The purpose of this paper is to discuss Roman art of the Julio-Claudian period and assess its purposes and diversity. For paintings, much reliance will be placed on those preserved in Pompeii and Herculaneum, since few others have survived. A few works that fall slightly before or after A.D. 14-68, the period of interest, will also be mentioned when they shed significant light on the Julio-Claudian period.
For convenience, discussion of Julio-Claudian art will be divided into three sections, covering sculpture, paintings, and other artforms. The sculpture of this period presents very little that is new or startling, but study of the paintings preserved so completely beneath the ashes of Vesuvius continues to reveal more and more sophistication, more and more parallels with how art has evolved in more recent times.
In dealing with sculpture, it is logical to begin with the obvious: the official imperial statue of Claudius (Figure 1; Plate 276 in de Campos; it is in the Vatican). Whereas the familiar official statue of Augustus (Plate 275 in de Campos) is completely idealized, that of Claudius is not. Augustus had disliked the Greek style of emperor worship--it would have been difficult to reconcile with his stance of being merely the ôFirst Citizenö of the Restored Republic--but as soon as he died, he was posthumously declared to have been a god all along. The cult of the Divine Emperor then became the new official religion, especially under Tiberius. Although Claudius is therefore here posed in the role of Jupiter (as symbolized by the eagle), the face seems to be a realistic portrait.
There seems to have been a widespread trend toward such realism in Roman art at this time. For example, consider the portrait head of the banker Lucius Caecilius Jucundus, found in his house in Pompeii (Figure 2; Plate 189 in Kraus). It is bronze, 13.75 inches high, and is now owned by the National Museum in Naples. It was mounted o...