ROMAN ANTIQUITIES at the Metropolitan Museum

Speranza

While Roman artists drew on Etruscan and Hellenistic models, they also made their own significant contributions to architecture, sculpture, and the minor arts.

The Roman concept of urban planning, civic centres, and grand vistas were REVIVED during the Renaissance and they have inspired planners and architects of many great modern cities.

Although ROMAN STATUARY emulated the great works of Greece, it was the ROMAN COPIES and adaptations of those earlier lost works that survived to STIMULATE the classical revival that emerged in the eighteenth century.

In the field of minor arts, which flourised during the prosperous times of the pax romana (first-second centuries AD) small-scale masterpieces were produced for the LUXURY market under the patronage of the IMPERIAL FAMILY, wealthy aristocrats, and the nouveau riche that included both aspiring mamebers of the provincial elites and successful entrepreneurs from among the large class of freedmen.

ADDITIONALLY, the rich upper classes provided themselves with opulent RESIDENCES such as town houses (palazzi) and rural and seaside villas, which were decorated with stunning wall paintings, mosaics, and made-to-order STATUARY.

As a result, STATUARY became a status symbol, a means by which well-to-do residents of POMPEI, EFESO, and numerous other cities throughout the Roman empire could FLAUNT their financial success and their CULTURAL SOPHISTICATION to family, friends, and the world at large.