Art Analysis

‘Augustus of Prima Porta’

Description

Livia Drusilla founded Augustus of Prima Porta in 1863 at the villa of Livia.  It is located at the Musei Vatican Museum (Kleiner, 2015).  The marble sculpture contains materials such as armor, jewelry, bronze, and others.  'Augustus of Prima Porta' shows Augustus as an armed general and as a heroically nude warrior who saved the lives of citizens.  This is a  Roman art and Augustus was the emperor in the Roman Empire who used to communicate his ideology and power using the power of imagery (Kleiner, 2015).  In the portrait 'Augustus of Primaporta,'    the picture of a boyish child (Venus's son) is clear.  It represents a political ideology of naval victory.  During 31 BCE, there was a Battle of Actium in the Roman Republic and Augustus won the battle against Mark Antony and Cleopatra.  In the portrait, Augustus is a symbol of the ruler of the Empire.  In addition, the image of a boy child shows that he a son to Venus and Augustus' adoptive father descended from Venus.  Note that Venus is the goddess of love and therefore Augustus family is a descendant of gods (Kleiner, 2015).  As a commander of the army, he is wearing military clothing.  He is raising his hand and this indicates a Roman salute to his leaders.  The main subject matter from the portrait is the political and cultural environment during the Roman Empire.  The function of the portrait is to represent the Augustus virtues in that during his reign, Rome experienced internal and external peace (Kleiner, 2015).  Note that he aimed to restore the republic, which was under the control of the Parthian empire.  

 

 

Analysis

Color

During excavations, the statue had traces of color but the color faced.  In 1999, a cleaning process showed that the statue was colored and in 2002, ultraviolet photography detected traces of color though invisible with naked eyes (Galinsky, 1996).

 Form

  The height of the portrait is 40 centimeters.  Width is 26 centimeters and the depth is 10 centimeters.

 Value

 The portraits have both white marbles and darker stone and textured marbles.  The portraits have extensive traces of pigments to achieve realism.

 Line

 The portrait has implied and rendered lines to allow the views see the shape and color

 Shape

  The portrait ahs an ideal shape or it depicts the painting of a man.  The shape also presents individual features that focus on realism.

 Space

 The portrait has both negative and positive space.  They both allow the viewer to create a perception of the image and make sense of what the image wants to portray.

 

 Texture

 The hair and skin has a real texture

 

Interpretation

 First, it is important to note that the Parthian empire has great power over the Rome and this influenced the Romans to fight Parthian.  However, the Romans were humiliated since some of   the military members were killed and therefore they did not win.  The shameful defeated motivated the Roman to revenge but at this time the Roman was defeated following Cesar's assassination (Barrow & Silk, 2018).  However, Romans did not lose hope and this time Augustus showed his willingness to restore the Roman standards and he used diplomatic means to defeat the Parthian and achieve the restore the Roman standards.

 Therefore, the porta statue represents the Roman Emperor.  Augustus was an imperator and he had the power to control the Roman public life.  He had powerful armies who maintained peace and brought prosperity.  The 'Augustus of Prima Porta'   is one of the portraits that portray the emperor's great deeds.  Since Augustus was only 32 years old when he becomes the ruler, Roman portraitists represented an idealized portrait of a youthful leader who overcame the Parthian (Barrow & Silk, 2018).  Lastly, Augustus communicates political, religious, and social-economic ideology.  He supported   the Roman religion, he shows a national pride toward Rome, and he was dedicated to preserve the social and economic values.  Augustus was dedicated to reform Rome and improve Roman society, the Roman government, and   Roman religion (Barrow & Silk, 2018).  He believed in restoring the public monuments that promote religious rites.  The revival of religion restored the moral standards and improved morality, as well as social life.

Aesthetic Judgment 

  First, 'Augustus of Prima Porta' is valuable due to its formalism.  The portraits have elements and principles of art and they are arranged effectively.  The portrait is also inspiring due to its emotionalism.  The art evokes emotive qualities or in other worlds the elements of art convey ideas to the viewer that depict Augustus as a hero (Barrow & Silk, 2018).  Every viewer can detect his success and authority and there is no doubt that he was an emperor who has supreme confidence.  Lastly, the portrait is meaningful due to its functionalism.  This means that the art has a practical purpose, that is; to communicate the heroic great deeds of Augustus in the Roman Empire (Barrow & Silk, 2018).  The purpose is to present Augustus as a hero and a warrior who received a bloodless by diplomacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 References

 

Galinsky, K. (1996). Augustan culture: An interpretive introduction. Princeton, N.J: Princeton

University Press.

 

 

Kleiner, F. U. (2015). Gardners art through the ages - a concise western history. Cengage 

Learning

 

 

 Barrow R.,& Silk M,. (2018).  Gender and the Body in Greek and Roman Sculpture. Cambridge

University Press