11-20 historical survey

7/29/2019 11-20 Historical Survey

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An Overview of Roman History

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N.B. The ar t i s t s and archi tec ts for pages 11 17 are Unknown. That ca tegory re turns on page 18 .

Date and Locat ion: AD 81 / The Roman Forum

Descr ip t ion: The oldes t surviving t r iumphal arch in Rome was erected by the Emperor Domit ian (AD 51 -96) to honor the Middle Eastern vic tor ies of h is la te fa ther the Emperor Ti tus ( AD 39 - 81) . This archstands fewer than 200 yards f rom the Colosseum, which was or ig ina l ly commiss ioned by T i tus fa ther theEmperor Vespasian (AD 09 - 79) , founder of the Flavian Dynasty.

The re l ief sculptures on the Arch of Ti tus are b adly eroded, but are of much greater in teres t than thehodge-podge of recycled e lements on the superf ic ia l ly more impress ive nearby Arch of Con stant ine .

To bet ter apprecia te the events depic ted on the Arch of T i tus , one must be prepared to loa the theAncient Romans for thei r in to lerance of Judaism and for the rapaci ty wi th which they sacked the holyci ty of Jerusalem. In AD 66, af ter prot racted exploi ta t ion by Roman governors , a Judean rebel l ion arose

which ( then) General Ti tus handi ly or, ra ther, heavy-handedly suppressed in a four-year campaignthat not only des t royed the Second Temple (except for i t s Western Wal l ) but a lso resul ted in the JewishDiaspora .

In the image above, one can s t i l l see c lear ly the Roman army parading wi th spoi ls of war which includean a l tar, a seven-branched candelabrum, and sacred ceremonial t rum pets .

The devasta t ion Rome wrought in Ancient Is rael was met wi th heroic res is tance , but the juggernaut of Empire prevai led a t a ter r ib le cos t , a l l the more i ronic g iven that the Eternal Ci ty would eventual lybecome the geographical and theological center of the Judeo-Chris t ian E th ics wor ld - t ransforminginf luence.


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Date and Locat ion: AD 113 / Tra ja ns Forum,Rome

Descr ip t ion: There i s no more e legantmonument in Rome than the Column of Trajan.Dedicated by the Imper ia l honoree himself (AD 53 -117) , the marble chronic le r i ses131 feet and displays a winding f r iezeapproximately three fee t wide by 656 feet long( the f i rs t surviving example of such adecorat ive program). Within the f r ieze are2,500 f igures i l lus t ra t ing a lmost every aspectof mi l i ta ry l i fe dur ing Tra jans two campaignsin Dacia , or modern Romania (AD 101-103 and107-108) .

The vignet tes are every bi t as ingeniou s as

they are met iculous , encompass ing hundreds of subjec ts : f rom the work of Tra jans a rmyengineers to doctors on the bat t lef ie ld , f romthe Emperor ra l ly ing his t roops to the bur ia l of the fa l len .

A sol id gold s ta tue of Trajan once s tood a topthe Column but d isappeared in the Middle Agesdur ing the repeated ra ids on Rome by Gothsand Vandals . Pope Sixtus V (1520 - 1590)replaced the s to len s ta tue in 1587 wi th animage of Saint Peter by Giacomo del la Por ta(1533 - 1602) .

One of the columns scenes , in which Trajan helps a woman whose son has been ki l led in b at t le , soimpressed Pope Gregory the Great (AD 540 - 604) that the Pont i ff begged G_d to re lease the Emperor ssoul f rom Hel l . The Almighty a l legedly appeared to the Pope to announce that he had re leased Trajanfrom eternal suffer ing, but that He would honor no more in tercessory prayers for pagans . Supposedly,some centur ies la te r, when an urn conta in ing Tra jans ashes was opened, the skul l and tongue (s t i l lintact ) confirmed the Popes story.

