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Stucco Decorations at Baia
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2013
Extract
In my earlier paper on the ‘Stanze di Venere’ (written in 1973), I referred to the progressive deterioration of the stucco and other decorations in the Roman remains at Baia. The following pages are an attempt to provide a full record of the Baian stucco-work not covered in the first article. The idea of compiling this record originated with Dottssa. Maria Elena Bertoldi and received the full support of Prof. Alfonso De Franciscis; while the actual drawings were begun in 1973 by Miss Shelagh Rixon and completed, with further visits to the site for checking in 1974 and 1975, by Dr. Lesley A. Ling. To all of these and to our sponsors (the University of Manchester and the Faculty of Classics in the University of Cambridge) I am deeply indebted. Since the drawings were completed, the task of studying stucco decoration in Roman Italy has been greatly simplified by the pioneer-work of Dr. Harald Mielsch of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, who has compiled a major corpus of surviving material and attempted to establish a detailed chronology. It only remains for me to provide a commentary on the drawings, to discuss the architectural contexts, and to enlarge upon or modify Dr. Mielsch's conclusions regarding the Baian stucco-work. The various decorations will be dealt with one by one, and the positions of all but two of them are shown on Fig. 1, which has been adapted, by kind permission of Dottssa. Bertoldi, from one of the plans executed for her volume in the Forma Italiae series.
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- Copyright © British School at Rome 1977
References
Notes
1 Archaeologia, cvi (forthcoming). Hereafter referred to as Stanze.
2 Mielsch (see list of abbreviations). The numbers of our decorations in Mielsch's catalogues are K 19 (our A), K 79 (B), K 125 (D) and A 8 (F); he omits C and E (and the two decorations in the Appendix). Other decorations mentioned in this paper will be cited by his catalogue-numbers.
3 Rizzo, G. E., Prassitele (1932), pls. XIX–XXVIGoogle Scholar.
4 Miss Rixon had holes dug in both A 1 and A 2 in an effort to establish the limits of the vault-decorations but was frustrated by the infiltration of water.
5 There is no justification for the variety of motifs recorded by Mielsch, 122.
6 The ‘Spiralranke’ seen by Mielsch in the frame of the central field is, in fact, an illusion due to the way in which the plaster has been corroded.
7 The architectural dating criteria are discussed at length in Stanze, part 5. F. Rakob dates the Baths of Sosandra to the mid first century B.C.: Röm. Mitt., lxxxi (1974), 87Google Scholar, n. 66, and fig. 40 (8); Zanker, P. ed., Hellenismus in Mittelitalien (1976), 368 fGoogle Scholar. For a photograph of the structure of our vaults see Ward-Perkins, J B., Architettura romana (1974), fig. 141Google Scholar.
8 For the development down to Augustus see Ling, R. J., ‘Stucco decoration in pre-Augustan Italy’, PBSR, xl (1972), 11–57Google Scholar. Cf. Mielsch, chap. 1.
9 Mielsch, K 8, K 16 (nave of main hall and ante-room), K 118 (niches), K 124 (entrance arch).
10 Mielsch, K 31(a), K 36, K 66, K 67, K 78, K 82, K 85, K 87.
11 E.g. in the baths of a villa rustica at Petraro, near Stabiae (Mielsch, K 34), in the Forum Baths and Stabian Baths at Pompeii (Mielsch, K 46, K 54), and in the painted vault of the Taberna Attiorum at Pompeii (Schefold, , WP, 241Google Scholar; VP, pls. 110, 111).
12 Mielsch, K 51: certainly dating to the post-earthquake period.
13 Mielsch, K 54(b).
14 Aurea, Domus: Ant. Denk., iii, 2 (1912–1913)Google Scholar, pls. 16, 18; Weege, 181, fig. 26. Pompeii: Schefold, VP, pl. 140. Stabiae: Elia, O., Pitture di Stabia (1957)Google Scholar, pls. XXXVII, XXXVIII.
15 Mielsch, K 102, K 118, K 124, K 128, K 132. In the Terme dei Cisiari at Ostia, fragment no. 3914 (Mielsch, K 128, 39) is surely a Dioscurus.
16 For these three monuments, Mielsch, K 16, K 17, A 3, and for his dating of the first two 32 f. For my dating cf. Bastet, F. L., ‘Claudius oder Tiberius? Das grosse Hypogaeum bei der Porta Maggiore zu Rom’, BABesch., xxxv (1960), 1–24Google Scholar (whose conclusions I accept, though not necessarily endorsing all of his arguments).
