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Roman Art Timeline

(509 BCE–476 CE)

Roman Art encompasses the sculpture, architecture, painting, mosaics, and decorative arts produced in the Roman world, blending Greek influence with practical innovation and imperial propaganda. Less

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Painting and murals

Polygnotos becomes known for wall murals

500 BC - 401 BC

Polygnotos was one of the best-known Greek painters of the mid-5th century BC. His reputation rested particularly on large wall murals.

Greek artists dominate mid-fifth-century painting

500 BC - 401 BC

In the mid-5th century BC, the most famous Greek artists included Polygnotos, who was noted for wall murals, and Apollodoros, identified as the originator of chiaroscuro.

Image source: Ancient Greek art

Greek artists dominate mid-fifth-century painting

Apollodoros develops chiaroscuro

500 BC - 401 BC

Apollodoros was remembered as the originator of chiaroscuro, the use of contrasting light and darkness to suggest volume and depth in painting.

Triumphal painting emerges

300 BC - 201 BC

From the 3rd century BC, a specific genre known as Triumphal Paintings appeared. Pliny the Elder referred to this genre in Natural History, book 35, section 22.

Early triumphal tomb painting is created

300 BC - 201 BC

A surviving painting described as being in the infancy of triumphal painting was probably completed by the beginning of the 3rd century BC to decorate a tomb.

Pompeii wall painting flourishes

100 BC - 79 AD

The wall paintings of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and nearby sites form the best-known and most important surviving group of Roman painting. They show how residents of wealthy seaside resorts decorated their homes in the century or so before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.

Herculaneum wall paintings survive

100 BC - 79 AD

Herculaneum and other sites near Pompeii preserve important Roman wall paintings. These works document domestic decoration in wealthy seaside communities before the fatal eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Augustus’s house receives murals

1 AD - 99 AD

Murals from a house identified with the emperor Augustus date to the beginning of the 1st century AD and provide evidence for elite Roman domestic painting.

Livia’s house receives murals

1 AD - 99 AD

Murals associated with the house of Augustus’s wife Livia date to the beginning of the 1st century AD. They represent an important surviving example of imperial-period domestic decoration.

Mount Vesuvius preserves domestic decoration

79 AD

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 preserved paintings from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and nearby settlements, creating an unusually detailed record of Roman interior decoration.

Catacomb painting reaches its end

200 - 400 AD

Painting in the Catacombs of Rome continued until about AD 400. The decoration adapted domestic traditions for use in burial chambers and probably served a humbler social milieu than the grandest Pompeian houses.

Catacomb painting begins

200 - 299

Starting in the 3rd century AD, a large body of paintings was produced in the Catacombs of Rome. The paintings were not all Christian and continued aspects of domestic decorative practice.

Mosaics

Palestrina Nile mosaic is created

200 BC - 101 BC

The late 2nd-century BC Nile mosaic of Palestrina is a very large example of the popular Nilotic landscape genre. It depicts an imagined Nile environment in an elaborate mosaic composition.

Image source: Nile mosaic of Palestrina

Palestrina Nile mosaic is created

Roman floor mosaic remains a minor art

100 BC - 399

Roman mosaic was generally a minor art, although it could be produced on a very large scale. Before the late period, it was used mainly for floors, curved ceilings, and walls exposed to moisture.

Image source: Roman mosaic

Roman floor mosaic remains a minor art

Gold tesserae enter Roman mosaics

1 AD - 99 AD

The same gold-working technique began to be used for gold tesserae in mosaics in Rome in the mid-1st century. These small pieces enabled reflective golden surfaces in mosaic decoration.

Late Christians expand mosaic imagery

300 - 399

At the very end of the Roman period, late-4th-century Christians began using mosaic for large religious images on the walls of newly built large churches.

Gladiator Mosaic is created

300 - 399

The 4th-century Gladiator Mosaic in Rome demonstrates the continued development of large-figure mosaic compositions, showing several large figures engaged in combat.

