Roman Republican art is the artistic production that took place in Roman territory during the period of the Republic, conventionally from 509 BC to 27 BC.
The military, political and economic development of the Roman Republic did not coincide with the development of an autonomous artistic civilization. In the Republican period at least three artistic moments can be distinguished: the first as a continuation of archaic culture, where production in the city did not manifest any stylistic characteristic of its own; a second linked to the conquest of Greece and the arrival of huge spoils of works of art; and a third phase starting during the reign of Sulla, when specifically Roman artworks began to appear.
Beginnings of artistry
509 BC traditionally marks the expulsion of the Etruscan kings and the beginning of the Republic. Artistic production remained influenced by Etruscan culture, as well as from the Greek cities of Campania. Until 390 BC, Rome was a single city in central Italy benefited from a position that favored commercial transit. With the retreat of the Etruscans from Campania after the Battle of Cumae, the commercial traffic weakened and the city was forced to expand its territory. From 390 to 265 BC, the Romans managed to conquer sub-Apennine Italy.
Religious activity in Rome at that time was intense and many temples were constructed. Each had its own statues, mostly bronze, which decorated the city. Some references on the coins and on contemporary finds of Tarquinia, Chiusi, Perugia, and Volterra allow us to make hypotheses on the appearance of these statues. They represented practical art placed for the purposes of storytelling or modest decoration.
This scarcity of artistic interest is well justified by the framework of the Roman mentality, intended as an expression of a population used to fighting against nature, poverty and neighboring populations. The Roman patrician was typically a tough, violent and tenacious man, forged by fatigue, having practical and immediate interests. They generally disregarded anything that did not bring immediate utility. In the second century BC, for example, the Senate arranged for the demolition of a newly constructed stone theater "as a useless and harmful thing to our customs".
A unique example of sculpture of superior production and craftsmanship is the Capitoline Brutus, the object of numerous dating hypotheses ranging from the 4th to the 1st century BC. The strong, expressive composition distances it from Greek and Etruscan art, indicating an evolution of Italian style.
Spoils of war
In 280 BC, the army of Pyrrhus of Epirus clashed with the Romans in Italy, the first large direct contact between Romans and Greek people. This was followed in 272 BC by the capture of Taranto, the capture of Reggio in 270 BC, and the league with Syracuse during the first Punic war (264 - 241 BC). The admission of the Romans to the Isthmian Games in 228 BC was equivalent to the entry of Rome into Greek civilization.
The capture of Syracuse in 212 BC was decisive, following which Marcus Claudius Marcellus brought back a huge number of Greek works of art to Rome. This marked a turning point in Roman culture and artistic practice. Even then there were those who reproached Marcellus "for having filled with idleness and chatter and for having led to urban discussion of art and artists [...] those people accustomed to fighting and cultivating the fields, avoiding any softness and frivolity.".
Subsequently, after the Battle of Zama in 202 BC, Rome would cement itself as a powerful force in the Mediterranean leading to opportunities to import Greek art that were continuous and frequent. This includes the victory against Philip V of Macedonia (194 BC), the war against Antiochus III, the capture of Magnesia ad Sipylum in Asia Minor (198 BC), the victory over Perseus of Macedon, and the capture of Corinth (146 BC). This also marked the arrival of architects in Rome such as Hermodorus of Salamis and sculptors such as Polycles. While the admiration for Greek works was vast, the understanding of the artistic and historical value of these works remained a rare prerogative of the city's elite.
In less than a century, Rome was home to a large group of wealthy art collectors. They themselves, as Cicero testifies in the Verrine, had a certain modesty in publicly confessing their appreciation for art, knowing that society viewed it negatively. Many frowned upon the implied superiority of Greek culture. The controversy on the subject focused on contrasting positions of the Scipionic Circle, open to Hellenic cultural suggestions, and the conservatism of Cato and his followers.