It was a Roman answer, Roman in its magnificent brevity and extraordinary directness. It typifies the artistic method of a society which can spend no energy upon the production of men devoted to pigment mixing and marble cutting for no better purpose than to dream dreams. Something had to be sacrificed. The price Rome chose to pay was that broad view of the world of nature and humanity which alone produces an idealistic art like that of Greece. This is why when Rome finally began to express its thoughts and emotions through marble and bronze it chose a very different method to that of the Hellene. In Greece, the sculptor had needed men and women, gods and heroes; Rome contented herself with one branch of the art—that of sculpture-portraiture. Instead of expressing herself by means of flesh and muscle, limbs and trunk, Rome concentrated all her attention upon the human face.
THE REACTION UNDER HADRIAN
(117 a.d. TO 138 a.d.)
Surely it will be admitted that the facts and the historical explanation fall beautifully into line. If further proof of the direct connection between the ideas fostered by Roman imperialism and the national school of portraiture is necessary, it is to be found in the tendency to revert to a more Hellenic style when the imperialistic wave recedes.
ANTINOUS
Vatican, Rome
Trajan was succeeded by Hadrian in 117 a.d. The former’s intensely imperial policy had overtaxed Rome’s strength. The keynote of Hadrian’s method was reaction against the forward policy which had been paramount. Hadrian stopped the Parthian war. He abandoned Armenia and the provinces beyond the Euphrates. All Rome’s efforts were concentrated upon the task of finding out how to hold as opposed to how to gain.
There is abundant artistic material in which to trace the effects of this reactionary spirit, for Hadrian was one of the greatest of the Roman builders. His efforts to beautify the cities of his Empire were continuous. Temples and monuments were set up; theatres and baths erected. The grand scale upon which he worked can be judged from Pausanias’ statement that the Library of Hadrian was decorated with one hundred columns of Phrygian marble—the walls of the surrounding porticoes being similarly decorated. Or again, take the case of the City of Antinopolis which Hadrian erected on the banks of the Nile to the memory of his famous Antinous. The walls of Antinopolis enclosed a rectangular space three miles in length. The great avenues that ran through it were bordered by porticoes decorated with Corinthian columns, the principal thoroughfares being ornamented with statues, fountains, and votive monuments.
Upon examination it is found that the leading characteristic of the great artistic wave of the age of Hadrian was a reversion to Greek models. The Maison Carrée at Nîmes was erected at this time—the most perfectly preserved temple in the Greek style now extant. During the years 132 and 133 a.d., which Hadrian passed in Athens, he spent immense sums upon rebuilding the city. Surely an additional proof of his devotion to Greek art and culture. In all his tastes Hadrian was a philo-Hellene—a “græculus,” as the Romans called him. When in Athens he had himself initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries. His very appearance witnesses to his preference for Greece and things Greek. Instead of the clean-shaven face of his imperial predecessors, Hadrian wore a beard after the Hellenic fashion.
Turning to the portrait sculpture of the age of Hadrian we can see the influence of the Emperor’s instinctive preference for Greek modes of thought and expression very clearly.