Colosseum
Title
Colosseum
Alternative Title or Name
Flavian ampitheater
Creator2
Aluzzo, Adrienne (photographer)
Work Type
Single Built Works
Date
c. 80 AD
Work Location
Italy (nation)
Rome (inhabited place)
Style/Period
Imperial (Roman)
Flavian
Subject
Colosseum (Rome, Italy)
amphitheaters (built works)
arches
Description
Exterior view of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy showing arches and partially dismantled structure. "The Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheater was begun by Vespasian, inaugurated by Titus in 80 A.D. and completed by Domitian, located on marshy land between the Esquiline and Caelian Hills, it was the first permanent amphitheater to be built in Rome, its monumental size and grandeur as well as its practical and efficient organization for producing spectacles and controlling the large crowds make it one of the great architectural monuments achieved by the ancient Romans, the amphitheater is a vast ellipse with tiers of seating for 50,000 spectators around a central elliptical arena, below the wooden arena floor, there was a complex set of rooms and passageways for wild beasts and other provisions for staging the spectacles, eighty walls radiate from the arena and support vaults for passageways, stairways and the tiers of seats, at the outer edge circumferential arcades link each level and the stairways between levels, the three tiers of arcades are faced by three-quarter columns and entablatures, Doric in the first story, Ionic in the second, and Corinthian in the third, above them is an attic story with Corinthian pilasters and small square window openings in alternate bays, at the top brackets and sockets carry the masts from which the velarium, a canopy for shade, was suspended, the construction utilized a careful combination of types: concrete for the foundations, travertine for the piers and arcades, tufa infill between piers for the walls of the lower two levels, and brick-faced concrete used for the upper levels and for most of the vaults," from The Architecture Week's Great Buildings Collection website.
Material/Medium
concrete
Measurements
615 ft x 510 feet (ellipse); 158 feet tall
Reproduction Type
digital photograph
Reproduction Source
jpeg
Copyright Statement
(c) 2013 Lawrence Technological University. All images associated with the LTU Digital Collection are protected by United States copyright law. Duplication or sale of all or part of any of the data or images is not permitted without consent of the copyright holder.
ID Number
2013ita066
- Date Added
- June 4, 2013
- Collection
- LTU Digital Images
- Item Type
- VRA Core
- Tags
- Colosseum, Rome
- Citation
- “Colosseum,” LTU Digital Images, accessed March 29, 2024, https://ltuimagecollection.omeka.net/items/show/10.