Verism and Romans

Although there are distinct differences, Roman art is heacily 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 pg174 of textbook, Portrait of a Roman general).  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.