Art in Antiquity essay
In modern sense, the term “age of gold” often refers to any period of flourishing, prosperity, and moral purification. In the ancient context, however, it was associated with Greek mythology, in which there was a record of better times. Hesiod (c. 700 B.C.), a Greek poet, fixed the legend in Works and Days to make people know about the Golden Age of Cronus, when people lived like gods, free from grief and misery. Later, the Romans adopted the story about ideal world to their reality. Thus, Ovid (43 B.C. – c. 17 A.D.), a Roman poet, echoed Hesiod in Metamorphoses, but the main difference was in the idea that the era of prosperity was a perspective for the Romans’ future, not a ‘forever-lost-past’. While for the Greek the Golden Age was over because Cronus was defeated and the circumstances were beyond human control, the Roman poets believed that the decline took place because human virtues turned into vices and human, so human virtues could bring the Age of Gold back. It was the propaganda of the concept that the Golden Age was again achievable that made the Romans believe in the ideal world and take their own effort to create it. The first Roman emperor Augustus (63 B.C. – 14 A.D.) tried his best to bring about the legendary Golden Age. He paid much attention to the development of sciences and art, which helped his empire develop and flourish and his glory grow in the meantime. Current study is intended to explore how propaganda of the Age of Gold idea contributed to the growth of Roman power along with the development of warfare, politics, and legislation. The study investigates how the longed-for ideal world was fixed in the artwork. In this way, it is expected to provide the evidence that Augustus worked not only for his own ambition, but he did have a clear program to bring peace, security, and glory to his people.
The Murals of the Garden Room at Prima Porta
In 1863 archaeologists discovered a wonderful room at Prima Porta. Due to the documents left by Pliny and Cassius Dio, the location was known for the Villa of Livia, Augustus’ wife. According to the legend, a white hen fell to the lap of Livia just from the clutches of an eagle. In its beak, the hen held a branch of laurel. The crown-bearing couple planted the branch, and the laurel grew into a grove with amazing vigor, thus becoming a symbol of Augustus glory. Today, the place itself (available for the visitors of Museo Nazionale Romano) is famous for the illusionistic murals of partially underground triclinium painted c. 30-20 B.C. The semi-subterranean Garden Room embodied arboreal mythology that became popular in the times of Augustus. The frescoes represent a vista of garden in which different trees and shrubs blossom and fruit at once. The oak, the umbrella pine, the red fir are seen in the foreground. Box trees, cypresses, holm oaks, viburnums, and date palms neighbor pomegranates, oleanders, apple quinces, strawberry trees, together with ivy, acanthus, laurels and myrtles beyond the marble enclosure. Meanwhile, the variety of flowers includes chamomiles and roses, chrysanthemums and poppies. Violets, irises, and ferns also grow along the footpaths. All the birds enjoy their freedom, except the one put into a gilded cage depicted on the low wall.
Order neighboring disorder, woodland and garden displayed together, and wild birds beyond the balustrade all create a utopian landscape to welcome a guest into the realm of harmony. Although it is a celebration of naturalistic technique in blue and green, the view is not the reproduction of nature. Such a combination of flora and fauna representatives, “as protean and mulitvalent in their structures and meanings as the contemporary poetry of Virgil” (Kleiner 200), is not possible, but it is a cordial invitation to the world specially made for humans, an ideal world more specifically. The artwork rather creates nature than reproduces it, and the purpose will be clear if to turn to the idea of the Golden Age.
Propagation of the promised Golden Age
As for the purpose of the Garden Room, it had both pragmatic and cultural meaning. On the one hand, it was a dining room in the suburbs intended to give shelter for the guests during hot summer days. It goes without saying that the triclinium stayed cool due to its partially underground disposition, so the guests could have rest from heat and enjoy summer banquets in comfort. The emperor had no opportunity to grow real gardens as he did outside, but he found an effective alternative. The pictured gardens were also good at creating the atmosphere of peace and rest due to the ornamental illusion of natural surroundings, so necessary during the scorching summer months.
The beneficent world of nature was an allegory for “fertility and prosperity of the Augustan state” (Henig 192). Each of the trees and plants has its meaning, and most of them come from the Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which pines, laurel, cypress trees as well as magpies, partridges, and nightingales played a specific role. The state cannot exist without an order, but a natural order of things has to be taken to account to make the state prosper, so the landscape of the Garden Room in which organic order compliments regular structure is obviously a symbol for Augustan powerful empire. The viewer is able to read the message that the close to nature, the pure the morals. What is more, the eye can read the propaganda of peace and stability as well as wealth and abundance through the plentiful motifs of floral character. In this way, the lush fertility of nature celebrates the vitality and renewal of Rome under Augustan peace (Toynbee 442).
Conclusions
The study has shown that in the ancient times art was a rewarding tool for visual expression of political and ideological intentions of a ruler. Augustus made it the cornerstone of his program to reinvigorate Rome and make it the most powerful and virtuous state in the world. While social and religious legislation helped him to re-establish moral virtues of the Roman citizens, powerful symbolism in art supported an image of greatness and confidence associated with Augustan renewal.
All in all, a garden of imagination painted on the walls of the Villa of Livia is an eloquent example of well-planned propaganda of the idea that under the guidance of Augustus Rome was expected to experience the glorious return of the legendary Golden Age. Out of time and space, with each species fixed in the moment of their own glory, the painting of exotic fecundity deliberately symbolizes the perpetual spring of the Augustus prosperous reign.
Do you like this essay?
Our writers can write a paper like this for you!
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...