STAIRCASE OF THE ARACOELI, 1347-1349. The short-lived rule of the "Tribune" Cola di Rienzo was popular insofar as it was practical. During the period of the papacy's long residence at Avignon, Cola's revolutionary and anti-aristocratic city government passed a new set of city ordinances which sent the barons out of the city and subjected them to severe legal punishments if they committed violence. The barons pushed back, but were devastated in a battle at Porta S. Lorenzo in November 1347. The powerful Colonna family, whose fortress was built into the ruins of a vast Severan terrace containing a stepped ramp leading from the Campus Martius up to the summit of the Quirinal, lost its leaders and withdrew to their fiefdom of Palestrina. Cola, planning for the Jubilee of 1350, had the marble steps stripped out of the Colonna stronghold, but by December 1347 he had fallen from power and fled. The Comune carried on with the project, assigning it an architect in 1348. It was completed in 1349, and paid for by a Colonna, but it was Cola's project and also served as a thank you to the Virgin for ending the Black Death in the city. It was the most important public work of Trecento Rome, and remains today a silent but eloquent tribute to what the people can achieve even against their overlords.

#SpoliaSunday takes us to the long #staircase of the #Aracoeli, which were once the steps of a huge covered ramp leading to the #Severan temple of #Serapis on the #Quirinal in #Rome. They are also the product of a successful war by the Comune on the #Colonna barons. #AncientBluesky 🏺

WELLHEAD, 800-825 CE. PALAZZO VENEZIA This splendid Romanesque wellhead is of white Luni (Carrara) marble, almost certainly from the ruins of the early C4 Baths of Constantine, but the marble, whose profile is all that remains from an ancient capital, was already reused from an earlier building, as Constantine pillaged abandoned structures to decorate his Baths on the Quirinal hill. This wellhead is carved with a series of arches and columns covered in braided guilloches enclosing crosses, also decorated with guilloches, with Romanesque versions of acanthus leaves flanking each cross and a six-petalled flower in the upper quadrants. Scrolls and peaked pediments rise from the tops of the arches to the lip of the well, with palmettes in the spaces between the arches. The long use of this wellhead can be seen in the grooves inside, worn by centuries of rope for the water-bucket. This decoration shows how Lombard sculpture reinterpreted Roman forms.

Centuries of #spolia. This #Romanesque wellhead was carved during the #Carolingian #Renaissance in #Rome, from a huge marble column capital probably from the lost Baths of #Constantine on the #Quirinal. It was in the now-vanished S. Agata in Diaconia, today in #palazzoVenezia. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH NYMPHS, C. 280-290 CE. GARDENS OF PALAZZO COLONNA The origins of this unusual sarcophagus are unknown, but this was put into its current position in 1630 when the cascade of Villa Colonna, that is, the gardens on the slope of the Quirinal hill attached by bridges to palazzo Colonna, was designed and built. From the three blocked holes in a vertical row at centre, the white marble box had clearly been used as a water trough, washbasin, or fountain before. The central part of the front has symmetrical strigillation, meeting at centre to form an almond-shaped gap in which a male divinity, probably Hermes, stands. The strange thing about the relief work here is at the corners, where two graceful nymphs with baskets of fruit at their feet are dancing, their poses mirrored. They are very deeply cut into the sarcophagus, making the strigillate panel protrude slightly. They have the velificatio or floating drapery over their head that indicates divinity. Are they attendants of Flora or Vertumnus, deities of abundance?

#SarcophagusSaturday leads us into the magical gardens of #palazzoColonna in #Rome, along the slope of the #Quirinal hill, to find a late-C3 CE #sarcophagus serving as the lowest basin of the C17 cascade, which once roared down this hill and is now a trickle.

#ClassicalBuesky 🏺

Meaning of #quirinal QUIRINALE: 1. QUIRINO: God ROMANO.2. ONE OF THE SEVEN HILLS NORTHEAST OF ROME... quirinal

Significado de #quirinal quirinal: 1. de quirino: dios romano. 2. una de las siete colinas al noreste de roma... quirinal

Significado de #quirinal Quirinale: 1. Quirino: Roman Deus. 2. uma das sete colinas de Roma... quirinal

Meaning of #quirinal It means relative to Quirino, the name of a Roman god. Quirino was also the governor of Syria at the time of the Birth of Jesus. Name of one of the seven hills of Rome. Name of the seat of the Italian government (Palace of Quirinal) or offici.. quirinal

Significado de #quirinal Quiere decir relativo a Quirino, nombre de un dios romano. También Quirino fue el gobernador de Siria en la época del Nacimiento de Jesús. Nombre de una de las siete colinas de Roma. Nombre de la sede del gobierno italiano (Palacio de Quirin.. quirinal

Significado de #quirinal Significa em relação a Quirino, o nome de um deus romano. Quirino também era governador da Síria na época do Nascimento de Jesus. Nome de uma das sete colinas de Roma. Nome da sede do governo italiano (Palácio de Quirinal) ou residência o.. quirinal