The study ofRoman sculpture is complicated by its relation toGreek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as theApollo Belvedere andBarberini Faun, are known only fromRoman Imperial orHellenistic "copies". At one time, this imitation was taken byart historians as indicating a narrowness of the Roman artistic imagination, but, in the late 20th century, Roman art began to be reevaluated on its own terms: some impressions of the nature of Greek sculpture may in fact be based on Roman artistry.

The strengths of Roman sculpture are in portraiture, where they were less concerned with the ideal than the Greeks or Ancient Egyptians, and produced very characterful works, and in narrative relief scenes. Examples of Roman sculpture are abundantly preserved, in total contrast to Roman painting, which was very widely practiced but has almost all been lost.Latin and someGreek authors, particularlyPliny the Elder in Book 34 of hisNatural History, describe statues, and a few of these descriptions match extant works. While a great deal of Roman sculpture, especially in stone, survives more or less intact, it is often damaged or fragmentary; life-sizebronze statues are much more rare as most have been recycled for their metal.^[1]

Most statues were actually far more lifelike and often brightly colored when originally created; the raw stone surfaces found today is due to the pigment being lost over the centuries.^[2]

Left image: Section ofTrajan's Column, Rome, 113 AD, with scenes from theTrajan's Dacian Wars
Right image: Section and detail of theColumn of Marcus Aurelius, Rome, 177–180 AD, with scenes from theMarcomannic Wars

Early Roman art was influenced by the art of Greece and that of the neighbouringEtruscans, themselves greatly influenced by their Greektrading partners. An Etruscan speciality was near life size tomb effigies interracotta, usually lying on top of asarcophagus lid propped up on one elbow in the pose of a diner in that period. As the expandingRoman Republic began to conquer Greek territory, at first in Southern Italy and then the entire Hellenistic world except for theParthian far east, official andpatrician sculpture became largely an extension of the Hellenistic style, from which specifically Roman elements are hard to disentangle, especially as so much Greek sculpture survives only in copies of the Roman period.^[3] By the 2nd century BCE, "most of the sculptors working at Rome" were Greek,^[4] often enslaved in conquests such as that ofCorinth (146 BCE), and sculptors continued to be mostly Greeks, often slaves, whose names are very rarely recorded. Sculpting was not considered a profession by Romans — at most, it was accepted as a hobby.^[5] Vast numbers of Greek statues were imported to Rome, whether as booty or the result of extortion or commerce, and temples were often decorated with re-used Greek works.^[6]

A native Italian style can be seen in the tomb monuments of prosperous middle-class Romans, which very often featured portrait busts, andportraiture is arguably the main strength of Roman sculpture. There are no survivals from the tradition of masks of ancestors that were worn in processions at the funerals of the great families and otherwise displayed in the home, but many of the busts that survive must represent ancestral figures, perhaps from the large family tombs like theTomb of the Scipios or the latermausolea outside the city. The famous "Capitoline Brutus", a bronze head supposedly ofLucius Junius Brutus is very variously dated, but taken as a very rare survival of Italic style under the Republic, in the preferred medium of bronze.^[7] Similarly stern and forceful heads are seen in the coins of the consuls, and in the Imperial period coins as well as busts sent around the Empire to be placed in thebasilicas of provincial cities were the main visual form of imperial propaganda; evenLondinium had a near-colossal statue ofNero, though far smaller than the 30-metre-highColossus of Nero in Rome, now lost.^[8] TheTomb of Eurysaces the Baker, a successfulfreedman (c. 50–20 BC) has afrieze that is an unusually large example of the "plebeian" style.^[9]

The Romans did not generally attempt to compete with free-standing Greek works of heroic exploits from history or mythology, but from early on produced historical works inrelief, culminating in the greatRoman triumphal columns with continuous narrative reliefs winding around them, of which those commemoratingTrajan (CE 113) andMarcus Aurelius (by 193) survive in Rome, where theAra Pacis ("Altar of Peace", 13 BCE) represents the official Greco-Roman style at its most classical and refined. Among other major examples are the earlier re-used reliefs on theArch of Constantine and the base of theColumn of Antoninus Pius (161),^[10]Campana reliefs were cheaperpottery versions of marble reliefs and the taste for relief was from the imperial period expanded to the sarcophagus.

All forms of luxury small sculpture continued to be patronized, and quality could be extremely high, as in the silverWarren Cup, glassLycurgus Cup, and large cameos like theGemma Augustea,Gonzaga Cameo and the "Great Cameo of France".^[11] For a much wider section of the population, moulded relief decoration ofpottery vessels and small figurines were produced in great quantity and often considerable quality.^[12]

After moving through a late 2nd century "baroque" phase,^[13] in the 3rd century, Roman art largely abandoned, or simply became unable to produce, sculpture in the classical tradition, a change whose causes remain much discussed. Even the most important imperial monuments now showed stumpy, large-eyed figures in a harsh frontal style, in simple compositions emphasizing power at the expense of grace. The contrast is famously illustrated in theArch of Constantine of 315 in Rome, which combines sections in the new style withroundels in the earlier full Greco-Roman style taken from elsewhere, and theFour Tetrarchs (c. 305) from the new capital ofConstantinople, now inVenice.Ernst Kitzinger found in both monuments the same "stubby proportions, angular movements, an ordering of parts through symmetry and repetition and a rendering of features and drapery folds through incisions rather than modelling... The hallmark of the style wherever it appears consists of an emphatic hardness, heaviness and angularity — in short, an almost complete rejection of the classical tradition".^[14]

This revolution in style shortly preceded the period in whichChristianity was adopted by the Roman state and the great majority of the people, leading to the end of large religious sculpture, with large statues now only used for emperors, as in the famous fragments of a colossalacrolithicstatue of Constantine, and the 4th or 5th centuryColossus of Barletta. However rich Christians continued to commission reliefs for sarcophagi, as in theSarcophagus of Junius Bassus, and very small sculpture, especially in ivory, was continued by Christians, building on the style of theconsular diptych.^[15]

