The Augustus of Prima Porta statue
The Augustus of Prima Porta statue was unveiled for the first time in 1863. It is now on display in the Vatican Museum of History and Sculpture (Holliday, 2015). Viewing the bronze enlightens the viewer on traditional art and politics. It also resembles Doryphoros of Polykleitos due to its bronze skills, strong warrior stance, and agile feet. It depicts authority, military victories, and godlike characteristics, among other things. This is relevant to modern art, especially leadership and politics. Politicians, for example, are very analytical when it comes to posing photographs, particularly for wall portraits and campaign posters. An outline of an image carries in-depth information about an individual (Prusac, 2016). This behavior dates back to the ancient Roman where designers coupled art with politics to create propaganda. Additionally, when one takes a distant glimpse may confuse Augustus as a just a general speaker, but a closer view identifies him as a fanatic of the Roman religion. A viewer can also recognize that Augustus leadership was characterized by an extended period of peace due to the representation of power and love scribed in the sculpture. The sculpture also depicts that Augustus utilized imagery in articulating his principles. History has it that he served as the first emperor of the Roman Kingdom. Indeed, all his celebrated portraits evoke an early political propaganda.
Representation of the Golden Age
Augustus portrait stands in a Contrapposto pose. In light of this, the stance is asymmetrical in that there is a disparity in the balance between the placements of the upper body with that of the lower body (Gardner & Kleiner, 2015). The ancient art highly valued Contrapposto because of its ability to evoke emotional nature. Contrapposto also enabled an illustration of one's temperament and physical qualities. The Greece artists invested much time in developing forms of body sculpturing that would represent the entire human experience. In Augustus sculpture, his body is covered with military ceremonial objects. He outstretches his right hand, which is an indication that he is making a speech to his troops. This instills sense to the audience that the emperor is a military leader and army victor. The portrait also reflects the nature of other sculptures of the classical Greek. The primary resemblance is idealization and the contrapposto stance. Scholars argue that this illustration depict young and perfect leaders (Nici M.A, 2015). Most of the Roman art was based on their Greek ancestors, which is vivid in Augustus figurine. On the other hand, the sculpture has no signs of realism. As identified by academics, realism makes real representations free from artistic conventions and paranormal features (Cox, Jaskey, & Malik, 2015). To clarify, all Augustus' portraits describe him as young-looking, and none of them shows him at his late age. The picture is idealized to signify him in a youthful, masculine, Greek athletic body. As can be seen, Augustus statue relay characteristics of leadership in the Golden Age.
Cupid and Dolphin
His lower right arm has a figure of a dolphin carrying a cupid. This brings forward more eminence and victory in the young leader through symbolism. To illustrate, the dolphin represents his triumph in the Battle of Actium that made him a single leader of the realm. Likewise, he places a cupid on the dolphin to highlight that the deities sent him. Mythology has it that Venus was the mother of Cupid (Liberman, van Huesden, & Wah, 2015). Along similar lines, Julius Caesar—Augustus' surrogate father—claimed to have fallen from Venus and as a result, Augustus claimed Cupid affiliation.
Breastplate
Augustus dresses a breastplate concealed with information that expresses propagandistic information. Critics argue that the breastplate have more profound meaning contained in individual figures (Liberman, van Huesden, & Wah, 2015). However, the primary analysis outline that the ruler is a great conqueror as well as an initiator of peace and unity. The plate has illustrations of two figures who appear to be in strife. Analysts hold that the symbolism of one of the drawn individuals surrendering indicates Augustus conquests in 20 B.C.E. Deities and epitomes are placed around the center of the plate with the sun and the sky gods at the top. The plate applies feminine illustrations to represent countries conquered by Augustus. All the art in the plates reflects Pax Romana—a period popularly because of Augustus great peaceful leadership (Williams, 2014). An overarching message on the breastplate is that the sun shines harmony and fortune all through the Roman realm with Augustus being its initiator. Two principal divinities the middle lower section—Apollo and Diana—shows Augustus' love for the traditional Roman faith. Finally, the plate's bottom part portrays the earth deity holding two broods and wealth, which is a fortune of fertility and abundance.
Comparison with George Washington’s Statue
The overarching difference between Augustus of Primaporta with George Washington's statue by Jean-Antoine Houdon is the period and location of carving. Nevertheless, both use art to represent leadership and political power (Nici M.A, 2015). Another similarity is that both leaders gave guidelines and supervised the preparation of their physiques. The two effigies imitate contrapposto, a feature that strengthens their leadership appearance. On the other hand, Augustus is based on the ancient world while as George Washington's reflects the Neoclassical works. Their physical appearance highlights that Augustus centered more on military issues but Washington acknowledged himself as a civilian leader. As mentioned above, Augustus bronze had all qualities to convince audiences that the leader entirely focused on troops issues. In contrast, Washington's pose with a slight glimpse to his the left pinpoints a paternal figure. His dressing has no attire that insinuates any individual characteristic, which is an indication of neoclassical art (Gardner, & Kleiner, 2015). His posture—a relaxed man with a walking stick—infers that power needs to be supplemented with unity for a realm to succeed. He does not hold his sword in hand. Instead, he lets it hang on a pillar. This show that power should be transferred through appropriate methods. The entire Washington's representation has no single indicator of divine power. In conclusion, the effigy of Washington displays him both as a soldier and a civilian unlike that of Augustus that illustrate absolute military dominance. Besides, Washington based his authority on the will of the people while Augustus believed that power is gods given.
Conclusion
The Augustus of Primaporta is more than a mere portrait. It creates an insight of how the Romans used art in transmitting propaganda. Apart from being a monarch's statue, it articulates his link with his predecessors, affiliation with the deities, and his task of initiating peace in Rome. The Augustinian ideological movement brought a craze where ancient and astute physical appearances were perceived as signs of solemn charisma. Consequently, the Roman monarchs become tools of the administration's propaganda. This enthused Greeks on the style and symbol to use in depicting official sculptures. Given the above, Augustus figurine is an indicator of a sentient setback of iconography to the classical period—this period valued youths because they were signs of leadership. This age highly emulated heroes, and it had been concluded by Alexander the great. For that reason, Augustus statue was imperative in Roman politics since it depicted rulers as extraordinary figures who were capable of being upgraded to deities. In conclusion, the portraits endorsed an emperor as the perfect person to govern his subject.
References
Cox, C., Jaskey, J., & Malik, S. (2015). Realism Materialism Art. Sternberg Press/Center for Curatorial Studies Bard Collegeollege.
Gardner, H., & Kleiner, F. (2015). Gardner’s art through the ages (15th ed., p. 126-790). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Holliday, P. J. (2015). Roman Art and the State. A Companion to Roman Art, 195-213.
Liberman, M. A., van Huesden, B., & Wah, A. (2015). The use of imagery in politics. Group, 3(16).
Nici M.A, J. (2015). Barron’s AP Art History (p. 135). Hauppauge, NY: Barron’s Educational Series.
Prusac, M. (2016). From face to face (2nd ed., p. 110). Leiden: BRILL.
Williams, G. (2014). Augustus and the Visionary Leadership of Pax Romana. Saber and Scroll, 3(1), 8.
