Early Roman Empire

(Romano-Hellenistic Classicism)

	1. Marble relief of a farmer with his cow passing a roadside shrine on the way to market. 1st c. B.C. (Munich: Staatl. Antikensammlung). The formal symmetry is Mediterranean, the sense of narrative is typically Roman, and the theme reflects art harnessed to official ideology. This piece comments on the threat to the traditional Roman conservative value system, which held the small virtuous citizen farmer as its ideal, by the development of empire, seen in the influx of Greek culture and large-scale slave production. The shrine, symbolizing traditional religion, here falls into decay.
	2. Graeco-Roman interior from Pompei, showing pavement and wall fresco. 1st c. B.C. Cubuculum at Boscoreale (N.Y.: Metro. Mus.)
	3. Graeco-Roman mosaic of street musicians from Cicero's villa by Dioscuris of Samos. 1st c. A.D. (Naples, Mus. Naz.). Roman narrative taste, but this mosaic also reflects import of Greek-Hellenistic technology and aesthetic into the Latin West Mediterranean.
	4. Head from statue of Caesar Augustus. Early 1st c. A.D. in the official style. A reduction of reality to dispassionate formal harmony of surfaces that embodies the new official political ideology that has incorporated Greek values. The surfaces convey the message.
	5. Roman metalwork. Roman exports or loot from a chief's grave in Hoby, Lolund, Denmark, 1-2nd century A.D. Top quality bronze jug; Augustan bronze dish with Venus; silver cups signed by Greek craftsman with Homeric scenes.
	6. Detail of a Petronell wall painting, Iphigenia. 1st c. A.D. (Klagenfurt Landesmuseum). Not a true fresco. The content and aesthetic are classical.
	7. Detail of a fresco showing Andromeda. 1st c. A.D. House of the Priest Amandus, Pompei.
	8. Fresco from a villa ceiling from Bar Buc Ammera. Late 2nd to early 3rd c. A.D. (Tripoli: Museum). Late typical example of Augustinian naturalistic impressionism with depth perspective.
	9. Marble sarcophagus relief showing Achiles at court of Lycomedes, ca. 250 A.D. (Rome: Mus. Cap.). In the Romano-Attic style. The reclining figures are typically Attic. The traditional classical style tended to be perpetuated by the senatorial artistocracy because they associated it with a time when rich landowners had a free hand.