Flavian art is the artistic production of the Roman Empire during the

Flavian dynasty The Flavian dynasty, lasting from 69 to 96 CE, was the second dynastic line of emperors to rule the Roman Empire following the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Julio-Claudians, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian and his two sons, Titus and Domitian. Th ...

(emperors

Vespasian Vespasian (; ; 17 November AD 9 – 23 June 79) was Roman emperor from 69 to 79. The last emperor to reign in the Year of the Four Emperors, he founded the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for 27 years. His fiscal reforms and consolida ...

Titus Titus Caesar Vespasianus ( ; 30 December 39 – 13 September AD 81) was Roman emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, becoming the first Roman emperor ever to succeed h ...

, and

Domitian Domitian ( ; ; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was Roman emperor from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavian dynasty. Described as "a r ...

) from 69 to 96 AD. Already at the time of Claudius and Nero, the style of sculpture began to separate itself from the

neo-Attic Neo-Attic or Atticizing is a sculptural style, beginning in Hellenistic sculpture and vase-painting of the 2nd century BC and climaxing in Roman art of the 2nd century AD, copying, adapting or closely following the style shown in reliefs and sta ...

Athenian art that dominated the late

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

. This style was almost definitively abandoned under the Flavian dynasty. It is not fully known what the catalyst for this change was. Two major trends emerged in sculpture: the use of a more nuanced

chiaroscuro In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...

in the

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

, and the use of placing the figures in a three-dimensional space with regards to the perspective of the viewer.

Arch of Titus

The greatest symbol of the Flavian era is the

Arch of Titus The Arch of Titus (; ) is a 1st-century AD honorific arch, located on the Via Sacra, Rome, just to the south-east of the Roman Forum. It was constructed in 81 AD by Emperor Domitian shortly after the death of his older brother Titus to comm ...

, dated between 81 and 90. The architecture is denser and heavier than the arches of the Augustan era, such as the Arch of Susa. This is a clear deviation from the traditional

Hellenistic In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

influence. Here for the first time in Rome the Ionic/ Corinthian

Composite order The Composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order capital with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order.Henig, Martin (ed.), ''A Handbook of Roman Art'', p. 50, Phaidon, 1983, In many versions the composite o ...

appears, a more ornamental style. The numerous internal reliefs of the archway are extraordinarily significant and show two moments of the triumphal procession which took place in 71 after the capture of Jerusalem by

. In these pieces, we see the innovation of Roman relief. Evident are the thickened figures, with the height of the figures consistent with their location in space. Individual figures are represented as if they were moving within three dimensions. Furthermore, the figures do not move on a straight line, but on a convex curved line, clearly visible in the relief of the procession. On the left it appears the figures are moving towards the viewer, and on the far right, moving away as they enter under the

Porta Triumphalis Porta can refer to: People * Porta (rapper) (born 1988), stagename of Christian Jiménez Bundo, a Spanish rap singer * Porta (surname), surname Places * La Porta, a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica * Por ...

. This trend continued to be developed further during the

Nerva–Antonine dynasty The Nerva–Antonine dynasty comprised seven Roman emperors who ruled from AD 96 to 192: Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161), Marcus Aurelius (161–180), Lucius Verus (161–169), and Co ...

Other sculptures

This era saw the commission of the Cancelleria Reliefs likely by

, constructed around 90. These are imbued with classicism found in the era of Claudius, but also display the arrangement of the figures along a convex line.

Architecture

The

Great Fire of Rome The Great Fire of Rome () began on 19 July 64 AD. The fire started in the merchant shops around Rome's chariot stadium, Circus Maximus. After six days, the fire was brought under control, but before the damage could be assessed, the fire reignit ...

in 64 destroyed much of the city, making it necessary to rebuild. New squares were opened, the streets became wider and lined with arcades, and houses were constructed to a more limited height. Domitian rebuilt the burnt monuments at the

Campus Martius The Campus Martius (Latin for 'Field of Mars'; Italian: ''Campo Marzio'') was a publicly owned area of ancient Rome about in extent. In the Middle Ages, it was the most populous area of Rome. The IV rione of Rome, Campo Marzio, which covers ...