17 Cf. Schefold, , WP, 292Google Scholar. For Mielsch's dating (c. A.D. 50), Mielsch, 36 (questioned in the review by Allroggen-Bedel, A. in Gymnasium, lxxxiii (1976), 373Google Scholar; cf. ‘Zur Datierung der Wandmalereien in der Villa Imperiale in Pompeji’, BABesch., 1 (1975), 225–36)Google Scholar.
18 Mielsch, K 36 (Herculaneum), K 31 (a), K 78, K 85, K 87 (Rome).
19 E.g. tomb 18 on the Via Laurentina at Ostia (Mielsch, K 11) and the pavilion-vaulted room in the Baths of Venus at Baia (Mielsch, K 12; Stanze, passim).
20 Similarly Mielsch, 34, arguing from the style of the figures. The stuccoed vault in the so-called ‘Tomb of Agrippina’ at Bacoli (see Appendix) can be dated to the same period for many of the same reasons.
21 For general similarities in Augustan work in Rome see PBSR, xvii (1962)Google Scholar, plate XV, a (leaf enrichment), XVII, c (rosette).
22 E.g. Mielsch, K 31 (b), K 54(b), K 83, K 86. Add an unpublished fragment of vault-decoration in the theatre of Domitian's villa at Castelgandolfo.
23 Modillions: Mielsch, K 31(a,b), K 32(a,b,c), K 33(b), K 69 (2), K 78, K 85, K 86, K 87. Polygonal patterns: Mielsh, K 31 (b) (octagons above stairway S', hexagons above stairway S), K 32(b), K 54(c), K 86.
24 Mielsch, 75.
25 Mielsch, K 83. On the structures cf. Fiorini, G., La Casa dei Cavalieri di Rodi al Foro di Augusto (1951), 15 f.Google Scholar; Blake, M. E., Roman Construction in Italy from Tiberius through the Flavians (1959), 105Google Scholar.
26 Mielsch, K 53 (pls. 47–9).
27 E.g. Mielsch, K 112, K 122, K 125 (our D), K 128 (35).
28 The figure-scene in the central panel against the rear wall has been cut out in modern times; like the missing relief in A 2, it is presumably lost. The two figures in the northern panel were not visible when the drawing, Fig. 5, was made, but have since been revealed by a fall in water-level.
29 Maiuri, A., ‘Il restauro di una sala termale a Baia’, BdA, 2nd series, x (1930–1931), 241–252Google Scholar; cf. Boethius, A. and Ward-Perkins, J. B., Etruscan and Roman Architecture (1970), 259, 298 f.Google Scholar, 567 (n. 13).
30 Lugli, 594.
31 See the table published by Rakob, , Röm. Mitt., lxviii (1961)Google Scholar, opp. 134; I have taken my own measurements in the Baths of Venus and at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
32 Lugli, 597 ff.
33 Lugli, 667. For various uses of bricks in Hadrianic and Antonine vaults see ibid., pls. CCIV, CCV (3, 4). Brick courses in the vault of the anular corridor in the ‘Maritime Theatre’ in Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli are spaced more widely and set radially.
34 Mielsch, K 97.
35 Bloch, H., I bolli laterizi e la storia edilizia romana (1968), 119, 178Google Scholar.
36 Mielsch, K 90, K 120 (does not mention all the colours).
37 The Civitavecchia fragments, not mentioned by Mielsch, are in a store on the site. For the other decorations, Mielsch, K 110, K 115, K 116, K 125, K 128.
38 Napoli, M., ‘Una nuova replica della Sosandra di Calamide’, BdA, xxxix (1954), 1–10Google Scholar. Cf. Maiuri, , I Campi Flegrei (Itinerari dei musei, gallerie e monumenti d'Italia, 32), 3rd edn. (1958), 74Google Scholar.
39 I know of no parallels for Mielsch's interpretation of the largest flower as a peacock's feather (Mielsch, 179).
40 On the dating of reticulate with tufo quoins in Campania, cf. Ling, , PBSR, xxxviii (1970), 180Google Scholar.
41 Mielsch, K 124. Mielsch makes the same comparison (97).
42 Mielsch (96 f.) argues for a date in the 170s, stressing the danger of relying on a single brick-stamp. But see CIL xv, 1368, no. 11Google Scholar, which suggests that two or more examples were found.
43 Mielsch, K 115. For the lunettes see MAAR, iv (1924), pls. XXXIII–XXXVGoogle Scholar.
44 Hist. Aug., Alex. Sev., 26; Rakob, loc. cit. (see n. 31).
45 Morghen, F., Gabinetto di tutte le più interessanti vedute degli antichi monumenti di Pozzuoli, Cuma, e Baja, e luoghi circonvicini (1766), pl. 22Google Scholar; De Sariis, A., Termologia puteolana (1800), 173Google Scholar. Cf. Paolini, R., Memorie sui monumenti di antichità e di belle arti. … (1812), 45Google Scholar; Palatino, L., Storia di Pozzuoli e contorni (1826), 86Google Scholar.
