Temple of Fortuna at Praeneste

By Anna Deily

                 The city of Praeneste (now Palestrina) lies about 36 kilometers from Rome and boasts the Temple of Fortuna, thought by many to be the greatest architectural feat of Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC), though others maintain that it was built a century earlier from the spoils of overseas conquests.

                Be that as it may, the architects of this massive sanctuary space built this temple on a grand scale. It rises almost 300 feet above the city below.  It is more than just a temple to Fortune. There is a lower sanctuary with three cellas, a basilica, and a curia.  Behind this lower temple are two caves with the famous Nile mosaic. Some believe that these caves were the sites where the oracle would give her readings.  Many terraces then lead to the upper sanctuary made of concrete faced with tufa, which was most likely faced with a marble veneer.

                Movement is a highly thought-out process in sanctuaries, and the Temple of Fortuna is no exception. Since the temple was constructed on a hill, the devotee had to climb quite a distance to reach the actual temple to Fortuna. First, he would ascend steep stairs leading to ramps covered with roofs supported by Doric columns with unusually slanted capitals. These ramps would then lead to more stairs, which lead to a shallow terrace with shops or offices and two hemicycles supported by Ionic columns and topped with coffered barrel vaults. Next, he could ascend more stairs to a third terrace with vaulted niches with either a post-and-lintel façade or an arched opening. Once again, the devotee would ascend more stairs to the final terrace, a deep rectangular space with Corinthian porticoes on the east and west sides. Finally, after climbing the last set of stairs, he would reach a theater-like area with a Corinthian portico capped with a double barrel vault. The circular temple of Fortuna is just past this area.  In this way the devotee progresses from a dark place (the covered ramps leading up to the temple) to the light, open terrace on the top level.  

Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli

Hadrian’s villa was not simply one structure, but many different buildings, gardens, and lakes created in about a half square mile area during 125-135 CE, during the Early Roman Imperial period.  Like many pleasure palaces of the 18^th and 19^th centuries such as Versailles or Sans Souci, Hadrian’s villa was strictly for pleasure and enjoyment.  The architects recreated their favorite places throughout the empire such as buildings from Alexandria, the Athenian Grove of Academe, and the Painted Stoa from the Athenian Agora, and even recreated some famous Greek sculptures, for the gardens and lakes including the Caryatids from the Erechtheion (link).  A large reflecting pool, called the Canopus, was framed by a colonnade with arches springing from the top, which would be a form incorporated into many later architectural works.

Grave Stele of a Little Girl

Unlike the freestanding, impersonal Archaic kouroi grave markers, Classical Greek stelae focus on domestic scenes that usually include women or children saying goodbye or “living out” an important memory.  In this fashion, on the Grave Stele of a Little Girl created around 450-440 BCE, a young girl seems to be saying goodbye to her pet birds for the last time, even kissing one gently on the beak.  Her garment almost seems translucent, revealing her innocent, tender skin, a mark of the High Greek Classic period, similar to Athena fixing her sandal on the Temple of Athena Nike (link).  Her stance and garment is reminiscent of the Parthenon friezes which also were carved around the same period.  To further the intimacy of this scene, the stele would have been painted in color to enhance some details such as the birds’ feathers and the girl’s sandal straps.

The Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius

In his equestrian statue, Marcus Aurelius is a powerful and successful military commander, but also is marked as an intellect because of his “philosopher” hairstyle, beard and stoic expression.  He sits atop his horse, who once crushed a barbarian underneath his raised hoof, with his hand reaching out as if he is addressing an audience.  He carries no weapons as if to suggest that he conquers effortlessly and by the will of the gods.  Although this Equestrian was created during the Early Roman Imperial period, circa 176 CE, many medieval Christians confused Marcus Aurelius for Constantine during the Middle Ages, and because of this, this gilded bronze sculpture was not melted down as many other equestrian statues were.  Since it is one of the only surviving equestrians from this period, it has influenced many other art works such as Donatello’s Gattamelata and the Equestrian of Charles the Bald.

Portrait of a Married Couple

Many Pompeian paintings were saved because of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and this Portrait of a Married Couple from the 1^st century CE is no exception.  Painted on the wall of a Pompeian house, this couple stares out into the viewer’s space while holding signs of literacy and education.  The husband holds a scroll while the wife holds the more fashionable wax-filled diptych and stylus.  Because of their refined features, such as the sizes of their noses, ears, eyes, and mouths, this portrait is thought to be in the actual likeness of a couple living in Pompeii during the 1^st century.  Some scholars think this portrait was painted because of their wedding due to their careful poses, touch-ups, and dress.

Apoxyomenos

Although Lysippos admired Polykleitos’s work (link), he used a different ideal proportions for his nude, the Apoxyomenos, or the Man Scraping Himself, during the Late Greek Classical period, circa 350-325 BCE.  This work only remains in Roman copies, but Lysippos’s talent still shines through.  The soft S curve of this athlete’s stance, relatively small head, and wistful expression is a shift from the rigid intellect and hard figures from the Early and High Classical periods of Greek art.  The Scraper’s arm also extends into the viewer’s space instead of staying confined to one plane, as was common with older statues, which invites the viewer into almost become a part of the action, which is a clear step towards the Hellenistic period. 

