Augustus

Relation to the Reading; This statue of Augustus relates to the passage “Life of Augustus” as whilst the statue tries to make Augustus perfect and somewhat divine, the passage talks about Augustus' personal life, passions, worries, and hobbies, humanizing a man that was often displayed as more than just a man. Examples of the passage doing this is when it states, “(Augustus) was fond of dice and playing at them even in his carriage as he traveled, for the sake of amusement, and not out of any desire for gain.” (Suetonius) In this passage, it talks about one of Augustus' many hobbies, being games of dice, which humanizes him by making him more relatable to us, as we also have hobbies, and lowers his status as a divine-figure.

Style; In the style of this piece, we see that the sculpture was using the classical style of Roman art: He shows Proportion with his perfectly sculpted muscles and realistically sized limbs compared to the rest of his body. The sculpture used Symmetry aswell, having an arm and a leg on both sides of his body, but also having cupid sitting near the lower end of the left side of the statue, with the space on the opposite side of Augustus being filled with the lacerna hanging down by his waist. His face also has perfect bilateral symmetry, showing how beautiful he was. Economy is used by having this statue being sculpted out of expensive marble, showing how important he was to Rome by getting all of this expensive material used for his likeness. This statue shows Propriety by serving as a type of propaganda, showing a beautiful and godlike emporer stand above you would increase the peoples revere of Augustus and increase peoples belief in the strength of the Roman government. The statue shows Order by keeping the statue a very similar color, not overwhelming the eyes. It also seperates all of the very detailed pieces from each other; the chestplate covers his entire chest with nothing else fighting for space, the lacerna is on his waist alone aswell, cupid is by his foot alone, etc. In this statue, Augustus is being idealized, making himself seem forever young and immensely beautiful. We see this in his age, as he was near 60 years old when this statue was being sculpted, yet in it he is depicted as his physical prime, which assumingly would be closer to his 20s than 60. His face is also perfectly symmetrical, despite sources claiming that he had many assymetrical features along his body.

Subject; The piece displayed here is a statue of Augustus, a Roman emporer that was loved by his people and often held up as a godlike figure, helped further by being adopted by Emporer Julius Ceasar, who claimed to have family-ties to the divine. We see Augustus gesture out infront of him, as if he was directing a group of people with commands. This is meant to show that Augustus was a strong commander and leader in the military before his emporership. In this artwork, we see that Augustus is in a chestplate with a scene engraved into it. In this scene, the god Sol, the Roman god of the sun that represents stability, is watching a Parthian hand a Roman soldier the Roman Standard back to them (the scepter with the hawk on top). Under the soldiers, there lays the goddess of fertility and abundance, Teles, watching them while holding a cornucopia, which is one of her symbols in Roman art. These symbols are very important, as the Parthian handing back the Roman Standard represents the restoration of glory to Rome after their previous losses against the Parthians, such as the Battle of Carrhae. The handing back of the Roman Standard also helps show their power in their military efforts. Aside from the chestplate, Augustus is also depicted wearing a lacerna, a robe that only given to senators of the nation, showing Augustus' political power. Additionally, Augustus is shown standing with Cupid by his side. This is meant to show his relation to divinity, as Cupid is the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Augustus was glorified by his followers and apart of the Ceasar lineage after his adoption.