, Tivoli, Canopus, Antinoos, Narcissus, caryatids, mosaics, "Maritime
Theater," dome, Pantheon, coffers, oculus, Castel Sant’Angelo (Mausoleum of Hadrian),
Diocletian, Tetrarchy, Constantine (the Great), chi rho, The Vision of Constantine, Battle
of the Milvian Bridge (312 AD), Edict of Milan, Arch of Constantine, spolia, orantes,
catacombs, cubiculi, loculi, typology, Abraham and the Three Men (Angels), Jonah,
basilica (church), apse, nave, transept (crossing), martyrium, baldacchino, Tetramorphs,
Santa Maria Maggiore, Triumphal Arch, cathedra, etimasia, Ravenna, (Mausoleum of)
Galla Placidia
Possible essay questions:
What was the "damnatio memoriae" and how was it used? Give some examples—who
were some of the emperor's against whom it was enacted?
How did the early Christian art (including architecture) start as an art of borrowing? How
did the early Christians consistently reinterpret and give new, Christian meanings to their
borrowed forms?
Images:
Pantheon, 118-125 AD, pp. 187, 188
Hadrian's Villa (Tivoli), c.125 AD, p. 189
Arch of Constantine, c.312 AD, p. 203
Catacomb painting, c.300 AD, p. 212
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, c.425 AD, p. 222