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The political, economic and social conditions, which accompanied the Roman understanding of empire, also influenced the interpretation of art. Urbanism in the Roman provinces of the Eastern Mediterranean blended with older local traditions. The result was a harmonization of architectural and sculptural arts. In the grandiose statuary which decorated the monumental structures, mythological figures, powerful administrators, members of rich and ruling classes were all commemorated. On all these objects it is possible to observe a high level of life-like realism.
Some of the objects in this hall are not from Anatolia, that is to say, they were not found in the boundaries ont modern Turkey. They came from areas which were under the Ottomans during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries when the objects were discovered. These regions had been under the control of the Romans from the birth of Christ until the 4th century A.D. Later they then fell to the sovereignty of the Ottomans for long years. When the first archeological museum was established in Istanbul, the governors of these lands were asked to send antiquities in Istanbul. Thus there are some stone objects from the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans. |
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