The history of art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The history of art - Essay Example Ancient Roman architecture consists of elements like paintings, mosaics and statues made up of concrete and cement. One chief feature of ancient Roman architecture was the construction of vault in the ceiling or roof. The vaults can be semicircular in shape (barrel vault) or elliptical (groin vault). The two most common perspectives used by the Roman artists in their works were the linear perspective and the atmospheric perspective. Another technique that was mastered by the Romans was chiaroscuro or the strong contrasts between light and dark. A very good execution of the same can be seen in the painting ‘Still Life with Peaches’. The use of a garden scape is yet another feature of Roman wall paintings. The Tomb of the Reliefs and The Tomb of the Leopards are two of the most well-known tombs of Tarquinia. Sarcophagus from Cerveteri is an Etruscan sculpture depicting a married couple together in the afterlife. The four styles of Roman painting are Masonry Style, Illusion istic Style, Ornate Style and Realistic Style. In sculpture, the equestrian statue, or the statue of a rider mounted on a horse, was very popular. An example is the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. The Capitoline Wolf is a bronze figure of a female wolf feeding her two infants, inspired by the myth of the founding of Rome. Such female personification is another dominant trait of erstwhile Roman sculpture. Most of the famous historic buildings and archaeological sites in Italy can be found in Colosseum and Pantheon.