, plus the

Piazza Navona Piazza Navona () is a public open space in Rome, Italy. It is built on the site of the 1st century AD Stadium of Domitian and follows the form of the open space of the stadium in an elongated oval. The ancient Romans went there to watch the '' a ...

and the

Odeon of Domitian The Odeon of Domitian was an ancient Roman building on the Campus Martius in Rome, used for plays and musical competitions and with room for an audience of 11,000. The first Odeum, at Rome, was built by Domitian in imitation of Greek odeons (nei ...

.Platner, Samuel Ball, and Thomas Ashby. A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome. London: Oxford UP, H. Milford, 1929. Print. 331 The Flavian dynasty, in particular under Domitian, oversaw the monumentalization of the

Palatine Hill The Palatine Hill (; Classical Latin: ''Palatium''; Neo-Latin: ''Collis/Mons Palatinus''; ), which relative to the seven hills of Rome is the centremost, is one of the most ancient parts of the city; it has been called "the first nucleus of the ...

. The emperors

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

Tiberius Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus ( ; 16 November 42 BC – 16 March AD 37) was Roman emperor from AD 14 until 37. He succeeded his stepfather Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Tiberius was born in Rome in 42 BC to Roman politician Tiberius Cl ...

Caligula Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Ag ...

, and

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

all had residences on the hill, but the most grandiose palace was built by Domitian. The

Palace of Domitian The Palace of Domitian was built as Roman emperor Domitian's official residence in 81–87 AD and was used as such by subsequent emperors. Its remains sit atop and dominate Palatine Hill in Rome, alongside other palaces. The Palace is a massive ...

, constructed by the architect Rabirius, had at least three parts; the Domus Flavia, the

Domus Augustana The Domus Augustana is the modern name given to the central residential part of the vast Roman Palace of Domitian (92 AD) on the Palatine Hill. In antiquity the name may have applied to the whole of the palace. Its name is not directly related t ...

, and the gardens. Architectural development in the Flavian era was of fundamental importance for the implementation of new techniques. This period saw an increase in the use of the hemispherical domes ( Domus Transitoria, the

nymphaeum A ''nymphaeum'' (Latin : ''nymphaea'') or ''nymphaion'' (), in ancient Greece and Rome, was a monument consecrated to the nymphs, especially those of springs. These monuments were originally natural grottoes, which tradition assigned as habit ...

at the Villa of Domitian), the development of

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic a ...

s (the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an Ellipse, elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphi ...

), the use of

ogive An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two- or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture, woodworking, and ballistics. Etymology The French Orientalist Georges Séraphin Colin gives as ...

s with brick arches in series, and the development of

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

s, which reach 33 meters in diameter in the Domitian vestibule of the

Roman Forum A forum (Latin: ''forum'', "public place outdoors", : ''fora''; English : either ''fora'' or ''forums'') was a public square in a municipium, or any civitas, of Ancient Rome reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, alon ...

Notes

Bibliography

Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli (19 February 1900 – 17 January 1975) was an Italian Archaeology, archaeologist and Art history, art historian. Biography Bianchi Bandinelli was born in Siena to Mario Bianchi Bandinelli (1859–1930) and Margheri ...

& Mario Torelli, ''L'arte dell'antichità classica, Etruria-Roma'', Utet, Torino 1976. * Pierluigi De Vecchi & Elda Cerchiari, ''I tempi dell'arte'', volume 1, Bompiani, Milano 1999 {{DEFAULTSORT:Flavian art 69 establishments 96 disestablishments 60s establishments in the Roman Empire 90s disestablishments in the Roman Empire 1st century in art Ancient Roman art Flavian dynasty