Rome is a very compact city, we covered a lot of ground in a short period of time. The masses of visitors are concentrated around the big monuments, like the Vittorio Emanuele monument and the Colosseum. The gigantic Vittorio Emanuele monument is a bit of horrendous looking thing, some refer to it as the wedding cake, it is stark white, tiered and has statuary everywhere. It does not make the cut for our blog.
The Temple of Portunus - 80 - 70 BC
The temple sits near the Tiber river, it was dedicated to the harbour god, Portunis. This is a good example of the Roman temple which borrows elements from Etruscan temple architecture and from Greek temple architecture. It sits on a high podium and has a deep porch, a single staircase directs the focus to the front, or a frontal facade, these are Etruscan elements. The Greek temples, as we have seen at Paestum and in Sicily, sit on a lower podium and there is no frontal facade, the staircase surrounds the temple. Greek columns are freestanding, the Romans have free standing columns in the porch but then embed the columns into the cella walls. The columns are of the Ionic order, the capitals are volutes (the spirals) and the columns sit on a base, unlike the Doric columns, which sat directly on the stylobate.
The temple is made out of travertine stone which would have been stuccoed over and painted white to represent marble. A frieze in stucco would have decorated the entablature. The Romans used concrete in the podium for strength.
The Temple of Portunus is well preserved because it was transformed into a church quite early ~ 872 AD. All traces of the church were removed in the 1930's.
Palazzo Massimo Museum
Showers were forecast for the afternoon so we visited the museum and it rained while we were there. We really visited this museum to see the second style Roman wall painting from Livia’s Villa at Prima Porta. Livia was the wife of Augustus, the first Emperor of Rome.
Wall Painting from Livia’s Villa at Prima Porta - 30 - 25 BC
The wall painting is just wonderful, we had no idea it would be so exquisite. The lighting in the room changes from semi-dark to bright, which has quite an impact on how we see the painting under the various light conditions.
The foreground items are sharp, while the middle ground items are slightly out of focus and the background is fuzzy. There is also a loss of contrast and detail when viewing the middle ground and background, the effect is termed atmospheric perspective. There is a sense of movement in this wall painting, as if there is a breeze rustling the leaves. The painter rendered the birds and plants as they would look in nature.
The two bronze sculptures are Greek, they were brought to Rome and found in the Baths of Constantine. Date to 2nd - 1st century BC.
Boxer At Rest
Heroic Nude
Aphrodite - 1st Century BC
Roman Wall Painting
Mosaic in Marble
Discus Thrower, Roman copy in marble of a Greek bronze.
Female Deity Flanked by a Triton - 2nd Century AD
No comments:
Post a Comment