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The prominent English historian Edward Gibbon mentioned in his book “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, which he wrote in 1776, a number of reasons that led to the fall of the empire, on top of which was the corruption of political, economic, military and other social institutions. Common in the “barbarian invasions”, along with the incompetence of the rulers, the deterioration of the condition of the population and the decline in its number.
Gibbon notes that this collapse occurred over a period of 4 centuries, culminating in the final decline of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century AD.
Gibbon states in Chapter 33 of his book that “the story of its downfall is simple and clear, and instead of inquiring as to why the Roman Empire fell, we should be surprised that it survived for so long. The victorious legions, which contained outsiders and mercenaries, first suppressed the liberty of the Republic, and then violated its majesty.” The monarchy. The emperors, who were anxious for their own safety and public safety, turned out to be the principal means responsible for subverting order. The power of the military government was weakened, and finally dissolved by the partial institutions of Constantine, and the Roman world was awash in a sea of barbarians.”
This dramatic fall full of events and lessons was a source of inspiration for many painters who presented successive chapters of the fall into paintings. One of these was Vincenzo Camoccini, an Italian painter of neoclassical history and religious painting from 1771-1844 who was the foremost academic painter of his time in Rome.
The beginning of the end.. the assassination of Julius Caesar
Camuccini painted his famous painting The Death of Julius Caesar in 1806. It is a dynamic theatrical performance full of movement, where the enemies of Caesar gather around him after they agreed to assassinate him, and they intended to stab each one of them with a stab so that his blood dispersed between them and there is no direct official whose stab was the cause of death .
Caesar received 26 stab wounds from 26 daggers and knives at that time, but the harshest of them was the one he received from his close friend “Brutus”, who considered him as a little brother to him. Julius Caesar expresses his shock in his traveling companion, saying his famous phrase “Even you, Brutus?”
This was the beginning of the end, as the killing of Julius Caesar, in 44 BC, led to the “civil liberators” war that broke out between Caesar’s killers and the avengers of his death, which led to the division of the empire in two until its final fall four centuries later.
In Camuccini’s painting, Julius Caesar nearly falls to the ground after being stabbed. Camoccini also used the colors of the clothes and the quality of the fabrics to serve the main theme of the work, which is killing that requires a lot of movement and dynamism. Clothes fold and fly and move with the intensification of events. There is also a commitment to Roman décor exemplified by the whiteness of marble and the spaciousness of the space.
Empire Path
In his famous series “The Course of Empire”, painted from 1833 to 1836, the American painter Thomas Cole (1801-1848) presented the path the Roman Empire took in 5 paintings from Rise to Fall with a sense of imagination.
The reason for that fantasy is that Cole had another purpose in the series. He wanted to emphasize that the American pastoral life represented the culmination of glory and the ideal life. As for imperialist policies, they inevitably lead to decadence and decadence, and the United States must avoid the Roman track so as not to end in the same way.
The sequence of titles itself gives a clear message to American society, as Cole begins the series with “The Savage State”, a reference to the imperial policies of the Roman Empire that led to its eventual demise. Then comes the painting “The Pastoral State”, a reference to what life should really be like in the lap of nature.
Depicted in the third panel is the “completion of the empire”, a modern urban society for the pastoral found in the second panel.
Marble buildings with tall pillars dominate the canvas, and people fill the streets celebrating a general’s victory in a battle fought by Rome at the height of its glory on a bright summer’s day.
Nevertheless, Cole gives the impression that this glory, which is at its zenith, foretells of its demise. Water covers parts of the buildings and the staircase that spreads along the banks of the river, and soon that strong modern society will be submerged and withered, says Cole.
“This scene depicts the pinnacle of human glory. Architecture, ornaments, adornment, etc. show that wealth, power, knowledge, and taste have all worked together to show this civilizational achievement, the highest achievement of man, that humans conquer one another and nations are subjugated,” Cole says.
Destruction and decline
Cole presented in his painting “Destruction” one of the chapters of the decline of the empire, where the city is looted and destroyed by the “barbarian Germans” tribes who fought a war against the empire, which marginalized and oppressed them after they migrated to escape from their original country, which was also destroyed due to imperialist policy for the Caesars.
The painting shows a fleet of enemy warriors, having overthrown the city’s defenses and sailed across the river, preoccupied with pillaging the city, killing its inhabitants, and raping its women. The bridge over which the victorious march crossed in the previous painting was also broken, columns were shattered, and fires broke out in the upper floors of the palace on the river bank. Monuments built to celebrate the richness of civilization have also fallen horribly.
The final scene of destruction is also presented by the Spanish painter Ulpiano Chica (1860-1916) in a theatrical style in which he catches galloping horses in suspended motion. He used a cool color palette and mixed elements of impressionism and academia to depict the pandemonium that reigned in Rome that day.
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