1/ Suggested hashtags to join on a Sunday
#StandingStoneSunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#SaxonSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#SundaySermons
#SundayBells
#SundayStonework
#StandingCrossSunday
#CeilingsOnSunday
#ChandelierSunday
1 of 8 #SundayHashtags
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
THE LAPIS SCELERATA, C2 CE. SS. VITO E MODESTO, ROME There is no obvious reason why this particular funeral altar should have been singled out for veneration in the Middle Ages. It is dedicated to the eternal spirit of one Lucius Aelius Tertius by his uncle. A large part of the inscription has been worn away beginning with a big hole a centre that goes 3 or 4 cm into the marble. A metal file was used for centuries to wear away the marble into dust, which the faithful would mix with water and drink as a cure for rabies, a disease which caused spasms of motion called "St Vitus' Dance". The altar was thought to have been bathed in the blood of martyrs and this sacred elixir lent its power to the stone dust. So the marble was set into the wall of St Vitus' church, and rabies sufferers took its dust as a cure.
For #SpoliaSunday I give you the Stone of Iniquity. This C2 CE tombstone is set into the wall of the church of #SanVito on the #Esquiline in #Rome. In the Middle Ages it was thought to have been an instrument of #Christian martyrdom, and marble dust scraped from it cured #rabies. #AncientBluesky 🏺
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
1/ Suggested hashtags to join on a Sunday
#StandingStoneSunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#SaxonSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#SundaySermons
#SundayBells
#SundayStonework
#StandingCrossSunday
#CeilingsOnSunday
#ChandelierSunday
1 of 8 #SundayHashtags
MARBLE SLAB: TOP PHOTO, COSMATESQUE CREST OF NICHOLAS V, C. 1450. BOTTOM PHOTO, ROMANESQUE PLUTEUS FROM A SACRED ENCLOSURE, C9 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS When this slab was carved for use in a schola cantorum or a presbytery enclosure in the C9, it was undoubtedly already a piece of spolia from some ancient monument. But it was carved with a typical Romanesque design of arches containing crosses, all richly decorated with guilloches, and six birds per arch carrying food in their beaks (a metaphor for the Eucharist), with couples of splendid grimacing wild felines. The reuse of classical motifs like the column, the arch, and the guilloche indicates a desire to associate the authority of the Church with that of the ancient empire. The same impulse can be seen in the 1450 inlay on the other side, which employs the imperial stones, porphyry and serpentine, to assert papal authority.
#SpoliaSunday takes us into the #VaticanMuseums, where visitors to the Stanza della #Segnatura, one of the #Raphael Rooms, walked across a #spolia marble slab inlaid with a #Cosmatesque version of the #crest of #NicholasV which was a reused C9 piece of a schola cantorum. #AncientBluesky 🏺
1/ Suggested hashtags to join on a Sunday
#StandingStoneSunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#SaxonSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#SundaySermons
#SundayBells
#SundayStonework
#StandingCrossSunday
#CeilingsOnSunday
#ChandelierSunday
1 of 8 #SundayHashtags
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
LORENZO AND JACOPO DI COSMA. PULPIT OF THE GOSPEL, 1190-1210. S. MARIA IN ARACOELI In this church of conspicuous spolia, the two pulpits at the mouth of the transepts are notable examples of the genre. They were once probably united in a single pulpit with two platforms side by side in the predecessor to the Aracoeli on this site, S. Maria in Capitolio, but were later separated, which explains why we can see the rough interior of the pulpit. At left, a large white marble slab with an inscription set sideways forms the slope of the handrail. Within the curve of the pulpit itself, white marble uprights separate slabs of pavonazzetto to either side of a piece of porphyry below and a Romanesque marble relief of an eagle whose rough back we see at centre. This pulpit was used especially when the Holy Roman Emperor was present, hence the imperial purple stone and eagle.
