Arch Of Titus

The Roman empire was a period of various political and historical victories. One of those victories is the capturing of Jerusalem. Titus Vespasianus Augustus, born in Dec. 30, 39 ce—died Sept. 13, 81 ce, eldest son of once Roman emperor Vespasian, succeeded in conquering the city of Jerusalem in seventy CE (Titus, 2016). To commemorate this significant victory, his brother, Domitian, orchestrated the construction of the arch as a tribute. This arch is still standing today and is called the Arch of Titus. It resides on the Velia, which is on top of the Via Sacra (Becker, n.d). This paper will analyze the Arch of Titus in its historical and artistic context. When people come to face the Arch of Titus, they are met with the inscription “SENATVS
The Arch of Titus was built from marble and could be considered as a relatively small arch. It is very poorly reserved and is broken in several areas and has many holes. On the outer walls of the arch, it is mostly empty. However, on the front of the arch, right above the passageway, there are several compact, interesting relief sculptures. In the middle, there is a small sculpture of a man attached to a protruding shape. On the left and right of the man, there are two angelic figures that have wings. The angel on the right has a hand extended towards the man as if the angel is reaching for him. The angel on the left is also reaching, but seems to be holding an object, although it is unclear what the object is. Above the sculpture, there are a series of small side by side sculpture of standing figures (could be soldiers). Alongside the
Before entering the passage way, your eyes are drawn towards the figure on top of the arch entrance. This most probably indicates that the figure is someone of importance, possibly Titus. The reliefs on the walls of the passageway both seem to have a theme of action and procession, in that they both look like they are moving towards or away from something. This theme seems to be recurring in Roman dedicatory art. For example, a relief in the temple of Apollo Sosianus exhibits the same theme. Franz Wickhoff, an Austrian art historian, was able to distinguish between the Roman and Greek approach as a result of the illusionistic style of the sculptures (Strong, 1976). Moreover, the theme of emphasizing on the triumphator is seen over and over again in Roman art. For instance, the same style appears in the Gemma Augustea and Boscoreale cups from the late first century (Ramage & Ramage,