MALE FIGURE WITH CORNUCOPIA AND PLATE, FROM THE VILLA OF NUMISIA PROCULA, C. 150 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This idealised figure is painted in shades of red-brown against a white background. He's nude apart from two cloths wrapped around his forearms. The only other colour is green, which is used for sketched-in long leaves on the plate he holds in his right hand, more greenery emerging from the cornucopia he holds in his left hand, and a leafy crown around his head. His torso is beautifully modelled in light and shadow, his hands (always hard to paint) are convincing, and he stands with his weight on his right leg, or rather floats, as there is no ground. The artist has sketched him in outline first, and filled the figure in afterward. His form is based on a famous Greek statue, the Doryphoros or Spear-Bearer by Polykleitos. This fresco is a clear testimony of the taste for Greek art popularised by the emperor Hadrian.

This #FrescoFriday, the #VaticanMuseums is serving up naked young men in #fresco form. This one comes from the villa of Numisia #Procula at #TorMarancia along the via #Nomentana outside #Rome. She was the noble wife of an ex-consul, and the villa dates from about 150 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺

EPIGRAM OF DAMASUS, C. 370 CE. BASILICA OF S. AGNESE FUORI LE MURA This is one of the few certain survivals of the earliest basilica on this site, which was rebuilt in the early C7. In the rebuilding, this poetic tribute to the Roman martyr girl Agnes by pope Damasus I was removed from the presumed site of the girl's grave and turned upside-down to serve as a paver. It was only rediscovered in 1728, essentially intact, and set into the wall of the entrance staircase. Damasus left inscriptions at the tombs of martyrs: we have text from 60 epigrams he wrote to celebrate them, but most of the original inscribed panels are lacunar or lost. Damasan script is an ancestor of Carolingian uncial calligraphy. This tells the story of Agnes' eager martyrdom during Diocletian's persecution in 304, in which "she, a mere child as she was, immediately tore herself from her nurse's breast and, scorning the threats and rage of the cruel tyrant, willingly offered her noble body to the flames."

#EpigraphyTuesday surprises us with an #epigram from Pope Damasus I, from 366-384, in the stairway to the basilica of S. Agnese fuori le Mura along the via #Nomentana outside #Rome. The beautiful precision of the #epigraphy makes it essential to the history of #calligraphy. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Roma, alla stazione Nomentana appare scritta pro Hamas: "7 ottobre - felice resistenza" (Adnkronos) - "7 ottobre, felice resistenza!". Questa la scritta apparsa da poche ore nel sottopassaggio della fermata della stazione Nomentana a Roma, nella zona nord-est della Capitale.  "Ferma condanna per la vergognosa scrit...

Roma, alla stazione Nomentana appare scritta pro Hamas: "7 ottobre - felice resistenza" ... LEGGI TUTTO #Roma #Hamas #Settobre #Resistenza #Nomentana

Roma, auto finisce contro albero e si ribalta: morto 21enne, ferita 16enne (Adnkronos) - Un ragazzo di 21 anni è morto e una ragazza di 16 è rimasta ferita in un grave incidente stradale avvenuto, ieri sera, in via Nomentana a Fonte Nuova (Roma). Sul posto sono intervenuti i carabinieri di Mentana a del nucl...

È ACCADUTO IERI: Roma, auto finisce contro albero e si ribalta: morto 21enne, ferita 16enne ... LEGGI TUTTO #Roma #IncidenteStradale #SicurezzaStradale #Carabinieri #Nomentana

Roma: violento scontro fra tre auto vicino Porta Pia, una si ribalta; nessun ferito Verso le 15, incidente stradale sulla via Nomentana. La donna ottantenne alla guida della Panda ribaltata soccorsa da vigili del fuoco e 118

#Roma: violento #scontro fra tre #auto vicino #PortaPia, una si ribalta; nessun #ferito

Verso le 15, #incidentestradale sulla via #Nomentana. La #donna ottantenne alla guida della #Panda ribaltata soccorsa da #VigiliDelFuoco e #Emergenza118

www.metropoli.online/roma-violent...

SPOLIA IN THE CASINA DELLE CIVETTE, VILLA TORLONIA The eccentric prince Giovanni II Torlonia transformed a small C19 house on the grounds of his family's villa from a fanciful "Swiss Cottage" into an even more unusual house for himself. He was a solitary figure who had no use for the splendour of the main building, the Casino Nobiliare. He slept during the day and was awake all night, and decorated his house with animals of the night, like bats, snails, and owls: when he had stained glass featuring the latter by the brilliant young artist Duilio Cambellotti installed in the front room in 1916, the building got its name, the "Little House of the Owls". The Villa Torlonia was already full of follies and fake ruins, so this curious house with its secondary building attached with an enclosed bridge was not out of place. Here we see the brick arch, built in different ancient Roman techniques, decorated with bits and pieces of the famous Torlonia collection of antiquities: a relief with a female divinity (probably Selene) from a sarcophagus, a bit of cornice, the base of an altar, a damaged Composite capital.

#SpoliaSunday takes us along the via #Nomentana to the marvelous #VillaTorlonia, since 1978 public property but once the private residence of #Mussolini. The owner, Giovanni II #Torlonia, also lived on the grounds, in this delightful house full of #stainedglass and #spolia. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC PAVEMENT, 100-50 BCE. PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME This mosaic pavement once formed the threshold of the triclinium of a late-Republican villa at Casale di S. Basilio, well outside of Rome along the via Nomentana in the midst of a truly depressing public housing development. A C12-C13 tower was built atop part of the villa's ruins, probably a cistern, and the site was excavated as Rome was expanding along its consular roads in 1930. The villa was built around a courtyard and had baths and a second floor. The curious thing is that there is no trace of subsequent construction and development of the villa apart from perhaps some renovation in the later C1 BCE. The mosaic is a row of coffer-like frames in black, yellow, and red stone tesserae with the innermost frames in more complex zig-zags and stripes. At the centre of these frames are flowers against a dark background.

#MosaicMonday brings us along the via #Nomentana into suburban #Rome to discover the traces of a late-#Republican villa. For Rome in the earlier C1 BCE this is fairly sophisticated, but nothing compared to contemporary #mosaic art in #Pompeii.