• 
  Etruscansarcophagus, 3rd century BCE
• 
  The "Capitoline Brutus", probably late 4th to early 3rd century BC, possibly 1st century BC.^[16]
• 
  ARoman navalbireme depicted in arelief from the Temple ofFortuna Primigenia inPraeneste (Palastrina),^[17] which was builtc. 120 BC;[18] exhibited in the Pius-Clementine Museum (Museo Pio-Clementino) in theVatican Museums.
• 
  ThePatrician Torlonia bust, believed to be of Cato the Elder. 1st century BC
• 
  The Orator,c. 100 BC, an Etrusco-Roman bronze statue depicting Aule Metele (Latin: Aulus Metellus), an Etruscan man wearing a Romantoga while engaged inrhetoric; the statue features an inscription in theEtruscan alphabet
• 
  Bronze bust of RomanIsis priest, formerly identified asScipio Africanus, mid 1st century BC^[19][20]
• 
  The so-called "Togatus Barberini", a statue depicting a Roman senator holding portrait effigies (possiblyimagines) of deceased ancestors; marble, late 1st century BC; head (not belonging): mid 1st century BC.
• 
  Arles bust, marble bust found in theRhone River nearArles,c. 46 BC
• 
  Roman,Republican orEarly Imperial,Relief of a seated poet (Menander) with masks ofNew Comedy, 1st century BC – early 1st century AD,Princeton University Art Museum
• 
  Augustus of Prima Porta, statue of the emperorAugustus, 1st century CE.Vatican Museums
• 
  Thecameo gem known as the "Great Cameo of France",c. 23 CE, with anallegory ofAugustus and his family
• 
  Bust ofEmperor Claudius,c. 50 CE, (reworked from a bust of emperorCaligula), It was found in the so-called Otricoli basilica inLanuvium, Italy,Vatican Museums
• 
  The so-called "Venus in abikini", from the House of the Bikini,Pompeii, depictsher Greek counterpartAphrodite as she is about to untie hersandal, with a smallEros squatting beneath her left arm
• 
  Tomb relief of the Decii, 98–117 CE
• 
  Statue ofMars from theForum of Nerva, early 2nd century AD, based on anAugustan-era original that in turn used aHellenistic Greek model of the 4th century BC,Capitoline Museums^[21]
• 
  Polychrome marble statue depicting the goddessTyche holding the infantPlutus in her arms, 2nd century AD,Istanbul Archaeological Museum
• 
  Statue of Antinous (Delphi), depictingAntinous, polychromeParian marble, made during the reign ofHadrian (r. 117-138 AD)
• 
  Male torso with legs to the knees, discovered on the site of theOdeon of Lyon in 1964. Marble. Lyon,Lugdunum
• 
  Male torso discovered on the site of theOdeon of Lyon in 1964. Marble. Lyon,Lugdunum.
• 
  Ancient bust ofRoman emperorLucius Verus (r. 161–169), a naturalblond who would sprinkle gold dust in his hair to make it even blonder,^[22]Bardo National Museum, Tunis
• 
  Remnants of a Roman bust of a youth with ablond beard, perhaps depictingRoman emperorCommodus (r. 177–192),National Archaeological Museum, Athens
• 
  Commodus dressed asHercules,c. 191 CE, in the late imperial "baroque" style
• 
  Marcus Aurelius receiving the submission of vanquished foes from theMarcomannic Wars, a relief from his now destroyed triumphal arch in Rome,Capitoline Museums, 177-180 AD
• 
  Private portrait with both individualized and unforgiving naturalism and stylized influence of portraits of the emperorsHadrian andAntoninus Pius in his beard and hairstyle.
• 
  Ancient Roman statue ofIsis, in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities in theKunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; first half of the 2nd century AD, found inNaples, Italy; made out of black and white marble.
• 
  Marble table support adorned by a group includingDionysos,Pan and aSatyr; Dionysos holds arhyton in the shape of a panther; traces ofred andyellow colour are preserved on the hair of the figures and the branches; from anAsia Minor workshop, 170-180 AD,National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece
• 
  TheFarnese Hercules, probably an enlarged copy made in the early 3rd century AD and signed by a certain Glykon, from an original byLysippos (or one of his circle) that would have been made in the 4th century BC; The copy was made for theBaths of Caracalla in Rome (dedicated in 216 AD), where it was recovered in 1546
• 
  Ancient Roman statue of emperorBalbinus, dating from 238 AD, on display in theArchaeological Museum of Piraeus (Athens)
• 
  Bronze ofTrebonianus Gallus dating from the time of his reign as Roman Emperor, the only surviving near-complete full-size 3rd-century Roman bronze (Metropolitan Museum of Art)^[23]
• 
  The Four Tetrarchs,c. 305, showing the new anti-classical style, inporphyry, nowSan Marco, Venice
• 
  Head and other fragments acolossal bronze statue of Constantine I, early 4th century AD,Musei Capitolini (Rome)
• 
  A marble portrait bust of a Roman matron, early 4th century AD,Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
• 
  Bust depicting an idealized portrait ofMenander of Ephesus, 4th century AD,Ephesus Archaeological Museum
• 
  Detail of a sarcophagus depicting the Christian belief inthe multiplication of bread loaves and fish by Jesus Christ,c. 350-375 AD,Vatican Museums
• 
  A Roman bust depicting eitherValens orHonorius; marble, ca. 400 AD
• 
  Honorius on theconsular diptych ofAnicius Petronius Probus (406 AD)
• 
  Boxwoodrelief depicting the liberation of a besieged city by a relief force, with those defending the walls making asortie;Western Roman Empire, early 5th century AD
• 
  Portrait of an unknown man, found in theAgora of Athens, dating from around 400-450 AD;National Archaeological Museum, Athens
• 
  Bust of Eastern Roman EmperorTheodosius II (r. 408–450 AD); marble, 5th century AD
• 
  Bust of an Eastern Roman lady (Galla Placidia?) in theMusée Saint-Raymond de Toulouse, 5th century AD
• 
  Bust of an unknown orator or philosopher fromTartus, now in theLouvre, 5th century AD

Portraiture is a dominant genre of Roman sculpture, growing perhaps from thetraditional Roman emphasis on family and ancestors; the entrance hall(atrium) of aRoman elite house displayed ancestralportrait busts. During theRoman Republic, it was considereda sign of character not to gloss over physical imperfections, and to depict men in particular as rugged and unconcerned with vanity: the portrait was a map of experience. During the Imperial era, more idealized statues ofRoman emperors became ubiquitous, particularly in connection withthe state religion of Rome.Tombstones of even the modestly rich middle class sometimes exhibit portraits of the otherwise unknown deceased carved inrelief.

Among the many museums with examples of Roman portrait sculpture, the collections of theMetropolitan Museum of Art inNew York and theBritish Museum inLondon are especially noteworthy.

Religious art was also a major form of Roman sculpture. A central feature of aRoman temple was the cult statue of the deity, who was regarded as "housed" there (seeaedes). Although images of deities were also displayed in private gardens and parks, the most magnificent of the surviving statues appear to have been cult images.Roman altars were usually rather modest and plain, but some Imperial examples are modeled after Greek practice with elaborate reliefs, most famously theAra Pacis, which has been called "the most representative work ofAugustan art."^[24] Small bronze statuettes and ceramic figurines, executed with varying degrees of artistic competence, are plentiful in the archaeological record, particularly in theprovinces, and indicate that these were a continual presence in the lives of Romans, whether forvotives or for private devotional display at home or in neighborhood shrines. These typically show more regional variation in style than large and more official works, and also stylistic preferences between different classes.^[25]

Roman marble sarcophagi mostly date from the 2nd to the 4th century CE,^[26] after a change inRoman burial customs fromcremation toinhumation, and were mostly made in a few major cities, including Rome andAthens, which exported them to other cities. Elsewhere thestela gravestone remained more common. They were always a very expensive form reserved for the elite, and especially so in the relatively few very elaborately carved examples; most were always relatively plain, with inscriptions, or symbols such as garlands. Sarcophagi divide into a number of styles, by the producing area. "Roman" ones were made to rest against a wall, and one side was left uncarved, while "Attic" and other types were carved on all four sides; but the short sides were generally less elaborately decorated in both types.^[27]

The time taken to make them encouraged the use of standard subjects, to which inscriptions might be added to personalize them, and portraits of the deceased were slow to appear. The sarcophagi offer examples of intricate reliefs that depict scenes often based onGreek andRoman mythology ormystery religions that offered personal salvation, andallegorical representations. Romanfunerary art also offers a variety of scenes from everyday life, such as game-playing, hunting, and military endeavors.^[28]

Early Christian art quickly adopted the sarcophagus, and they are the most common form of early Christian sculpture, progressing from simple examples with symbols to elaborate fronts, often with small scenes of theLife of Christ in two rows within an architectural framework. TheSarcophagus of Junius Bassus (c. 359) is of this type, and the earlierDogmatic Sarcophagus rather simpler. The hugeporphyrySarcophagi of Helena and Constantina are grand Imperial examples.

Scenes from Roman sarcophagi

• 
  Scenes ofOrphic religion (2nd century)
• 
  Portonaccio sarcophagus with a battle
• 
  Dionysus riding a panther andaccompanied by attendants, 220-230 AD
• 
  Children playing with nuts (3rd century)
• 
  Sarcophagus with the Calydonian hunt,Palazzo dei Senatori - Musei Capitolini,Rome.
• 
  Sarcophagus with the Four Seasons allegory
  (3rd century),Palazzo dei Senatori - Musei Capitolini,Rome.
• 
  Sarcophagus of the Quinta Flavia Severina,Palazzo dei Senatori - Musei Capitolini,Rome.
• 
  Early Christian marble sarcophagus with a high-relief representing scenes from theOld and theNew Testament, c. 310 AD
• 
  Cast of Christ's trial before Pilate, with Pilate about to wash his hands. Detail from the Early ChristianSarcophagus of Junius Bassus (d. 359)

A number of well-known large stone vases sculpted in relief from the Imperial period were apparently mostly used as garden ornaments; indeed many statues were also placed in gardens, both public and private. Sculptures recovered from the site of theGardens of Sallust, opened to the public byTiberius, include:

• theObelisco Sallustiano, a Roman copy of an Egyptianobelisk which now stands in front of theTrinità dei Monti church above thePiazza di Spagna at the top of theSpanish Steps
• theBorghese Vase, discovered there in the 16th century.
• the sculptures known as theDying Gaul and theGaul Killing Himself and His Wife, marble copies of parts a famous Hellenistic group in bronze commissioned forPergamon in about 228 BC.
• theLudovisi Throne (probably an authentic Greek piece in theSevere style), found in 1887, and theBoston Throne, found in 1894.
• theCrouching Amazon, found in 1888 near the via Boncompagni, about twenty-five meters from the via Quintino Sella (Museo Conservatori).