#SpoliaSunday is every day at the #Aracoeli in #Rome. This mighty basilica took its form c. 1268 when it was given its long nave by its new #Franciscan tenants. Here is the interior of the #pulpit of the #Gospel, from c. 1200, full of #spolia including a reused #inscription. #AncientBluesky 🏺
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
1/ Suggested hashtags to join on a Sunday
#StandingStoneSunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#SaxonSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#SundaySermons
#SundayBells
#SundayStonework
#StandingCrossSunday
#CeilingsOnSunday
#ChandelierSunday
1 of 7 #SundayHashtags
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 🏺
1/ Suggested hashtags to join on a Sunday
#StandingStoneSunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#SaxonSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#SundaySermons
#SundayBells
#SundayStonework
#StandingCrossSunday
#CeilingsOnSunday
#ChandelierSunday
1 of 6 #SundayHashtags
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
1/ Suggested hashtags to join on a Sunday
#StandingStoneSunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#SaxonSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#SundaySermons
#SundayBells
#SundayStonework
#StandingCrossSunday
#CeilingsOnSunday
#ChandelierSunday
1 of 6 #SundayHashtags
SPOLIA COLUMN EMBEDDED IN THE UPPER ARCADE OF THE CONSERVATORY CLOISTER (1565) This ancient complex was founded by king Ine of Wessex in 727 CE as a hospice for Anglo-Saxon pilgrims near the basilica of St Peter. It was vastly enlarged by Innocent III in around 1200, after he had a dream of Tiber fishermen hauling up nets full of unwanted babies. This vocation as an orphanage was expanded under Pius V, who had this cloister built to house children. His crest appears between the arches. Restorers looking for ancient columns in the wall found this in 2025. It might have come from the Horti of Agrippina, Nero's mother, which occupied this area in the C1 CE. Scratch the surface of almost any wall in central Rome and you're likely to find a reused column.
The Conservatory Cloister was added to the #OspedaleSantoSpirito in #Rome by Pius V in 1565, to house #orphans put up for adoption. It had two levels of arcades but the upper was walled up in the C17. Recent work found the #spolia columns buried in the brickwork. #SpoliaSunday #AncientBluesky 🏺
A modest bit of #SpoliaSunday in this fine piece of #Wallporn from Piacenza in April 2023.
#Photography #Piacenza #Architecture
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
COLOSSAL HEAD OF CALIGULA, C. 40 CE, RECARVED AS CLAUDIUS, C. 42 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This portrait was probably part of a large seated statue in a civic building of Otricoli, ancient Ocriculum in southern Umbria. It shows the head of Claudius, the fourth Julio-Claudian emperor, who succeded his nephew Gaius Caligula in 41 CE. Rather than destroying the whole statue in the purge of Caligula's images that followed, the authorities of Ocriculum had the head recarved. Thus this is an example of ancient spolia reuse. The whole face was recarved, pushing it back onto the neck, which is the original size, and if you look at the hairline just below the oak-leaf crown, you can see some of the original fringe of hair. Claudius was also made young and benefited from Caligula's chin.
For #SpoliaSunday we have a monumental head of #Caligula in the #VaticanMuseums, from the so-called Basilica of #Otricoli. After Caligula's damnatio memoriæ, this head was recarved as a portrait of his uncle and successor #Claudius. #AncientBluesky 🏺
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
GIROLAMO RAINALDI. NORTHERN FOUNTAIN OF PIAZZA FARNESE, 1626, WITH SPOLIA GRANITE BASIN FROM THE BATHS OF CARACALLA, 212-216 CE This grey Aswan granite basin is one of two in piazza Farnese. They both originated in the Baths of Caracalla, where they functioned as fountains, though they have the form of huge bathtubs, complete with ring handles in relief. The basins were political pawns in the C15 and C16, being moved from their findspot in the Baths of Caracalla in 1466 to piazza S. Marco, the site of the huge papal palace of Paul II Barbo, today's palazzo Venezia. One was moved to piazza Farnese in c. 1545 by order of Paul III Farnese, and placed in front of the main entrance to palazzo Farnese where it served as a viewing box for bullfights in the piazza. Cardinal Alessandro II Farnese had the other one moved in c. 1580, a sure sign of the eclipse of palazzo Venezia. Only the construction of the Acqua Paola in 1605 made possible the basins' return to use as fountains.
This seemed like a belated (or early) #PhallusThursday post waiting to be made. But in fact it's a sort of early #SpoliaSunday post drawing attention to the beautiful #granite basin of one of the #fountains of piazza #Farnese. #AncientBluesky 🏺
RELIEF PANEL WITH CANDELABRA, GARLAND, AND URCEUS, C. 125 CE. PANTHEON In 1874, during important restorations to the area of the Pantheon's porch, this marble panel and another, very similar, were discovered face-down, being used as steps. They are part of a group of eight such panels, some still in place, that decorated the central pronaos of the porch: that is, the walls on either side of the front door. The decoration of a garland of fruit hanging between two candelabra is solemn but delicate, and the jug or urceus is a symbol of religious ritual appropriate for a religious building.