An in ternal c i rcular s ta i rwel l (c losed to the publ ic) i s l i t by numerous smal l windows pierc ing thecolumn. Ancient Romans could view the ent i re ty of the monument more eas i ly than we do today becauseof two purpose-bui l t ba lconies on an adjacent l ibrary ( long gone) . A complete se t of cas ts made f romthe Column of Trajan is exhibi ted in a h ighly comprehensible format a t the Museo del la Civi ta Romana inthe EUR.


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Date and Locat ion: AD 306 / NE summit of the V iminal , a d is t r ic t named for the smal les t of the sevenhil ls upon whi ch R ome was b ui lt and most grandiosely decorated o.

The Baths of Diocleti an, the largest and most lavishly decorated of Ancient Rome s public bath complexes, wascompleted one year after the abdication of the emperor who named it for himself (AD 244 311). This highlycontroversial ruler came to power at a crucial time and engineered a successful division of Imperial duties amongthree other co-regents, collectively known as The Tetrarchy. Not all of Diocletians actions were equally successful;he initiated, for instance, the bloodiest of all persecutions against Christians (see Martyrs Shrine in the Colosseum),

just one yea r before Constantines V is ion of the Cross (see Divider for Section A, Subsection II), which led to thestates official sanction of Christianity.

This particular spa, which comfortably accommodated 3000 individuals, was linked to the Marcian Aqueduct, one of eleven engineering marvels that used hydraulic principles to move enormous amounts of wholesome water to Romefrom the Appenines. On some occasions, restricted access to the baths was free; it never cost more than a nominalfee. Besides promoting hygiene and physical fitness (because they contained ball courts and exercise venues), the

Roman baths offered luxury services, from massages to man-scaping and body-painting (male aristocrats apparentlyhated body hair and loved to have faux blue veins painted on their arms). The baths also contained food courts(fried peas were especially popular) and specialized libraries.

Diocletians Baths were adapted to many other uses over the centuries. They still contain two churches and thelargest branch of Romes National Museum. As you can see from the semispherical screen frame in the photoabove, the sturdy facility hous ed a planetarium in the 1920 s. Preservation efforts successfully tell many of theinterconnected buildings stories.


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Date and Locat ion: AD 578 / The Treasury of Saint Pe ter s Bas i l ic a (Rome)

Descr ip t ion: The Crux Vat icana was aprocess ional cross presented to theplundered Basi l ica of St . Peter by theEastern Emperor Jus t in I I (AD 520 - 578)shor t ly af ter the expuls ion of barbar ianhordes which had overrun Rome causing thet ransfer of v i r tual ly a l l imper ia l power toConstant inople , or modern Is tanbul .

This g i f t i s bel ie ved to be the o ldes tsurviving re l iquary of the True Cross . TheEmperor Constant ines Mother Helena (ad250 - 330) , a rguably the wor lds f i r s this tor ica l archeologis t , was sa id to have

recovered most of that revered object inJerusalem at a t ime when the ear ly Chr is t ianchurch there was s t rong and h ad preservedt ies wi th the or ig inal fo l lowers of Jesus .

Sl ivers of the True Cross are ar ranged in thecentra l medal l ion. The cross i s s i lver-gi l tand s tudded wi th gem s tones se t in gold .Four pendants hang f rom the t ransversebeam. At the t ime of the sacramental workscreat ion, i t was not yet common to depic tChr is t hanging on the C ross ; ins tead, on thereverse s ide , in repousse s i lver, there i s oneimage of Him as the Go od Shepherd andanother image of Him holding a book.Where Mary and John the Beloved Disciplewould typical ly appear in a Byzant ine icon,on e i ther s ide of the Cross , are por t ra i t s of the Emperor Jus t in I I and his wife Sophia .

The Lat in inscr ip t ion, which has be en a mat ter of ent i re ly unnecessary controversy, i s eas i ly t rans la ted:l igno quo Chr is tus humanum subdid i t hos tem dat Romae Jus t inus opem e t soc ia decorem. =

With the wood by means of which Chris t overcame mankinds enemy, Jus t in and h is consor t g ive toRome a resource and a th ing of beauty.