Gold backgrounds become standard in religious mosaics

400 - 499

By the 5th century, gold tesserae had become the standard background for religious mosaics. The reflective backgrounds became a defining feature of late Roman and early Christian monumental decoration.

Sculpture

Greek sculptors dominate Roman workshops

200 BC - 101 BC

By the 2nd century BC, most sculptors working in Rome were Greek. Many had been enslaved during Roman conquests, including the conquest of Corinth in 146 BC.

Image source: Roman sculpture

Greek sculptors dominate Roman workshops

Greek sculptors remain mostly enslaved

146 BC - 1 BC

After the conquest of Corinth in 146 BC, sculptors in Rome continued to be mostly Greek and often enslaved. Their names were very rarely recorded.

Survival of Roman sculpture begins

100 BC - 1 BC

A very large body of Roman sculpture survives from about the 1st century BC onward, although very little remains from earlier periods. The surviving works provide much of the evidence for the development of Roman sculptural art.

The late second-century sculptural baroque develops

100 - 199

Roman sculpture passed through a late 2nd-century baroque phase. This phase formed part of the stylistic changes that preceded the major transformation of Roman art in the 3rd century.

Classical sculptural tradition declines

200 - 299

In the 3rd century, Roman art largely abandoned, or may simply have become unable to produce, sculpture in the classical tradition. The causes of this change remain much discussed.

Imperial statues become the main large sculptures

300 - 499

After large religious sculpture declined, large statues were used mainly for emperors. Important examples include fragments of the colossal acrolithic statue of Constantine and the 4th- or 5th-century Colossus of Barletta.

Christian adoption changes large religious sculpture

300 - 499

The revolution in sculptural style shortly preceded the period when Christianity was adopted by the Roman state and the majority of the population. This development contributed to the end of large religious sculpture.

Glass and late antiquity

Gold glass technique is revived

200 - 299

Gold glass, or gold sandwich glass, was a technique developed in Hellenistic glass and revived in the 3rd century AD. It fixed a layer of gold leaf with a design between two fused layers of glass.

Gold-glass portraits are produced

200 - 299

A group of 14 gold-glass pieces dating to the 3rd century AD consists of individualized secular portraits of high quality. The group demonstrates the technique’s capacity for refined portraiture.

Gold-glass portrait designs receive added paint

200 - 299

A very few large gold-glass designs survive, including a fine group of 3rd-century portraits with added paint. These are distinct from the much more numerous small funerary roundels.

Gold-glass funerary roundels become common

300 - 499

Most of roughly 500 surviving gold-glass pieces are roundels, the cut-off bottoms of wine cups or glasses. They were used to mark and decorate graves in the Catacombs of Rome by being pressed into mortar.

Gold-glass survivals predominantly date later

300 - 499

The majority of surviving gold-glass objects predominantly date from the 4th and 5th centuries. Their funerary use makes them an important source for late Roman visual culture.

Roman artisans move east after the sack

400 - 499

When Rome was sacked in the 5th century, artisans moved to and found work in the Eastern capital. This movement helped transmit Roman artistic skills toward the eastern Mediterranean.

Image source: Sack of Rome (410)

Roman artisans move east after the sack

Key Facts

  1. Roman artists adapted and expanded Greek artistic traditions, especially in sculpture, architecture, and mythology.
  2. Portrait sculpture valued realism and often emphasized age, experience, authority, and distinctive individual features.
  3. Roman architecture introduced major innovations, including the widespread use of concrete, arches, vaults, domes, and monumental public spaces.
  4. Wall paintings and mosaics decorated homes, villas, temples, and public buildings, depicting myths, landscapes, daily life, and geometric patterns.
  5. Art served political and social purposes by celebrating emperors, military victories, religious beliefs, civic identity, and the power of the Roman state.

Source

This Roman Art timeline was generated with the help of AI, using information found on the internet.

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