#SpoliaSunday takes us to the #Pantheon in #Rome, where in a new display in the rooms of the #BasilicaofNeptune we find two #Hadrianic relief panels which were once part of the decoration of the #porch. They were found face down in front of the building, reused as steps. #AncientBluesky 🏺
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
#SundayBells
#SundayBookChoices
#SundaySeashore
#SundaySermons
#SundaySheep
#SundayStonework
#SundayStreetMusic
#SundaySunflowers
#SundayYellow
#SundialSunday
#SwampSunday
#WildflowerHour 8-9 pm
SALVATION-THEMED CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGUS, C4, CUT AND REUSED AS A WASHBASIN, C. 1300. OSPEDALE SAN GIOVANNI ADDOLORATA This was originally a rather splendid sarcophagus for an adult, with four different scenes in relief on it: two on either side of the central tabula (the place for an epitaph) and two others at the corners. About 1000 years after its original use, it was cut down so only two reliefs and the jagged edge of the tabula remain. At the corner is a scene of Christ resurrecting the tiny swaddled Lazarus on the ground, as Peter looks on, while the more central relief shows Peter and Christ with a rooster, telegraphing the story of Peter's failure to stay awake and keep Jesus company on the last night before his capture and crucifixion. Thsse scenes are part of a story of forgiveness and rebirth that point to Christian salvation. The sign of its reused function is the tiny channel cut into the lip of the box, to let water in or out.
#SpoliaSunday at the #OspedaleSanGiovanni in #Rome presents us with a truncated C4 #Christian #sarcophagus that has been reused as a washbasin for the #medieval #hospital. Here we can see the brutal hack through the central tabula and the marble panel insert to close it off. #AncientBluesky 🏺
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
FUNERARY ALTAR OF FLAVIA TYCHE, C. 90 CE. PANTHEON DM / FLAVIAE TYCHE/T FLAVIUS AUG L FELIX / CONIUGI KARISSIMAE / DE SE PER OMNIA BENE / MERITAE F ET SIBI ET / T FLAVIO FELICI /FILIO PIENTISSIMO / ET LIBERTIS / LIBERTABUS POSTERISQUE / EORUM FECIT This altar was made for one Flavia Tyche, the freedwoman wife of the imperial freedman Titus Flavius Felix, who also dedicates to himself, his son, and their freedmen and freedwomen and their descendents. There is an intriguing erasure between "Flavio" and "Felici" which might conceal a spelling mistake. This altar was taken and carved out in the late C16 or early C17 and furnished with an iron lid and lock to serve as an alms box for the chapel of S. Giuseppe di Terra Santa, whose confraternity ran the chapel still visible in the Pantheon, the first one on the left as you enter. This was the congregation of the Virtuosi al Pantheon, the oldest artists' guild in Rome, freeing artists from obligatory membership in guilds of craftsmen like goldsmiths and masons and creating a separate legal category recognising artists as a distinct group.
#SpoliaSunday continues at the #Pantheon in #Rome, where in the rooms behind the rotunda we find this #Flavian funerary altar to one Flavia Tyche hollowed out and used as an #alms box for the chapel of St Joseph of the Holy Land from the early C17 in the Pantheon itself. #AncientBluesky 🏺
Sunday
#AncientSiteSunday
#CeilingsonSunday
#FolkloreSunday
#SaxonSunday
#SevenOnSunday
#ShakespeareSunday
#ShieldSunday
#SignsOnSunday or #SundaySigns
#SilentSunday
#skysunday
#SpoliaSunday
#StainedGlassSunday
#StandingStoneSunday
FRIEZE FROM THE BASILICA OF NEPTUNE, 125-127 CE. PISA, OPERA DELLA PRIMAZIALE This piece of Proconnesian marble comes from behind the Pantheon, from a large hall of Hadrianic date known as the Basilica of Neptune due to this frieze of dolphins, shells, palmettes, and tridents. At an unknown point three large pieces of the frieze were brought from Rome to Pisa, to create a balustrade around the cathedral's presbytery. This was a free-standing balustrade which had the ancient frieze facing outward: the dolphin and trident were metaphorically associated with the Crucifixion. The lower part of the photo shows the interior side. Here, around 1115 CE, a series of rose-like motifs, each different, was carved by Pisan masons and inlaid in black and red stone. The worn aspect of the ancient carving suggests that it was outside for many centuries before finding a new life in Pisa.
For #SpoliaSunday we're at the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo of #Pisa, where the majority of the dolphin frieze from the Basilica of #Neptune in #Rome can be found, having served as an enclosure for the #presbytery of Pisa #Cathedral for many centuries.