Dying Warrior

There is more to the Greek Archaic period than painted vessels and kouroi.  The Temple of Aphaia in Aegina was constructed during this time, around 500 BCE, and its pediment figures are reminiscent of the kouros style.  On the West Pediment of this temple, many warriors are participating in an expedition at Troy with Athena in the center as the warrior goddess.  In the right corner of the pediment, a Dying Warrior raises himself on a bent elbow while pulling out a fatal arrow from his chest.  Even though the warrior is dying heroically, his face remains forward and unattached to the viewer down below with the characteristic “Archaic smile” and rigid features.  Unlike the kouros though, this warrior bends and is part of the narration of an event which marks it as a step towards the classical art period.

Fast Facts

Copy of Sosos' Dove Mosaic

Sosos of Pergamum -- Mosaicist who was only ever mentioned in literary sources (Pliny the elder)






Hephaistion -- Mosaicist who signed his work

The Lion Hunt by Hephaistion

Mykonos Vase

Mykonos vase -- early 7^th-century pithos (storage jar) with scenes from the Trojan War, including an early representation of the Trojan Horse (Boardman, Oxford History of Classical Art, 35-36)

Chigi Vase

Chigi vase -- A polychrome vase found in an Etruscan tomb with friezes of mythology and genre scenes






Vitruvius -- wrote a notable book about architecture including invaluable sketches and notations about buildings that no longer exist today.

Initiation Rites of the Cult of Bacchus

Initiation Rites of the Cult of Bacchus from the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii -- Roman trompe l'oeil (painting that looks like real objects) is heavily used in this scene. 

Ixion Being Punished

The House of the Vettii -- House in Pompeii filled with frescoes including this one of Ixion being punished on a flaming wheel

Praxitiles' Aphrodite

Cnidian Aphrodite by Praxitiles -- first lifesize reproduction of the nude female form

The Deaths of Sarpedon and Memnon

By Lott Gwin       

       

       First, a note on the term “neck amphora.”  The Greek word amphora is a combination of amphi (“on both sides”) and pher-/phor- (meaning “carry”).  Thus, the word refers to a vessel with handles on both sides; it was often used to carry and store wine.  The vase depicted here is called a neck amphora because its handles are placed on the “neck” (thinner upper section) of the jar rather than on the “belly” (thicker, rotund section under the neck). These jars are sometimes decorated with scenes from myth.  The one shown here is late archaic (it dates to about 500 BC) and is painted in the black-figure technique.  It is attributed to the Diosphos Painter, who was active in Athens from ca. 500-475.

       The Trojan war offered Greek vase painters and other artists ample material (for an overview, see S. Woodford, The Trojan War in Ancient Art [1993]).  This vase shows two variations on the theme of the removal of a great warrior’s corpse from the Trojan plain.  In each case the warrior is an important ally of the Trojans.

       On the obverse we see the Thanatos (Death) and Hypnos (Sleep) carrying away the corpse of the Lycian warrior Sarpedon – the subject of another more famous late archaic red-figure vase, the Euphronius crater, which was presented in a previous post (DATE).  Sarpedon, the son of Zeus, was killed in battle by Achilles’ friend Patroclus.  According to Iliad 16, Zeus expressed his grief by crying tears of blood.  The painter has added a number of details.  Blood oozes from the wounds in Sarpedon’s limp body.  As for the deities, they are not the spectacular winged beings of Euphronius’ painting (found HERE).  Instead, they each wear a chiton, corselet, greaves, and a Corinthian helmet; they each carry a spear.  In other words, they are represented as ordinary warriors.  The small winged figure between them is the psyche or soul of Sarpedon flying away.  Readers of the Iliad will recall how the soul is said to float free from the body at the moment of death and flutter off to Hades (cf. e.g. Iliad 22.361-2).

       On the reverse Memnon is being carried off the battlefield by his mother Eos, goddess of the dawn.  Memnon was slain by Achilles (possibly the figure on the left) in single combat.  Achilles fought on behalf of Nestor to avenge the death of Nestor’s son Antilochus at the hands of Memnon.  Nestor would have fought Memnon himself, had he not been too old.  Eos has large wings and is shown aloft.  She wears a chiton, a mantle, and a necklace.  The bird in the upper right-hand corner may stand for the Memnonides, the companions of Memnon who were turned into birds by Eos; it is said that they came every year to lament at his grave.  Eos, for her part, shed tears for him every morning: this is an aetiology for the drops of dew that appear at dawn.

Sources:

Dietrich von Bothmer, “Euphronios and Memnon.  Observations on a Red-Figure          Fragment,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 22 (1987) 5-11.        

Moore, Mary B., and Dietrich von Bothmer, Attic Black-Figured Neck-Amphorae,          Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Fascicule 4 (1976) 67-68.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/56.171.25

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1512832    

Aqueducts

Even though the Romans or the Etruscans did not invent the rounded arch, they used it the most both as a structural element and for design purposes.  Possibly the greatest culmination of the arch is in aqueducts. Aqueducts were huge water transporting structures supported by a series of arcades (arches placed side by side) that could span over 30 miles, as the Pont du Gard does in Nîmes, France.  The engineering that goes into creating such a massive structure is all about weight distribution with each arch buttressing the arches around it.  Although the aqueduct suggests Rome’s power to control the environment to provide for its people, it also suggests an extreme balance and harmony in its engineering.  Frontinus wrote a notable manual on aqueducts.