Experiencing Art in the Saepta: Greek Artworks in a Monumental Space of Ancient Rome (original) (raw)

Monumental complexes in ancient Rome were decorated with different sorts of artworks. Many of them were Greek artists’ works transported to Rome and displayed in a new context. The arrival of Greek artworks started from the 3rd century BC, thus Greek artistic language and Greek imagery became increasingly important in the public spaces of the Urbs. The use and function of Greek images and artworks in ancient Rome has raised many questions about their role in the Urbs, their interaction with its inhabitants, and the criteria for their choice and placement in architectural settings. Such an investigation requires assembling the widest range of sources and methodologies. On the one hand, the cityscape of Rome was continuously transformed because of the building activity of personalities such as generals and emperors or catastrophes such as fires. On the other, the functions of the urban spaces and the way in which people populated those spaces changed throughout the centuries. Consistently, in the last years archaeology has under- gone a specific turn to “multi-sensorial, experiential modes of engaging with the world” that impacted also the study of ancient Rome and other particularly well-documented cities such as Pompeii and Ostia. Taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch, as well as movement, constitute the new frontier for a well-rounded and comprehensive analysis of the ancient world 3. It emerges that the complex relationship between the artworks displayed in ancient Rome, architectural settings and people imbued in the artworks themselves a mutable role and meaning. This paper will take into consideration a precise case study, the Saepta Iulia or, simply, Saepta, a monumental complex in the central section of the Campus Martius. The original func- tion of the Saepta was to host the voting assemblies (the comitia centuriata and later also the comitia tributa), but the purposes of this space enlarged and changed throughout the centuries. --- "Experiencing Art in the Saepta: Greek Artworks in a Monumental Space of Ancient Rome", in G. Adornato – I.B. Romano – G. Cirucci – A. Poggio (eds.), "Restaging Greek Artworks in Roman Times. With an Afterword by C.H. Hallett" (Archeologia e Arte antica), LED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto, Milano, 2018, p. 191-208. ISBN 978-88-7916-832-8. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7359/832-2018-pogg