The use of Aegean – Anatolian Marbles in the Architecture of Ancient Rome (original) (raw)
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Journal of Roman Archaeology, 2018
The debate on the relationships between Rome, Italy, and the Mediterranean world in the Archaic and mid-Republican periods remains very lively. Complementing the most recent discoveries and interpretations, I present two unknown mid-Republican documents from the Arx, the N summit of the Capitoline hill. Excavations for the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II brought to light after 1887 many walls and artifacts, which have been studied almost exclusively to produce archaeological maps or catalogues of objects. The structures sealed beneath the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli toward the end of the 13th c., rediscovered in the 1980s and surveyed by the present author since 2001, shed new light on a number of religious, historical, topographical, architectural and art-historical issues.
"Mythologische Prachtreliefs": Decorative Elements in Luxury Roman Housing
19th International Congress of Classical Archaeology (AIAC), Panel 6.2, Cologne/Bonn, 22-26 May , 2018
The production of “Mythologische Prachtreliefs”, large mythological marble reliefs, starts in the early Empire. This is a class of valuable and collectible materials, intended to decorate the walls of important state rooms, like the oeci, in luxurious suburban villae of the Roman aristocracy. The marble reliefs were placed in the middle zone (section) of the wall, in a way that allowed the viewer to enjoy mythological narratives and attested the status-symbol of the owner. The preciousness of marble, as a raw material, is undoubtedly an expression of wealth and social status. However, it may not have been the only reason to justify the choice of material. Indeed in antiquity the preference of precious materials, such as marble, in reliefs of mythological content, could have been more due to their durable nature, in order to immortalize the message of the subjects represented and to emphasize their importance. It could be assumed that the use of marble would have contributed to the actualization of the Greek myths semantic, stressing the symbolic significance of characters, scenes and allusions to contemporaneity, making the content message perpetually valid. An example of this is the well-known relief with the Sleeping Endymion of the Capitoline Museum in Rome, found on the Aventine, where it was reused as a decorative element in the Traian Decius Baths.
PROPONTICA, 2(4), 2024
Parion was one of the principal centers of the Roman province of Asia, and the remains of several public buildings adorned with intricate architectural decorations have been uncovered and partially explored. Among these structures are a theater, an odeon, and thermae, all dating to the Roman Empire. In addition to these edifices, other public buildings in the central part of Roman-era Parion remain undiscovered, raising im-portant questions about the organization of public space and the architectural character of the city’s core during the Early Empire. One of the most promising areas for further exploration is the “Agora” sector, bordered to the south by the odeon and to the north by the theater and thermae. This article offers an architectural and histori-cal analysis of the Corinthian order details found in this sector. The architectural elements discussed were un-covered during archaeological excavations conducted between 2015 and 2022 (Figs. 1-6). Although the availa-ble materials are insufficient to definitively identify the specific structures to which these decorative elements belonged, their forms, ornamentation, dimensions, and modules exhibit notable similarities to the architectural details of the southern façade of Hadrian’s Gate in Ephesus. This resemblance suggests a commonality in their architectural compositions and, by extension, the types of structures they adorned. Consequently, it is plausible to infer that these architectural elements were part of a portico associated with a building complex in the Agora. The design of this complex (or at least part of it) likely reflects Hadrian’s extensive building program in the Ro-man province of Asia.
M. Gwiazda, A. Poggio, and D. Wielgosz- Rondolino (eds), Marble in the Early Byzantine Eastern Mediterranean: Use, Aesthetics, and Social Significance (=Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 32/1). Warsaw: WUW., 2023
Late Antique Caesarea was a city of marble. Marble cargoes continued to arrive at the port after the 4th century AD as plain blocks, half-finished or finished products; these constituted a significant addition to the available Roman marble products, which were used as-is or recycled in streets, as well as private, public, and semi-public constructions. Large-scale sawing, cutting and carving took place in Late Antique Caesarea. Craftsmen were employed in producing opus sectile panels, in paving, veneering, and carving architectural members, champlevé reliefs and lattice screen panels, and in mounting all marble products comprising the exterior and interior decoration of each complex. In all structures marble was used for similar purposes, although each was unique in terms of quantity, quality, and diversity of the material. The examples discussed show that at every stage of the city's existence the Caesareans were familiar with the most up-to-date fashions and were no less innovative than their counterparts in the region and beyond. The aesthetic principle of varietas, which became fashionable in Late Antiquity and was adopted by the Caesareans, found its way from the public to the private and semi-public spheres, and is manifested in most, if not all, of the complexes discussed in this paper.
ANCIENT ROMAN ARCHITECTURE ROMAN BUILDING TYPES
The diversity of Roman institutions required a wide range of specialized buildings, some religious, others secular. There were commercial, domestic and recreational buildings; some were for entertainment and others purely utilitarian; there were honorific buildings such as triumphal arches, and of course a wide range of military and defensive buildings. Many of these buildings had already achieved what might be termed their orthodox form by the time of Augustus. Others, notably baths, still had a good deal of development ahead of them. Some buildings, such as temples and basilicas, remained relatively unchanged in their layout after the time of Augustus, although in the late Empire they occasionally appeared in a striking new form. For example, Hadrian's Pantheon was a breathtakingly original version of a Roman temple. Some buildings were affected by fashion or the economic climate. For example, houses were radically modified because of changing economic conditions in Roman towns, and high-rise apartment blocks began to take the place of the old domus during the early Empire. Buildings such as amphitheaters and circuses were steadily improved as time went on. For example the spina of the circus was angled to allow more space for the chariots at the crucial beginning of the race, and amphitheaters began to be equipped with a complex underground system of cells, which allowed a large number of animals to appear in the arena simultaneously, thus increasing the tempo of the spectacle. While all these changes were going on, the Emperors themselves were planning their own great building programmes. It is easy to look at Roman architecture simply as a series of great imperial projects, but we must remember that the whole fabric of Roman architecture was at the same time undergoing a constant process of modification and change. All these factors combine to make Roman architecture the complex and intriguing subject it is. 1. THE COLOSSEUM The most famous, and most influential, of all amphitheaters in the roman world was the Flavian amphitheater in Rome, better known today as the Colosseum (Gabucci 2001; Lancaster 2005b; Welch 2007). This was a grand and monumental building of four stories, 52m high, standing on elliptical concrete foundations 12m deep. It was an astonishing feat of planning and engineering on an unprecedented scale. With outer dimensions of 188 x 156m and an arena measuring 80×54m. An estimated 100,000m 3 of travertine was used for the facade with 300 tons of iron to clamp the blocks together. An amazingly short construction time was made possible by the erection of a skeleton structure of travertine blocks that allowed many components to be worked on at the same time. A combination of materials was used: concrete, travertine, and tufa, which allowed architects to address the specific structural challenges inherent in its design. The vaulted substructures beneath the cavea comprised a series of passages, corridors, and staircases. The three outer arcades formed two outer, annular corridors 7m high covered by concrete barrel vaults. One further ring corridor closer to the arena was constructed of brick-faced concrete with a veneer of marble; this particularly grand passageway was used by those accessing the ringside seats set aside for the elite. These annular passages were intersected by the radial passages that accommodated staircases, superbly organized for ease and control of access.