Arch of Titus

Art History

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome
Digging Through Time
Republican Period: Temple of Portunus
Republican Period: Veristic Male Portrait
The Pantheon
Augustus of Primaporta
Painted Garden, Villa of Livia
Head of Augustus
Ara Pacis
Dionysiac frieze, Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii
Colosseum
Arch of Titus
Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli: A Virtual Tour
Maritime Theatre at Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
Pair of Centaurs Fighting Cats of Prey from Hadrian's Villa, Tivoli
Column of Trajan
Medea Sarcophagus
Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius
Ludovisi Battle Sarcophagus
Arch of Constantine
The Colossus of Constantine

Arch of Titus Arch of Titus, originally Pentelic marble, early 19h-century restoration is in travertine, c. 81 C.E. (Via Sacra, Rome) The surviving original inscription reads: SENATVS POPVLVSQVE ROMANVS DIVO TITO DIVI VESPASIANI F[ILIO] VESPASIANO AVGVSTO Senate People of Rome to the divine Titus Vespasian Augustus son of Vespasian Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

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Arch of Titus

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[piano music playing]
We're on a small hill on a sacred way in the forum of Rome
and we're looking at the Arch of Titus.
It's actually an arch to commemorate Titus.
It was built by his brother in honor of the deification of Titus
and in honor of his victory in the Jewish Wars.
Right, sack of Jerusalem?
Yeah, which would have been 70、71 AD,
and so this was probably about ten years later or sometime thereafter.
So we have a typical triumphal arch form,
we have a single arch in the form of a barrel vault.
The arch is framed by attached or engaged column.
They're actually composites.
Look at them, they are Corinthian--
they have akanthus leaf, but they're also scrolled.
So it's sort of an amalgam of Ionic and Corinthian.
So it's an invention.
We were on the side facing the Colosseum.
It's likely that only those interior engaged columns
--or parts of those--are original.
Right. In fact, this was heavily restored.
And you have to be very careful
because most of what you see when you look at this arch is not original.
But it does give us some idea of
what a triumphal arch looked like and felt like and its scale.
On the inside, we have two important relief sculptures
showing on one side the Roman army
taking the spoils from the temple in Jerusalem.
Specifically, including the menorah,
which is really prominently displayed,
both as booty and as a symbol of Rome's victory.
Let's go look at that more closely.
So they're carrying the menorah
on their shoulders in a parade--in a procession--
and they're entering into actually an arch
very much in the long tradition of triumphal processions
where the booty, the spoils, and the slaves
that are being brought from a conquered nation
are brought to the city of Rome,
for public display, for public humiliation,
and as a way of expressing Rome's power.
In terms of its style,
it represents a remarkable sense of naturalism.
to the figures, the way the drapery clings to their bodies
and shows the form of their bodies
and there's an interesting movement and also space.
Because the figures that are further away from us are represented in low relief,
while the figures that are closer to us are represented in high relief.
Their bodies really push out of the wall.
They're getting close to being free-standing figures.
And as the figures move through that arch
on the far right going back into space.
And so, there is a remarkable realism, here,
in the treatment of the body and in the treatment of space
and it's a good contrast for what's going to happen
when we get later in the Arch of Constantine
where we saw the actual figures that date from the Arch of Constantine,
not the stuff Constantine put there from other monuments,
but the things that date from the 4th century,
where the figures are represented out of proportion
with sort of large heads,
and where the draperies are represented in a linear way.
Here the drapery looks really three-dimensional
and forms itself around the body.
It's interesting that the arch itself is facing the Colosseum,
which was in large part founded by the mighty
that came into Rome as a result of the sack of Jerusalem.
That's right. And so, on the other side,
we see the Emperor in a chariot,
being pulled by a team of horses.
Again, in that very naturalistic style.
I mean the figures stand in lovely contrapposto,
some of them are nude or partially nude,
and horses look very natural and are moving.
But, there is a real sense of heroism through all of the men.
You are right there is a wonderful sense of rhythm--
the rhythm is represented not only by the four horses pulling the chariot,
which would actually often be represented in bronze
on top of these triumphal arches,
but also, the rhythm as constructed by the spears that rise above the crowd.
It's really creating a wonderful kind of visual rhythm
that moves across that space.
And that's echoed actually quite beautifully
by the legs of the horses below.
So that you have this sort of middle band
that's quite dense with the bodies of the horses and the bodies of the men.
Then, above that, a series of visual rhythms.
So, we're seeing something that looks as though
it's happening in front of us at this moment. Right?
The emperor's passing through,
the emperor's leading the procession.
So there's a real sense of the momentary.
It's true, but what's interesting is
by the time this arch is being built by Titus's brother,
Titus had already been deified,
and so he was already a god
and had that special significance--that special power.
And we do have a kind of mixture of the real and the unreal
because we have an allegorical figure of victory.
Waving victory right behind the emperor in the chariot.
So we have this mixture of the real and the allegorical,
and there are two of Titus.
[Piano music playing again]

Learn more about this work of art in context at smarthistory.khanacademy.org

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