Question

4. How did the political situation in third century CE Rome differ from that of the first century CE, and what effect did that have on art? Discuss the two statues, Portrait of Augustus as general, from Primaporta (Augustus Prima Porta) and The Tetrarchs in regards to what has happened to the tradition of Roman Imperial Portraiture.

Answer 1

Begun in the 3rd century AD, the crisis of the Roman Empire was mainly caused by the fragmentation of its western part with the arrival and installation of the Germanic peoples.

From the third century AD, the Roman Empire began its phase of decline and decay, which eventually resulted in the fragmentation of its western part. The economic and political crises added the arrival of the Germans, leading to the end of the western part of the empire and the occupation of its territory by these peoples.

Roman art was produced by the people belonging to Ancient Rome and lasted from about the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD.

It was strongly influenced by the Etruscans and Greeks, and the most significant artistic manifestations date back to the establishment of the Republic in 509 BC.