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Info and reservation: Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA |
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![]() The altar was meant to be a vision of the Roman civil religion. It sought to portray the peace and fertile prosperity enjoyed as a result of the Pax Augusta (Latin, "Augustan peace") brought about by the military supremacy of the Roman empire, and a visual reminder of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that was bringing it about. The Altar The Altar is universally recognized as a masterpiece, the most famous surviving example of Augustan sculpture; the life-sized figures in the procession are not idealized types, as are typically found in Greek sculpture, but rather portraits of individuals, some of them recognizable. G. Karl Galinsky pointed out that the sculpture of the Ara Pacis is primarily symbolic rather than decorative, and that its iconography has several levels of significance. Studies of the Ara Pacis and similar public Roman monuments traditionally address the potent political symbolism of their decorative programs, that emphasizes dynastic and other imperial policies. The Ara Pacis is seen to embody without conscious effort the deep-rooted ideological connections among cosmic sovereignty, military force and fertility that were first outlined by Georges Dumézil, which are attested in early Roman culture and more broadly, in the substructure of Indo-European culture at large. It has been suggested by Peter Holliday that the Altar's imagery of the Golden Age, usually discussed as mere poetic allusion, actually appealed to a significant component of the Roman populace. The program of the Ara Pacis addressed this group's very real fears of cyclical history, and promised that the rule of Augustus would avert the cataclysmic destruction of the world predicted by contemporary models of historical thought. The Figures In addition there are two or three non-Roman children, who may be guests (or hostages) in Rome. Their identification by their non-Roman costume and their participation in the ceremony advertises to all that Rome is the center of the world, and that other nations send their young to Rome to learn Roman ways, so great is Rome's reputation. The ceremony took place in the summer of 13 BC, but not necessarily on 4 July, when the Senate voted to build the Ara Pacis. The East and West Walls The East Wall contains a badly preserved scene of a female warrior (bellatrix), possibly Roma, apparently sitting on a pile of weapons confiscated from the enemy, thus forcing peace upon them by rendering them unable to make war. This scene has been reconstructed based on coins that depict such a seated Roma. When the monument was reconstructed at its present site, workers[citation needed] sketched what the panel may have looked like. This interpretation, though widely accepted, can not be proved correct, as so little of the original panel survives. The other panel is more controversial in its subject, but far better preserved. A goddess sits amid a scene of fertility and prosperity with twins on her lap. Scholars have suggested that the goddess is Italia, Tellus (Earth), Venus, or Peace (other views also circulate). Peace makes the most sense since the entire scene depicts the benefits of peace, and the monument is the "Altar of Peace," not the "Altar of Italy" or "the Altar of Earth." The exact identity of the goddess remains debated, however.[citation needed] The West Wall also contains two panels. The fragmentary panel called "The Lupercal Panel" apparently preserves the moment when Romulus and Remus were discovered by Faustulus the shepherd, while Mars looks on. The better preserved scene depicts the sacrifice of a pig (the standard sacrifice when Romans made a peace treaty) by an old priest and two attendants. A century ago this scene was identified by Anton von Domaszewski[citation needed] as the moment when Aeneas, newly arrived in Italy, sacrificed a sow and her piglets to Juno, as told by Vergil and others. This identification was enthusiastically accepted by scholars at once. In the 1960s, Stephan Weinstock challenged this identification (and the very identity of the entire monument), citing numerous discrepancies that Domaszewski and his followers had failed to notice between Vergil's version and the panel. Subsequently, Paul Richardson proposed,[citation needed] and Paul Rehak later published[citation needed] an alternate identification of the scene as Numa Pompilius, the Roman king associated with Peace and the Gates of Janus. This new interpretation is slowly gaining ground among scholars. North Wall After them follows the collegium of the Quindecemviri Sacris Faciundis, also identified by the incense box carried by a public slave among them. Although the name suggest this college has exactly fifteen members, the size of the college has grown to 23, among whom Augustus and Agrippa appear on the South Frieze. The other twenty-one members are present here. Two very badly damaged figures in the middle are split by a gap. From photos the gap appears to affect a single figure, but as Koeppel and Conlin have proven, in-site examination reverals that one is a foreground and the other a background figure. The last portion of the North Frieze consists of members of the imperial family. Many scholars identify the veiled, lead figure as Julia, daughter of Augustus. Since Julia appears on the South Frieze, it is more likely that this figure is Octavia Minor. Other figures in the entourage might include Marcella (a daughter of Octavia), Iullus Antonius (a son of Mark Antony), and two boys and a girl of the imperial family. An additional youth wearing Hellenistic Greek style clothing suited to a Hellenistic prince is sometimes identified as Gaius Caesar in the guise of a camillus, an adolescent attendant of the Flamen Dialis. Conservation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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Info and reservation: Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA |
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tratto da www.romabeniculturali.it |
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Info and reservation: Cooperativa IL SOGNO - Viale Regina Margherita, 192 - 00198 ROMA |