The Cross was methodical ly res tored in 2009. I t measures approximately s ix teen by twelve inches ,excluding the s tand.


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Date and Location: Eleventh Century / The Treasury of St. Peters Basiica / a gift from Isidore of Kiev (1385 1463),the Patriarch of Constantinople, to Pope Eugene IV (1383 1447) in the mid-F ifteenth Century Already old at thetime of its presentation, the dalmatic acquired a spurious and persistent identification with the Coronationdescribed below. While this provenance is indefensi ble, it does not detract from the object s importance.

Description: Charlemagne (AD 742 814), or Charles the Great ( Carolus Magnus in Latin) was King of the Franksfrom 768, King of Italy from 774, the First Holy Roman Emperor, and, in point of fact, the first emperor in WesternEurope since the Fall of Rome in the Fifth Century AD. Before his death, through military conquests, Charlemagnesubjugated both the Saxons and the Bavarians. He also expanded the frontiers of his domain into Spain.

The garment above (a specific kind of wide-sleeved alb originating from Dalmatia, the ancient region now dividedbetween Serbia and Croatia) was allegedly worn by Charlemagne on Christmas Day, AD 800, when he was crownedin the Vatican by Pope Leo III (? AD 816). It is NOT that ceremonial tunic. Experts agree, however, that, whateverits age, it is the most important surviving example of medieval needlework. The Dalmatic of Charlemagne (thename has stuck) is embroidered mostly in gold: the draperies in basket-work and laid stitches; the faces in white silksplit-stitch, flat, with finely-drawn outlines in black silk. The iconography is of traditional Byzantine derivation, withChrists hair, the clouds, and the shadowy part of the draperies worked in fine gold and silver thread with darkoutlines on blue satin which is covered, parseme -style, with intricate pattern of Greek crosses and starry crosses.There is a mystic swastika on one shoulder .


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Date and Locat ion: The Torre degl i Angui l la ra , be t ter known today as the House of Dante , i s the o ldes tmedieval res idence in Tras teve re , the urban d is t r ic t which proud ly ca l l s i t se l f the R EAL Rome. Easi lyrecognized by i t s por t icoes and leaf-shaped capi ta ls , the wal l which faces the T iber River dates to themid-Thir teenth Century.

Descr ip t ion: For near ly three centur ies the noble Angui l lara family l ived wi thin th is crenel la ted for t ress .

When the Carbognano family acquired i t in 1538 and conver ted i t to commercia l use as a s table , as laughterhouse , and a wine cel lar, the res idents of the neighborhood were so outraged by th isdevelopment that they dubbed the once-admired landmark I l Pa lazacc io , o r the Repuls ive Palace .

I ta lys grea test poet , Dante Al ighier i (1265 1321) , l ived in the Angui l lara Tower for most of 1300 ( theyear of the Fi rs t Jubi lee) . When the Commune of Rome, therefore , expropr ia ted the di lapidated complexin 1887, i t res tored many of the si tes or iginal fea tures and bui l t an audi tor ium for annual readings of Dante by famous men of le t ters . The Tower a lso houses the larges t I ta l ian l ibrary of works re la t ing tothis poet , inc luding a lmost every edi t ion ever pr in ted of The Divine Comedy.


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Date and Location: 1345 / The Arno River, Florence

Description: The segmental arch bridge above, Il Ponte Vecchio, built in the closed-spandrel style, crosses the Arno at its

narrowest point, close to where an Ancient Roman pons once stood. Two predecessors of todays b ridge were almost entirelydestroyed by floods in 1117 and 1333, with the exception of two stone piers from those earlier bridges which were incorporatedint o the structure we see today. Though Renaissance sources attribute the current Ponte Vecchios design to Taddeo Gaddi (1300 -1366 ), a strong case can be made for Neri di Fioravanti (? - 1374) as the mastermind whose Fourteenth Century reconstruction hasendured the tests of time (including the ruinous flood of 1966).

