The sculpture I chose is a Roman original. I know this because it is a sculpture of a Roman emperor. The bust is of Commodus the son of Marcus Aurelius; he is depicted as Hercules. The reason he is depicted as Hercules was to make him appear powerful. He also claimed to be a relation to Hercules. While the sculpture has no parts taken from a Greek one, the idea behind it is Greek. Hercules was a Greek hero. This sculpture includes a lion skin on his head, a club, and apples in his hand. These things all represent the Greek legend Hercules. I never realized how much the Romans took from the Greeks until going to the museum. After learning about how they took parts of other sculptures I was surprised to find that mine was acutally an original. It seemed like every other one was half of a Greek statue fused onto a Roman one or an identical copy of a Greek sculpture.
First off, I must have walked past that sculpture because it is very awesome, but I dont rememeber seeing it. I also didnt realize just how influential the Greeks were on Roman Sculptures. I dont know how accurate the movie Gladiator is but it certainly made me hate Commodus and he certainly wasnt Herculean. This contrast makes me want to look into the background of Commodus further and find out the facts.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jonathan... I never saw this sculpture however I think its pretty amazing. I love the irony that a Roman ruler is portrayed as a Greek hero. I also never realized how much the Romans were "inspired" by the Greeks. Also, in response to Jon's comment, the movie Gladiator made me think that Commodus was an incestual evil ruler. This sculpture makes me believe he was atleast somewhat cherished.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you said you never realized how much the Romans took from the Greeks. I feel like we are always talking about how awesome the Romans were and how they did so much and blah blah. While they were absolutely a great civilization that we learned a lot from, the Greeks really should get more credit for all the things that the Romans copied from them from sculpture to architecture and so on and so on. good stuff. ps- wasn't commodus mean? lol or so says 'The Gladiator'
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