🪷 On 13 September 509 BC: The Temple of #Jupiter #Optimus #Maximus atop the #Capitoline Hill was dedicated on this date. Rome began its ascent! #Antinous was often identified with #Ganymede, swept aloft by #Hadrian as the imperial eagle. Full report here: antinousstars.blogspot.com/2025/09/rome... 🪷
FOLIATE COLUMNS, C. 27 BCE. S. PRASSEDE A magnificent set of six Augustan-era fluted columns ringed with four acanthus-leaf columns were found and reused in Paschal I's construction of the presbytery of S. Prassede in 817 CE. The capitals are C9, though they're not without their own grace and inventiveness. Here we see two of them, holding up the lintel of one of the two cantorie on either side of the presbytery. This part of the church was restructured in the C16 and again, in its present form, in the C18. They may well have come from the vanished original church near but not on the site of Paschal's church. This type of column is quite rare and may have originally come from a shrine or victory monument. The lowest ring or crown of acanthus leaves sits on a C9 base imitating the ancient leaves; the fluting springs from the irregular border of the leaves and finishes, with its curved tops, just below the next ring of acanthus. The pattern repeats itself up the column three more times.
A 🧵for #SpoliaSunday in #Rome, but all over the place, looking for the reuse of some very specific #columns with #foliate rings. They're splendid pieces of work and must have come from the #Augustan monumental area near the base of the #Capitoline hill. #AncientBluesky 🏺
Kelly Miti and Sbuone - Romulus and Remus
#KellyMiti #Buone #Romulus #Remus #Capitoline #Wolf #StreetArt #UrbanArt #Paris
ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO AND WORKSHOP. TOMB OF LUCA SAVELLI, 1287-1295. S. MARIA IN ARACOELI The extraordinary masterpiece of marble (all certainly spolia) and mosaic atop a magnificent C3 sarcophagus is ascribed to the C13 sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio. The ancient sarcophagus is actually just a base for the late C13 tomb of the strongman of the Aventine, Luca Savelli (d. 1266), father of pope Honorius IV. Luca's body lies within the upper part behind the three identical Savelli crests in mosaic. Atop this marble coffin is a little ædicule with a niche at its centre, where Arnolfo set a small statue of the Virgin and Child that resembles the much larger version he made for the façade of Florence cathedral. The bones of various other Savelli family members lie here within the ancient sarcophagus. Originally this assemblage was housed inside a roofed trefoil Gothic arch. The base, portraying a wife and husband, is one of the best garland sarcophagi surviving in Rome.
#SpoliaSunday leads us back to that treasure-house of #spolia, #SantaMaria in #Aracoeli on the #Capitoline hill in #Rome, where a splendid C3 #sarcophagus is just part of the monumental assemblage of the tomb of several members of the #Savelli family. #AncientBluesky 🏺
VULCA. MEDUSA ANTEFIX, C. 510 CE. MUSEO NAZIONALE ETRUSCO DI VILLA GIULIA This truly terrifying antefix is a masterpiece of terracotta Etruscan art. It comes from the Portonaccio temple sanctuary of Menrva, the Etruscan predecessor of Minerva, at Veii, in the same complex as the famous Apollo of Veii, one of the treasures of the Villa Giulia. Apollo and Hercules are battling on the pediment, and both have been ascribed to the sculptor Vulca, along with the roof antefixes, this one included, though the museum now more cautiously describes the artist as the "Master of Apollo". Here, within a sort of stylised scallop shell that regularises the profile of the antefix, is the frightening face of the Gorgon Medusa, very much the monstrous fanged leering monster of archaic art, and nothing like the beautiful tragic woman with snakes in her hair of later Greek and Roman depictions. Other antefixes contained Maenad and Silenus heads. But this astounding piece is full of invention and skill, with much of its original polychromy intact.
For #ReliefWednesday we're being scared off by a magnificent #antefix from the roof of the gigantic temple of #Minerva at #Veii just north of #Rome. The #sculptor is thought to be #Vulca, also author of the first statue of #Capitoline #Jupiter. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺
