Friday, March 28, 2008
Why the romans perfered Verism.
My theroy on why the Romans liked and or perfered verism "supernatural" in their artwork would probably be the fact that they liked the idea that the viewer of the artwork or the sculpture would be able to visulized what that thing or person would look like exactly, all the way down to the freckles and the hair from the moles. Most Roman artist perfered to do busts and statues of people famous or not. The artist made sure that every little detail was put onto the statue to truley represent what the subject looked like and also sometimes with the super realism; you as a viewer would also be able to know what kind of a person the subject was. For example, artist would put so much detail that you as a viewer would feel like that person was standing right there in front of you. There is a bust of a Roman leader that had so much expression and detail that you could tell that he was a very crossed man and very angry at what he did. I mean if you are so angry enough to kill your brother and erase him from drawings and paintings to make sure nobody knew who he was then that guy had issues. If I was alive during that time I as an artist would perfer to capture people and things in their natural state, not because it makes everything look good but also make sure for generations on that they would be able to look back and see and feel what and how people were back in my time. That is my theory on why Romans liked verism in their art; to show what life was like in their time.
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Although there are distinct differences, Roman art is heavily influenced by Greek and Etruscan traditions. Romans zeroed in on mainly the head in their portraiture (bust). They were preoccupied in capturing the essence of the person instead of just glorifying them, although they did put a true image on an idealized young stallion of a body (i.e. fig 7-8 pg. 174 of textbook, Portrait of a Roman General from the Sanctuary of Hercules). This style is known as verism, which is a very detailed and very lifelike approach to portraiture. Roman verism is the opposite of the Greek ideological approach.The veristic style tells us (modern day people) they wanted to be remembered for who they truly were as individuals and how they lived their lives. I think early Romans thought the world would understand them if they knew the people that make up society, kind of an early Gestalt-esque vision. Vaspasian ushered in verism and it kind of died out with the idealism of Augustus, who wanted to be portrayed in an idealized way influenced by Greek portraiture.
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