DECORATION HOUSE AND ITS OF ROMAN SCULPTURE

DECORATION HOUSE AND ITS OF ROMAN SCULPTURE

In Roman times, the difference in decoration between a modest dwelling in a secondary town such as Pompeii and Hadrian’s sumptuous villa at Tivoli was as great as that between a council flat and Buckingham Palace in out own. In both cases, sculpture was an important clement but, whereas humble folk made do with mass-produced reproductions of famous works or souvenirs brought back from their travels, the rich, in laying out their residences and gardens, bought reproductions of statues by the great masters of the past or commissioned works from contemporary artists. From discoveries made at Pompeii, it is evident that terracotta statuettes, for votive or commemorative purposes, were a common feature, and that houses s4crc more or less richly decorated with mural paintings. At the other end of the scale, palaces and the bigger villae were richly adorned with sculpture and, in particular, statuary. For instance, the famous statue of Augustus wearing a breastplate, the so-called Augustus of Prima Pqrta, now housed in the Vatican Museum, came from the suburban villa of Livia ad gallinas albas on the Via Flaminia. Why the wealthy made the choices they did is still something of a mystery. For example, a former villa urbana in the gardens of San Lorenzo in Panisperna, in Rome, housed a monumental statue of the Greek hero Pandion, dating from the first century BC, the base of which was discovered in 1888: we have no idea what Pandion once meant to the owner of this house. More common are statues of Ariadne, the Maenads or the Muses, which may have been intended to represent female members of the family

Private houses in Roman Italy were traditionally organized in insulae (blocks), with rooms arranged around a central rectangular courtyard (atrium), open to the sky. The homes of the wealthy incorporated a peristyle (courtyard surrounded by a colonnade) of Hellenistic inspiration. This type of layout was more popular in the

provinces, in particular for out-of-town villae. Buildings of this kind, which might be the centre of a farm or the country residence of rich city—dwellers, were often quite extensive. Aristocratic residences of this type have been discovered throughout the wider Roman world, in Britain (Fishbourne, Chedworth), Germany (Nennig), south-west Gaul (Montmaurin, Seviac), Spain (Pedros dc la Vega), and North Africa — where the magnificent mosaics of Tabarka show an arcaded gallery flanked by towers — as well as Italy (Settefinestre, Piazza Armerina). Monumental symmetry and an axial arrangement arc characteristic of many of these building complexes. As at Piazza Armerina, they tend to be subtle combinations of curved and rectilinear structures, laid out in accordance with the contours of the site. All are luxurious in the extreme. In most cases, the richness of their architectural decoration has been underestimated. But fragments of marble from different sources, rich columns, entablatures and cornices, bases and capitals prove that sculptors were every bit as active as the mosaicists. The man who commissioned the monumental complex at Piazza Armerina, in Sicily, during the early decades of the fourth century AD, did not stint on splendid Corinthian columns of die so-called Asiatic type, used mainly for the peristyle, nor on rich materials of different origins, many of which had already been used elsewhere and were chosen for their artistic qualities and power to confer prestige.

The interiors of the great imperial palaces were a particularly fruitful field for experiments in architectural decoration. The interplay of curves, vaults, cupolas, arches and walls, and the contrast between solids and voids, were a feature of Nero’s first palace in Rome, the Domus Transitoria (destroyed in the fire of 66 AD), and of the Domus Aurea. The latter, known from the descriptions of Suetonius and Tacitus, was a particularly opulent type of villa urbana, with buildings and gardens of monumental proportions. The vestibule was dominated by a colossal statue of Nero as Sun god, and the gardens, where various species of animal roamed free, were dotted with statues. The famous mural paintings of mom 8, which, like other aspects of this half-ruined residence, were a prime source of inspiration to Renaissance artists, demonstrated the importance of painted architectural decoration, featuring sonic pilasters, their capitals enhanced with stucco work, and painted monumental statues at ground level. Roman mural painting of the 4th style was often akin to stage scenery, the architectural structures and pediments richly decorated with carvings and statues, as in the panel from Herculaneum in the Naples Museum.

After Nero’s death, work on the Domus Aurea was broken off, though Vespasian and Titus continued to use it as a residence. Subsequently, Domitian built the Damns Augustana on the Palatine and the Domus Aurea was destroyed by Trajan during construction of the baths. Domitian’s palace consisted of an area for official receptions on the north—west side, a private wing in the centre,

and a large garden in the form of a stadium to the southeast, inaugurated in 92 AD. There were two entrances to this garden, one giving access to the private residence, the other, with porticos, to the official apartments. Baroque decoration and tricks of perspective, which were to find their fullest expression in Hadrian’s villa, were a feature of the official apartments, arranged around a large peristyle. To the north of this courtyard was the aula regia, a large reception room with niches flanked by tall columns and apses, the basilica, and the lararium (shrine to ancestors), housing images of the imperial family, and, to the south, a colossal triclinium (dining room). As with all these grand imperial residences, it requires an effort of imagination to reconstruct the colours of the walls, perspective effects, striated columns of Phrygian marble and multitude of aediculae containing statues. The walls of the triclinium opened onto the landscaped gardens beyond. On the side opposite the peristyle, the wall ended in a screen of six Egyptian granite columns, flanked by fountains faced with marble. The whole effect was enhanced by the curved colonnades of the other courtyards. All this splendour anticipated by some years the sumptuous layout of Hadrian’s villa at Tivoli, described in a later chapter. An essential aspect of the villa’s architecture was the monumental decor of architraves and capitals, and the wealth of statues that is so indicative of Hadrian’s taste for Hellenistic culture. Even when architectural sculpture has disappeared from the residences excavated by archaeologists, mural paintings still bear witness to the Romans’ enthusiasm for sculpted decoration, which they may not always have been able to afford. At Pompeii, there are many examples of the “architectural” 2nd style, with walls of imitation marble, projecting structures supported on columns and a great deal of sculpture. Good examples of this illusionist painting are the House of the Griffons under the Dooms Flavia in Rome, which dates from the late second century BC, the celebrated Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii itself, and the Boscoreale cubiculum, conserved in New York. This type of decoration is often enriched with stucco reliefs, as in the Villa Farnesina on the banks of the Tiber. The ceiling of cubiculum D, now kept in the Museo delle Terme, is decorated with panels of polychrome stucco, featuring victories, cupids, griffons, idyllic landscapes and scenes of the cult of Dionysos, arranged in cycles. This kind of stucco relief faint in outline but executed with great delicacy, running in a continuous band between walls and ceiling, first appeared in late Republican times but was most popular under Augustus when this example was created.

As with funerary reliefs, domestic mural decorations depicting mythological themes or subjects from daily life reflect the overwhelming presence of sculpture in the public and the private 1’s of the Roman people. The sculptures that are represented in mural painting are often modelled on real statues.