It is true that ancient Roman artists borrowed freely from their Greek neighbors. But the Romans did develop their own styles in art. One example of Roman artistic innovation dating to the Republican Period is the portrait sculpture.

The difference between Greek and Roman artistic temperament is revealed in a comparison of the sculpture created by each culture. While the Greeks were content to idealize their images, the Romans often preferred depictions in stone and bronze that emphasized the reality of the person being portrayed. There are many portraits from the Roman Republican period that show real people represented with life-like clarity. To such an extent was this realism taken that one is tempted to muse that nothing escaped the insightful eye of the Roman sculptor - the subject appears literally "with warts and all" in many cases.