Roman Art and Architecture

by Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler

In this wide-ranging analysis of Roman art, Sir Mortimer Wheeler describes the architecture & town planning, the sculpture & painting, the silverware, glass, pottery & other successful artistic achievements of the era.
Preface
The Roman contribution
Greece & Rome
Towns: the beginning
Italy
Africa
Near East
Gaul
Britain
Buildings: temples
Bath-buildings
Forum & basilica
Theatres, amphitheatres & circuses
Houses
Palaces
Arches & engineering
Aspects of sculpture & painting: portraiture
Narrative
Landscape
Other aspects of Roman art: the Romans as collectors & connoisseurs
Roman art on the Celtic fringe
Roman art in the East
Notes
Short Bibliography
List of Illustrations
Index

Genres: Art, Architecture, History, Nonfiction, Art History, Roman, Italy

250 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1964

About the author

Brigadier Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH, CIE, MC, FBA, FSA, was one of the best-known archaeologists of the twentieth century.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, he was educated at Bradford Grammar School and the University of London where he achieved an MA degree in 1912. In 1913 he won the studentship for archaeology established jointly by the University of London and the Society of Antiquaries in memory of Augustus Wollaston Franks. Sir Arthur Evans doubled the amount of money that went with the studentship, paying out of his own pocket another £100. In late autumn 1913 he began to work for the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England).
At the beginning of World War I he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery (Territorial Force), at first remaining in London as an instructor in the University of London Officers' Training Corps. Then he was posted to several battery commands in Scotland and England until 1917. The last part of the war he fought in France, Passchendaele, the Western Front, near Bapaume, and finally marched into Germany, commanding 'A' Battery of 76th Brigade, RFA. During July 1919 he returned from the Rhineland to London and to civilian life.


The excavations at Maiden Castle, Dorset, in October 1937 were led by Mortimer Wheeler. Photograph by Major George Allen (1891–1940).
Between 1920 and 1926 he was Director of the National Museum of Wales, and from 1926 to 1944 Keeper of the London Museum. During his career he performed many major excavations within Britain, including that of Roman Verulamium (modern-day St Albans), the late Iron Age hill-fort of Maiden Castle, Dorset and Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications in Yorkshire. The excavation methods he used, for example the grid system (later developed further by Kathleen Kenyon and known as the Wheeler-Kenyon method), were significant advances in archaeological method, although later superseded. He was influenced greatly by the work of the archaeologist Lieutenant General Augustus Pitt Rivers (1827–1900). The two constant themes in his attempts to improve archaeological excavation were, first, to maintain strict stratigraphic control while excavating (for this purpose, the baulks between his trenches served to retain a record of the strata that had been dug through), and, second, to publish the excavation promptly and in a form that would tell the story of the site to the intelligent reader.
When World War II was imminent he returned from excavating a site in Normandy during August 1939 to join the Middlesex Territorial Association at Enfield. He stayed there until 1941 when his unit was transferred into the regular army forces as the 48th Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, which became a part of the 42nd Mobile Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment and went with the 8th Army to Northern Africa. There he served at the Second Battle of El Alamein. During September 1943 he commanded the 12th Anti-Aircraft Brigade during the landing of Allied Forces at Salerno, Italy, Operation Avalanche.
The next year, now 54 years old, he retired from the Army to become Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, exploring in detail the remains of the Indus Valley Civilization at Mohenjodaro. Soon after he returned during 1948, he was made a professor at the Institute of Archaeology, but spent part of the years 1949 and 1950 in Pakistan as Archaeological Adviser to the Government, helping to establish the Archaeological Department of Pakistan, and the National Museum of Pakistan at Karachi. He was knighted in 1952 for his services to archaeology.
In 1958 he opened the extension to the Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery which doubled its available space.
He became known through his books and appearances on television and radio, helping to bring archaeology to a mass audience. Wheeler believed strongly that archaeology needed public support, and was assiduous in appearing on radio and television to promote it. In addition to this he collaborated with the

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated but still useful and readable overview of Roman art and architecture. He makes some assumptions that art historians and classicists now would not make (I hope!), such as seeing the absence of full perspective in art as a failure on the part of Roman artists and craftspeople or the tendency to see the influence of eastern art and aesthetics on Roman work as a kind of decline or corruption rather than a useful or enriching hybridization. But it's probably unfair to blame a scholar of his period and training for making assumptions that would have struck few at the time as objectionable.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

How delightfully overwritten. "Almost riotously ornate."

[Georgina Farrelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Wheeler, 20th century British archaeologist, makes the ancient art & architecture animate -
“The sacred and the secular meet in dusty juxtaposition”
“Quiet demarcation of civic pride”
“An architecture of utility and quiet dignity”

This is the closest thing we had to a textbook in Classics and I cherished it. no less for being very hard to get your paws on a copy.

[Susan K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A phenomenal analysis to differentiate Roman art from the preceding Greek. As the Roman empire extended to the east, including India and China, and to the north, many other influences became evident that can be traced both through architecture and pottery.

[Linus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good if a bit dry: recommended to anyone seriously interested in Roman history, both Republican and Imperial.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richly illustrated, but sadly rather fragmentary.

[Calum Orr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good breadth of Roman Architecture to further pique my interest. I may look towards domestic Architecture next.

[Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overwritten with some dated claims, but overall a good, brief overview of the major movements and materials of Roman art. Has a good focus on contact between “Rome-proper” and the fringes of the empire in the east and with the Celts in the North.

[Oscar Despard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book constitutes a summary, pleasant introduction to its subject, written not to overawe readers ignorant of its topics but equally not to speak down to them.

The book occasionally wants for a more systematic approach, It is reasonable to desire, for instance, having been told of certain exemplars of the second and fourth Pompeian style, that the first and third might at least be mentioned, but that is not so. More seriously, after saying that the interior of the Pantheon is “one of man’s rare masterpieces”, Wheeler could reasonably be expected to describe it in some detail; instead, he passes on to bath-buildings with an abruptness that is as “thoroughly uncomfortable” as the disharmony between portico and rotunda in that famous temple.

Nevertheless, such breeziness contributes to the conversation style of the book; after reading it, one could easily imagine having Wheeler as an erudite and entertaining dinner guest. His thesis that Rome’s aesthetic achievements deserve respect as being different in kind, not inferior in degree, to those more renowned from Greece is convincingly put while never dominating the factual basis of the book. Overall, it is an excellent read.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good resource material.

[Joanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those that love this time period (and I do), this book is a must read.

[keereads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for one of my ancient art classes in college.

Review: Useful resource for study. I enjoyed this.