The Bridge has always been home to shops and merchants who display goods on tables. The word bankruptcy, as a matter of fact, originated here in the Middle Ages. If, for any reason, a tradesman could not pay his commercial or personal debts, the table(banco ) on which he transacted business was physically smashed ( rotto ) by soldiers enforcing the laws of the City-State.

During World War II, every bridge in Florence was destroyed by the Germans EXCEPT for the Ponte Vecchio, on express ordersfrom Hitler himself.

The Vasari Corridor was built above the bridge in 1565 to connect the Palazzo Vecchio, or Town Hall, with the Palazzo Pitti(residence of the Medicis). This passageway houses on e of the Ufizzis most important collections, but it is not open to th e generalpublic, and guided tours, while more frequent lately than ever before, are still not easy to schedule.

Until quite recently, it was common for tourists traveling as couples to fasten padlocks (thousands each year) onto the railings of the Ponte Vecchio and then to drop the keys of those locks into the current below, symbolically bonding themselves in eternallove. Now that the City imposes a hefty fine for this romantic gestu re, there s much less locking and bonding in Florence.


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Archi tec t (s) : Giot to d i Bondone (1267 1337) and two successors named below

Date and Locat ion: 1334 1359 / Adjacent to S . Maria del Fiore , Florence

Descr ip t ion: Ris ing to a height of near ly 278 feet , th is f ree-s tanding bel l tower (on the lef t in the photoabove) i s sus ta ined by polygonal but t resses and is d ivided in to f ive levels . Giottos faade , in harmonywith the Church (on the r ight in the photo) des igned by Arnalfo di Cambio (1240 - 1310) , used geometr icpat terns of whi te marble f rom Carrara, green marble f rom Prato , and red marble f rom Siena. There areseven hexagonal bas-re l iefs on each s ide (seven s ignifying human perfect ib i l i ty in Bibl ica l numerology) .

In 1343, Giot tos p lans were fur ther rea l ized by Andrea Pisano (1290 - 13 48) , who f in ished levels two andthree before the Black Death (1348) brought const ruct ion to a temporary s tandst i l l . P isano was replacedby Francesco Talent i (13 00 1369) , who completed the top three levels and made the decis ion to omitGiot tos p lan for a sp i re . 414 s teps lead up to an impress ive viewing area .

Since 1967, a l l the works of ar t in the Campani le have been copies . The or ig inals are on display nearbyin the Museo de l l Opera de l Duomo. To g ive a sense of the externa l panels complexi ty as a decora t ivescheme, the nor th s ide of the f i rs t level ce lebra tes creat iv i ty as documented in The Book of Genes is : thecrea t ion of Adam, the c rea t ion of Eve , the labors of our f i r s t parents , Jabal s f i r s t at tempts a t animalhusbandry, Jubal s invent ion of musica l ins t ruments , Tubalca ins i ronwork, and Noahs agr icul tura linnovat ions . On the south s ide of the bui ld in g are corresponding images of c lass ica l p ioneers inas t ronomy, archi tec ture , medic ine , hunt ing, wool-working, legis la t ion, and s imple machinery. Lozengeson the higher levels conta in images of the seven planets , the seven l ibera l ar ts , the seven sacraments ,e tc . Taken as a whole , inc luding the s ta tues in n iches , the bel l tower i s covered wi th a c oherent survey of medieval scholast ic phi losophy. And, of course , there are seven bel ls .


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Archi tec ts : Michelangelo Buonarot t i (1475 1564) , Niccolo Tr ibolo (1500 -1550) , andBartolomeo Ammanat i (1511 1592)

Date and Locat ion: 1525 1571 / TheLaurent ian Library is lo cated in a c lo is ter of the monastery of San Lorenzo di Fi renze

Descr ip t ion: Bui l t under the pat ronage of PopeClement VII (1478 - 1534) , th i s exemplar of Manner is t Archi tec ture houses the personall ibrary of the Medici family, inc luding morethan 11,000 manuscr ip ts and 4 ,500 ear lypr in ted books .

