Roman art refers to the visual arts made in
Ancient Rome and in the territories of the
Roman Empire. Roman art includes
architecture,
painting,
sculpture and
mosaic work. Luxury objects in
metal-work,
gem engraving,
ivory carvings, and
glass, are sometimes considered in modern terms to be minor forms of Roman art, although this would not necessarily have been the case for contemporaries. Sculpture was perhaps considered as the highest form of art by Romans, but figure painting was also very highly regarded. The two forms have had very contrasting rates of survival, with a very large body of sculpture surviving from about the 1st century BC onwards, though very little from before, but very little painting at all remains, and probably nothing that a contemporary would have considered to be of the highest quality.