46 Brulloff, A., Les thermes de Pompéi (1829), 14–15, pls. IX, XGoogle Scholar.
47 Ruggiero, M., Degli scavi di antichità nelle province di Terraferma (1888), 171Google Scholar.
48 Ibid., 172 and facing: commissioned by him or by Bonucci? For further references to the rooms, Dubois, C., Pouzzoles antique (1907), 409 f.Google Scholar; Maiuri, 1958 (see n. 38), 84. Mielsch (A 8) notes only the Ruggiero reference.
49 On the excavations, Levi, A., ‘Ruderi di terme romane trovati a Baia’, Man. Ant., xxviii (1922), 129–154Google Scholar (esp. 141 f.). The photograph is in the archive of the Superintendency of Antiquities for Campania (neg. C 15).
50 As in the eighteenth century: Morghen, 1766 (see n. 45).
51 Weege, 181, fig. 26 (notes the resemblance to the Baian stuccoes). Cf. Mirri, L. and Carletti, G., Le antiche camere delle Terme di Tito (1776), pl. 56Google Scholar (followed by Ponce, N., Description des Bains de Titus (1786), pl. 55Google Scholar; Ronczewski, K., Gewölbeschmuck in römischen Altertum (1903), fig. 27)Google Scholar.
52 Tac., , Ann., xiv, 4Google Scholar; Suet., , Nero, xxxiv, 2Google Scholar. For Nero's building schemes at Baia, ibid., xxxi, 3; Cass. Dio, lxii, 17, 2.
53 Mielsch, K 65 (proposes a Vespasianic date).
54 E.g. in the apodyterium of the Terme del Sarno (Mielsch, K 26), the women's caldarium of the Stabian Baths (Mielsch, K 54, e), the purgatorium of the temple of Isis (Mielsch, K 55,a), in the frieze from the House of Meleager (Mielsch, K 57, 1), and in the niche-tomb outside the Herculaneum Gate (Mielsch, K 70), all at Pompeii. The trefoil enrichments are not mentioned in Mielsch's catalogue, but cf. his pl. 55.
55 E.g. in the men's caldarium of the Forum Baths and the women's caldarium of the Stabian Baths at Pompeii; in the tepidarium of the Suburban Baths and throughout the Forum Baths at Herculaneum.
56 Further examples of curvilinear vault-designs in the time of the Fourth Style: room A 2 of Nero's Domus Transitoria (Mielsch, K 31,e: the pattern probably repeated in A 5, cf. the upper part of the lunette shown in BABesch., xlvii (1972), 70, fig. 9)Google Scholar; an arch-soffit at the front of room 74 in the Domus Aurea (unpublished, but similar to the above and to one of the patterns in corridor 70: Ant. Denk., iii, 2 (1912–1913), pl. 17Google Scholar; Weege, 184 f., fig. 27); an arch-soffit on the exterior of the theatre at Herculaneum (unpublished); niches in a tomb at Pozzuoli (Ling, 1970 (see n. 40), 163, fig. 4).
57 Mielsch, 80 ff.
58 On the function of the complex, see Stanze, part 1. For constant maintenance cf. Josephus, , Ant. Jud., xviii, 249Google Scholar: the imperial palaces at Baiae were lavishly furnished, ‘for each of the emperors was ambitious to outdo his predecessors’.
59 Nereids and sea-monsters: Cumont, F., Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des romains (1942), 166 ff.Google Scholar; Andreae, B., Studien zur römischen Grabkunst (1963), 133 ffGoogle Scholar. Cupids: Cumont, op. cit., 347 f. Fauna and flora: cf. Toynbee, J. M. C. and Ward-Perkins, J. B., The Shrine of St. Peter and the Vatican Excavations (1956), 114 fGoogle Scholar.
60 See esp. Schefold, K., Pompejanische Malerei, Sinn und Ideengeschichte (1952)Google Scholar (now revised and enlarged in a French edn., La peinture pompéienne (1972))Google Scholar, and cf. the review by Toynbee, J. M. C. in JRS, xlv (1955), 192–5Google Scholar, and Thompson, M. L. in Marsyas, ix (1960–1961), 41–4Google Scholar.
61 Cf. Stanze, part 5.
62 Beginning with the Augustan period, when both painting and stucco had become fully flexible within the limits of their general styles, the closest links to which I can point are between the stuccoes of the Underground Basilica and the House of the Labyrinth (Mielsch, K 16, K 17).