Western Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Western Art - Essay Example The Etruscan civilization, on its peak, In the sixth and the seventh centuries, produced great works of art that Although deeply influenced by the Greek culture, conserved its distinctive identity. According to roman writers, the Etruscans were master of architectural engineering town planning and surveying, they taught Romans how to build fortifications, drainage systems and bridges. They also founded, using grids, many cities in Rome. Among the monuments that survived from this civilization we can cite, the temple of Jupiter, Juno and Minerva on the Capitoline hill. By 200 B.C., due to its successive military victory, Rome became at the forefront of the western world. Greece, although militarily defeated, determined the shape of the republic Romes cultural life with the achievements of its philosophers, mathematicians and sculptors. Architecture surpassed its political and ritual functions to extend to urban architecture as this period witnessed the construction of several offices, bridges, streets,, etc. The most important monuments built in this period are the Fortuna Virilis temple, the theater of Marcellus and the temple of Vesta. In the beginning of the Empire, roman architecture was the reflection of political life. Caesar ordered the reconstruction of old republican basilicas like the Basilica Julia, the Basilica Sempronia and the Basilica Aemilia as well as the construction of temples like the temple of Castor and Pollux, the temple of Divus Jiulus, the temple of Concord and most importantly the triumphal arc. Constantine, being the fir st Christian emperor, founded churches like the church of the Nativity, Bethlehem and the church of Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem and the original St. Peter in Rome as well as the church of San Giovanni in Laterano. "Between the fifth and ninth centuries, with major building projects in Western Europe almost at a standhill, architectural development was left to Byzantium which remained economically