Villas of Ancient Rome - IBAM

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THE VILLAS OF THE CITY OUTSKIRTS Villa of the Lamia: Bust of Commodus as Hercules between two Tritons (Capitoline Museums) VILLAS OF ANCIENT ROME 2 0 rose on the right bank of the river Tiber, in correspondence to the 16 th century villa of the same name. The substantial remains of the building - commonly known as the “Farnesina”- were found and partially excavated but then reinterred or destroyed, around 1880, during the construction of the embankments of the river. Datable from the second half of the first century AD, the villa was initially attributed to Clodia, sister of the tribune Publius Claudius and celebrated by Catullus with the name of Lesbia. At present, it seems more likely that the occasion for its construction was the marriage of Agrippa to Julia, daughter of Augustus, in 19 BC. The painted decorations, full of motifs and references to recently conquered Egypt, certainly date from that time. The villa was not used for long and was in fact abandoned owing to the constant devastating floods of the Tiber. As far as it is possible to establish, it had a main central body in the shape of a hemicycle with the convex side facing the river and two symmetrical structures on the sides. These had a loggia also overlooking the river and were connected by a long cryptoporticus that opened onto a large room aligned with the hemicycle and symmetrically flanked by minor chambers probably arranged around two courtyards. The wall paintings are many and well preserved. They feature monochrome surfaces within architectural “frames”, consisting of extremely slender elements and small pictures at the centre. Or else they represent complex and scenographic architectural partitions that seem almost to open at the centre, as if from a window, onto great paintings of classical inspiration, flanked by genre scenes. The accessory decoration is also remarkable. It is executed with masterly skill and made up of minute elements (threadlike candelabra, foliage, garlands, acroteria, figurines of caryatides and winged victories) or “miniaturistic” figurative friezes placed above the wainscotting adorned with geometric and vegetative motifs. The signature of Seleukos, a Syrian-Greek painter, is still visible on one of the walls. The Villa of the Lamia The remains of the Villa of the Lamia are also preserved in a museum. They comprise a remarkable group of statues found in excavations in the area of the villa in 1874, and now in the Capitoline Museums. The most significant are the Anadiomene Venus
THE VILLAS OF THE CITY OUTSKIRTS (known as Esquiline Venus) and two related female figures, a recumbent Dionysus and a portrait of Commodus as Hercules between two busts of Tritons. There is also a splendid floor inlaid with alabaster along with elements of architectural decoration in gilded stucco and other sumptuous decorations with gilded bronze friezes studded with gems and precious stones. The villa, created at the end of the 1 st century BC by Elio Lamia, stretched over the plateau of the Esquiline that corresponds to the area south of the present piazza Vittorio Emanuele. At the time of Caligula, who was briefly and secretly buried there after his assassination in 41 AD, it had already become imperial property. Nero is likely to have included it in the Domus Aurea complex. Numerous remains found during the building boom of the late 1800s, were destroyed or reinterred. The ruins belonged to different structures scattered amidst the greenery and adapted to the elevation of the terrain. The strictly residential section was situated between the modern piazza Vittorio Emanuele, piazza Dante and via Emanuele Filiberto. The complex included porticoes, cryptoporticus, baths, cisterns and a grandiose “nymphaeum” shaped like the cavea of a theatre (95 metres in diameter), closed by a long portico and served by a complex hydraulic system. The Villa of Sallust The “monumental” ruins of half a dozen villas have survived in varying conditions of preservation and visibility. The Villa of Sallust (Horti Sallustiani) is the first among them, also for chronological reasons. The complex was created by the historian Gaius Sallustius Crispus after 44 BC and extended over the wide, deep valley between the Quirinal and the Pincio (the area included today between the Aurelian walls, via Veneto, Area of the Villa of the Lamia on the Esquiline Villa of the Lamia: “Venere Esquilina” (Centrale Montemartini) VILLAS OF ANCIENT 2 1 ROME
Page 1 and 2: A Z I E N D A D I P R O M O Z I O N
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Page 5 and 6: Initially, in ancient Rome, there w
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Page 9 and 10: The Villa of the Vignacce The villa
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Page 17 and 18: aligned with it, at the centre of a
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Page 31 and 32: two parallel rows of six connecting
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Page 35 and 36: GLOSSARY GLOSSARY Apse: A covered s
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Page 39 and 40: i INFORMATION POINTS Aeroporto Leon

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