Start your Italian vacation with Roman Art History

You've decided to go to Italy for your vacation this year, to find that ancient Rome that is said to assert, even today, its influence in all areas of our cultural, intellectual, and technical life. In a sense, you're delving into your own roots, even if you also plan to check out the contemporary scene, the shops, the restaurants, the bustling cities. You're own experiences at home have prepared you for an appreciation of the modern, but are you prepared to appreciate the ancient civilization of Rome, the artifacts that are left of the empire and that stand out as visible reminders of bygone times? If you want to fully appreciate that past, before you go, take a little time out of your hectic schedule to study Roman art history, Roman painting, Roman sculpture, Roman architecture, so that when you stand before it, its speaks to you as it spoke to those Romans long ago at the dawn of Western man.

As soon as you open a book on Roman art history, you'll find that the Romans were lovers of Greek art. Outstanding in literature, poetry, history, philosophy, the Romans seemed to let their fascination with Greek art dominate their entire outlook on art, so much so that many art historians fail to see anything that clearly sets Roman art off from Greek art. To some extent, this is true. The Romans imported Greek art from every age of Greek art, from the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods. Not only did they import these styles, but they also imported Greek artists to create new works for Rome. Roman writers on art in those times hardly wrote anything on Roman art, but they wrote copiously on Greek art, lauding it as the height of artistic endeavor. So fascinated were they by the Greeks, the Romans did not even record the names of their own artists, yet the art criticism from those times lavish praises on the Greeks: Phidias, Praxiteles, Polyclitus and other famous Greek artists. Entranced by the Greeks-who would not be-the Romans were without question, artistic imitators of the Greeks.

You might do well when preparing for your vacation to Italy to give some consideration to Greek art history, seeing how influential the art of Greece was in Roman art history. Perhaps, if you are going primarily to witness the artistic tradition of the West, you might do just as well to first visit Greece, Athens, in order to get a full sense of the origins of Western art.

If you have time only for Rome, you'll still be exposed to the Greeks styles expressed through the vision of ancient Rome. Your reading in Roman art history will also help you distinguish those contributions that are distinctively Roman yes, they did expand on Greek art, creating a specifically Roman expression. The Romans were not able to completely eliminate their own unique history from their works. The influence of their Etruscan forefathers emerges in much of the sculpture and architecture of the later Roman period. Read a history on Roman art and learn more on what distinguishes Roman art from Greek art. When you stand before the temple of Sibyl in Tivoli, outside the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, in the Colosseum, in the Pantheon of Rome, you'll see more than architecture; you'll see ancient Rome.