I t i s impossible to und ers tand the his tory of Renaissance Florence apar t f rom the for tunesand inf luence of the Medici , who rose f rom

origins in mercant i le pursui ts and banking to aposi t ion of prominence in both pol i t ica l andeccles ias t ica l socie ty. The Medici were a lsodiscr iminat ing and enthusias t ic sponsors of many scholars and ar t i s ts , thus se t t ing thecul tura l agenda not only for thei r own d ay butfor centur ies to come.

Michelangelo worked wi th the d imensions of the space that he was hi red to t ransform, bui ld ing wal lsupon older wal ls wi th the use of recessed columns. Blank, taper ing tabernacle windows f ramed inpie t ra serena c i rcumscr ibe the in ter ior. The l ight sources are c leres tor ies in the west wal l , s i tuatedwithin bays ar t icula ted by pi las ters which correspond to the beams of the ce i l ing.

An as tonishing s ta i rcase takes up hal f the f loo r space of the l ibrary s vest ibule . The t reads of the centra lf l ight are convex and vary in width , whi le the outer f l ights are st ra ight . The three lowest s teps of thecentra l f l ight are wider and higher than the others , l ike oval concentr ic s labs . The s imul taneouslyar t i f ic ia l and organic aspects of th is fea ture are unique in archi tec tura l h is tory. As an assemblage,Michelangelo s ent rance to the l ibrary s reading room conveys a sense of ambigui ty wi th i t s unor thodoxfeatures ; wi th i t s compress ion i t conveys a sense of res t ra ined energy.


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Archi tec t : Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598 1680)

Date and Locat ion: 1656 1675 / Saint Peter s Square

Descr ip t ion: Of a l l Bernini s re l ig ious works , none is more inspi red (or more inspi r ing) than Saint Peter sSquare . The oval (a lmost 644 feet wide) consis ts of two semici rc les f raming a centra l rec tangle . Thecurved par t of th is e l l ipse i s c losed off wi th an imposing Doric colonnade conta ining 284 t raver t inecolumns, each more than f i f ty - two feet h igh and arranged in rows four deep creat ing three gal ler ies .Above the colonnade s tand ninety-s ix s ta tues , each more than ten fee t ta l l , f requent ly descr ibed as acrown of hermits , confessors , and miss ionar ies . For ty-four more s tatues s tand a top the balus t rade of the t rapezoidal por t ico which runs up to the bas i l ica , symbol ic of the many pi lgr ims who t ravel to Romeeach year. The overa l l e ffec t that Bernini was charged to embody had been descr ibed hal f a centuryear l ier in the fo l lowin g passage f rom The Chig i Codex (1600) : Saint Peter s , be ing vi r tual ly the matr ix of a l l o ther churches , should have a por t ico whic h could receive wi thin i t s open ar ms not only Cathol ics to

conf i rm them in thei r fa i th , and here t ics to reuni te them with the Church, but even inf idels to i l luminatethem as to the True Fai th .

The obel isk in the middle of the square i s the se cond larges t in Rome and was or ig inal ly commiss ioned byCaius Cornel ius Gal lus (70 26 BC), a Roman prefect to Egypt . Made of red or ienta l grani te , i t weighs 32 7tons , and once s tood on the spina , or centra l d iv iding is land of the race t rack named for the EmperorNero (AD 37 68) . At the base of th is obel isk , Saint Peter and 980 of the f i rs t Chr is t ian mar tyrs a t Romeconfessed thei r fa i th in the face of death . His tor ians record that Peter was cruci f ied upside down withins ight of the obel isk (1 3 October AD 64) in an evening display which was l i t by the wax-dipped bodies of h is fe l low bel ievers , se t ablaze as human candles . Sixtus V (1520 1590) ordered the addi t ion of inscr ip t ions on the base of the obel isk declar ing the t r iumph of Chr is t iani ty ov er paganism.

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