Roman baths were another site for sculpture; among the well-known pieces recovered from theBaths of Caracalla are theFarnese Bull andFarnese Hercules and larger-than-life-sized early 3rd century patriotic figures somewhat reminiscent of SovietSocial Realist works (now in theMuseo di Capodimonte,Naples).

Found in theGardens of Sallust and theGardens of Maecenas:

• 
  FallingNiobid, discovered in the site in 1906 (Museo Nazionale Romano), a Greek original^[29]
• 
  Borghese Vase
• 
  Caryatid statue,Palazzo dei Senatori - Musei Capitolini,Rome.
• 
  Fountain in the form of a horn-shaped drinking cup (rhyton),Palazzo dei Senatori - Musei Capitolini,Rome.
• 
  Child with a theatre mask, for a garden or house,Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini, Rome.

Scenes shown on reliefs such as that ofTrajan's column and those shown on sarcophogi reveal images of Roman technology now long lost, such asballistae and the use of waterwheel-driven saws for cutting stone. The latter was only recently^[when?] discovered atHieropolis and commemorates the miller who used the machine. Other reliefs show harvesting machines, much as they were described byPliny the Elder in hisNaturalis Historia.

Compared to the Greeks, the Romans made less use of stone sculpture on buildings, apparently having fewfriezes with figures. Importantpediments, such as thePantheon for example, originally had sculpture, but hardly any have survived.Terracottarelief panels calledCampana reliefs have survived in good numbers. These were used to decorate interior walls, in strips.

The architectural writerVitruvius is oddly reticent on the architectural use of sculpture, mentioning only a few examples, though he says that an architect should be able to explain the meaning of architectural ornament and gives as an example the use ofcaryatids.^[30]

• Ancient Roman pottery
• Classical sculpture
• Gallo-Roman art
• History of sculpture
• Roman art
• Roman engineering
• Roman technology

• Elsner, Jas, "Style" inCritical Terms for Art History, Nelson, Robert S. and Shiff, Richard, 2nd Edn. 2010, University of Chicago Press,ISBN 0226571696, 9780226571690,google books
• Henig, Martin (ed, Ch 3, "Sculpture" by Anthony Bonanno),A Handbook of Roman Art, Phaidon, 1983,ISBN 0714822140
• Kitzinger, Ernst,Byzantine art in the making: main lines of stylistic development in Mediterranean art, 3rd–7th century, 1977, Faber & Faber,ISBN 0571111548 (US: Cambridge UP, 1977)
• Strong, Donald, et al.,Roman Art, 1995 (2nd edn.), Yale University Press (Penguin/Yale History of Art),ISBN 0300052936
• Williams, Dyfri.Masterpieces of Classical Art, 2009, British Museum Press,ISBN 9780714122540

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• Fejfer, Jane.Roman Portraits In Context. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2008.
• Flower, Harriet I.Ancestor Masks and Aristocratic Power In Roman Culture. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
• Gruen, Erich S.Culture and National Identity In Republican Rome. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992.
• Hallett, Christopher H.The Roman Nude: Heroic Portrait Statuary 200 B.C.-A.D. 300. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
• Kleiner, Diana E. E.Roman Group Portraiture: The Funerary Reliefs of the Late Republic and Early Empire. New York: Garland Pub., 1977.
• --.Roman Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
• Koortbojian, Michael.Myth, Meaning, and Memory On Roman Sarcophagi. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
• Kousser, Rachel Meredith.Hellenistic and Roman Ideal Sculpture: The Allure of the Classical. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Kristensen, Troels Myrup, andLea Margaret Stirling.The Afterlife of Greek and Roman Sculpture: Late Antique Responses and Practices. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016.
• Mattusch, Carol A.The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculptural Collection. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005.
• Ryberg, Inez Scott.Rites of the State Religion in Roman Art. Rome: American Academy in Rome, 1955.
• Sobocinski, Melanie Grunow, Elise A. Friedland, and Elaine K. Gazda.The Oxford Handbook of Roman Sculpture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
• Stewart, Peter.The Social History of Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
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• "Roman art: Sculpture".The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th edition. © 2006. Columbia University Press / Infoplease. Visited May 28, 2006.
• The Gallery of Ancient Art: Roman sculpture
• Comprehensive visual documentation of Ara Pacis Sculpture".

• Ancient Roman Republican art
• Roman Empire sculptures
• Ancient Roman sculpture

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