Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/243

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.Roman Sculpt&ee. 213 Agrippina, Drusus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Livia, and Augustus. To the same period belong two marble reliefs found in S. Vitale, Ravenna, one of which represented a bull being led to sacrifice by six men wearing garlands; and the other figures of Augustus, Livia, and Tiberius. To the custom which prevailed in Rome of erecting monuments in memory of victories we owe many very beautiful statues and bas-reliefs. Of this class were the fourteen statues of subject tribes, by the Roman sculptor Coponius, in the portico of Pompey's theatre, which were life-like portraits of barbarians, accurately rendering their strongly-marked features, and the tragic sadness of their expressions. The altar erected in honour of Augustus at Lyons was adorned with sixty figures of Gauls. Second Period, A.D. 14 to a.d. 138. The emperors who succeeded Augustus did much to encourage the new Roman school of sculpture. Under their rule sculpture was largely employed as an accessory to architecture in the magnificent buildings everywhere erected, and the art of portraiture was carried to the greatest perfection. The most finished technical skill was displayed in the cutting of marble and precious stones, and the working of all kinds of metal, but this mechanical proficiency very inadequately atoned for the simultaneous decline of the Greek school — the school of ideal concep- tions and unfettered freedom of imagination. After a long period, during which nothing of any great artistic value was produced, a partially successful attempt was made by Hadrian to revive Greek art ; but the cold