López González Medjugorge

History of art
October 14, 2017

Differences between Greece and Rome

GREECE ROME

Society In Ancient Greece they were divided into Ionians, A model of society based on inequality: free men and
Dorics and Achaeans. There was a hierarchy among the women, but also slave men and women.
inhabitants, Cities formed centers of political control, commercial,
They were great sailors. financial and cultural centers.

Philosophy Here the origin of Philosophy and the first scientists The Romans were more concerned with morals, ethics
arise, as they sought the reasons for natural phenomena. and philosophy. Its main thinkers were Cicero, Seneca
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are its most influential and Lucretius.
thinkers. They developed Stoicism and Epicureanism.
“Bread and circuses” form of government.

Policy The slave city-state Polis emerged and later the city- Their objective was to expand the Empire and civilize
state Athens. the conquered people so that they would know Roman
They begin to take nationalities: Ionians, Dorians and culture.
Achaeans. Rome was a military and political power of the ancient
Makes democracy. world.
In war, citizens took up arms. They had different forms of government: monarchy
(until 509 BC), republic (509-30 BC) and empire (29
BC -476 AD). They invented the republic .
In war they had professional and mandatory armies.

Ideology They considered eclectic knowledge essential for the Their beliefs and activities were mixed with magical
wise. They made notable contributions in areas such as and religious thoughts.
medicine (Hippocrates) and mathematics. The philosopher Lucretius implanted the idea that “our
They had the Library of Alexandria, where the most world is only one among an infinite number of
privileged minds of the classical world met, including coexisting worlds.”
Aristarchus of Samos, who proposed the first Their main objective was to expand their empire, after
heliocentric model of the Solar System. they achieved this they began to change art.
Freedom of thought and expression (political and
philosophical) was allowed.

Religion Their religion was polytheistic and they represented their Their religion was polytheistic, they represented their
immortal gods with human morphologies, who lived on gods in the beginning as animals or other objects; They
Olympus. soon adopted the Greek cult. However, they had two
Mythology is extensive, they explained the origin of types of worship: 1) domestic; with parents as priests,
natural objects and phenomena through their gods. spirits of the past menes , the spirits of the houses and
They developed the idea of a demigod , half-god, half- the penates in the form of the geniuses of good.; and 2)
man. public; in which they developed the College of Pontiffs
as The Emperor King as maximum pontiff.

Art They sought perfection, balance and proportion in all art, Beauty was not the primary thing, the narrative
that was their definition of beauty. They established the message had to be the objective of all art.
canon . The artists were of Hellenic origin.
There are three periods: Archaic, Classical and His art denotes grandeur and tells of his conquests. The
Hellenistic. Romans are characteristic of the historical relief.
In the first, the buildings were basically utilitarian and
had rough, geometric shapes. They were based on
Egyptian art, however now they also capture what is
seen instead of what is known about the human body.
There are three classical orders: Doric, Ionic and
Corinthian.
Golden ratio.

Architecture In the classical period, there was a shift from wood to They built roads, aqueducts, theaters, circuses and
stone in the construction of temples. public baths (thermas). First to use two plants. Famous
The construction of the columns in the classical period for building coliseums, in which the use of the arch and
was with rises and that is why they look flexible. variants of it was incorporated, in the Colosseum they
 López González Medjugorge
History of art
October 14, 2017

Construction of many temples with substitutions of included columns of Ionic, Doric and Corinthian
horizontal lines for curves. orders. Construction of temples for gods (Parthenon).
They developed arenas, stadiums, hippodromes, agoras, Monumentality, strength and duration main
theaters and houses divided for women and men. characteristics. Decorated friezes, hemispherical vaults
and cornices with denticles. Use of atlantes and
caryatids.

Theater Theater is born. The construction of the theater was on The stands had a semicircular shape. The spectators
the slope of a hillside, the koilon (stand) had an ultra- were positioned with respect to their social rank in the
semicircular shape, the orchestra had a circular shape; In cavea; The orchestra was semicircular. There was a
front of the stage there was a proscenium decorated with double order of columns that formed part of the stage
columns and statues; Artists performed in this place. front with only the proscenium. They had vomitoriums
through which the caveas were accessed.

Sculpture In the Archaic period they developed rigid sculptures They built arches and columns that told generally
(inspired by Egyptian sculptures), but they began by victorious stories.
introducing a little movement in their feet. The busts were used to pay tribute to emperors and
In the Classic period, youth, strong men, athletes, religious people, that is, they were used as a form of
mythological representations, statues, pediments and portrait. The features of these busts were very specific
stelae were represented. and somewhat expressive.
Phidias, greatest representative of the wet cloth
technique.
In the Hellenistic period, greater importance was given
to movement. Mythology was closely related to the idea
of heroes, who were considered as such for being
excellent athletes or dying dramatically.

Paint The painting was reflected in ceramics with themes such Mosaic work increased.
as mythology and gods, plants, fantastic animals and Painting shows narrative messages, they had to be clear
everyday life. and direct images.

Math Pythagoras, Thales of Miletus, Archimedes and Euclid They developed their own numerical system: Roman
were the leading mathematicians and astronomers in numerals.
Greece. They worked with both geometry and
arithmetic.

Language Greek was developed, belonging to the branch of Indo- Latin , which combined with other languages gave way
European languages and derived from Phoenician. This to the Romance Languages (Spanish, Portuguese,
gave rise to the Latin, Cyrillic, and Coptic alphabets. French, Italian and Romanian)