Rome in the Footsteps of an XVIIIth Century Traveller

You may wish to see a page on the town first.

Exhibits of the Archaeological Museum

Terracotta decorations of temples: (left) early Vth century BC cladding slab decorated with palmettes and lotus flowers from the Temple of Juno Moneta; (right) heads of lions and warriors (IInd century BC)

The sima, the uppermost part of the cornice of an Etruscan temple, was composed of adjacent terracotta slabs (see an example at Arezzo). The early temples of Rome and its first colonies (e.g. Praeneste) were based on Etruscan models and so were those on the Acropolis of Segni. They were decorated with vivid colours which we tend not to associate with ancient temples (see a reconstructed temple from Alatri, near Segni).

Votive terracotta small statues (above, including one of Minerva) and some of their heads (below) from the Acropolis (IVth - IInd century BC)

Recent excavations in the Acropolis unearthed a donarium, a deposit of votive small statues some of which include parts of the human body, similar to that which was discovered in Rome in 1887 in a shrine dedicated to Minerva. At Lanuvio, not far from Segni, votive statues were dedicated to Juno Sopita (she who favours). These offers were meant to cure illnesses and wounds, but also to propitiate good harvests.

Votive bronzes from the Acropolis: (left) small statues portraying Hercules (see similar ones in the vale of L'Aquila; (right) thin sheets with human shapes, most likely having an apotropaic (against evil eye) purpose

Some slightly wealthy donors could afford to offer a small bronze statue. The Romans dedicated several temples (e.g. Tempio di Ercole Vincitore aka Tempio di Vesta) and statues (e.g. the gilded one near Teatro di Pompeo) to Hercules, whom they believed passed through Rome on his way back to Greece after the tenth and eleventh labours in which he stole the cattle of Geryon and the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides, the nymphs of evening and therefore of the West. In a hymn dedicated to him his healing power was so described:
With arms unshaken, infinite, divine, come, blessed pow'r, and to our rites incline;
The mitigations of disease convey, and drive disasterous maladies away.
Come, shake the branch with thy almighty arm, dismiss thy darts and noxious fate disarm.
Orphic Hymn to Hercules - late Hellenistic or early Roman Imperial age - Transl. by Thomas Taylor

Ist century BC funerary altars with a Doric frieze with triglyphs and metopes alternately decorated with rosettes; one of them has a later inscription "sine religione" (without religion)

The altars were used as wellheads which explains why they survived to our days; the inscription on one of them most likely indicated that it did not have a religious significance any longer. Their body is decorated with festoons (see a round altar at the Republican temples of Torre Argentina), plants and stylized bucrania (ox skulls) which were often depicted on altars (e.g. one at Musei Capitolini) and funerary monuments (e.g. Tomba di Cecilia Metella).

(left/centre) Fragments of statues from the Forum of Segni (Augustan age); (right) marble leg of a table (see similar ones at Palestrina and Pompeii)

One of the fragments depicts the leg of a male man, because of the nearby eagle the statue is believed to have possibly portrayed Emperor Augustus, but also other emperors of the Ist century AD, e.g. Claudius. The eagle was an attribute of Zeus and the bird was depicted at the top of his sceptre in the famous statue by Phidias at Olympia. Assuming the male statue portrayed Augustus, the female one could have depicted Livia, his third wife (see an assumed statue of Livia at Merida in Spain).

Other Roman statues which were found at Steccato outside Porta Foca: (left) funerary female statue in white marble, of excellent workmanship. The figure, without the head and the lower part of the legs, wears a dress tied at the waist with a knot and has the body wrapped in a thin cloak. It is perhaps an allegory of Modesty, a typical virtue of Roman matrons; (right) statue representing a female figure wearing a Doric peplos with subtle transparencies (based on models developed in Greece in the Vth century BC) and fragment of the lower part of a female statue, standing on the left leg and with the right leg slightly retracted and bent

These white marble statues were perhaps part of an early Ist century BC monument.

Medieval exhibits: (left) slab which was decorated with Cosmati work and placed in the Cathedral; (right) Crucifixion (XIVth century) which was sculptured in a Roman altar

The image used as background for this page is based on the decoration of a "Terra Sigillata" cup (see two vases at Arezzo).

Paintings inside the Cathedral

Cathedral: (left) interior; (right) central dome with a fresco portraying the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, saints and angels by Giovanni Battista Cortese

The Cathedral was entirely rebuilt in the first half of the XVIIth century and it was decorated in the second part of the century. It has a Greek cross shape with six side chapels, some of which are covered by a dome. The central dome was painted by Giovanni Battista Courtois (Ital. Cortese), a Capuchin friar with the name of Fra Antonio, who was a junior brother of Guillaume and Jacques Courtois who were both painters and who were referred to as il Borgognone, after Burgundy, their country of origin. They were commissioned large paintings at S. Maria dell'Assunzione at Ariccia and at Palazzo Pamphilj di Valmontone.

The Discovery of the True Cross by il Borgognone

The two brothers, or perhaps only one of them, painted some large canvasses to complete the work of their junior brother. Jacques specialized in landscapes and crowded scenes of battles, features which can be noticed also in this religious painting. He was referred to as il Borgognone delle Battaglie.

(left) Altar of the Rosary: (right) The Virgin Mary handing the rosary over to St. Dominic at the presence of St. Catherine of Siena and of four playing and singing small cherubs, attributed to Pietro da Cortona (see some putti which he painted at Palazzo Pitti)

Today the historical attribution of the altarpiece to Pietro da Cortona, in the lack of specific records, is generally disregarded and art historians suggest the hand of a good pupil of Carlo Maratta, the leading painter in late XVIIth century Rome. See a painting of the late XVIth century depicting the same subject in a church at Sant'Oreste and one by Carlo Maratta in Palermo.

Chapel of St. Francis: Glory of St. Francis and the Saint receiving the stigmata

The decoration of this chapel is attributed either to Giambattista Gaulli aka il Baciccio (1639-1709), who is best known for his illusionistic ceiling of il Gesù, or to Lazzaro Baldi (1624-1703 - see one of his finest paintings at S. Giovanni in Laterano). Most likely the paintings were executed by their assistants.
You may wish to see some selected paintings of the XVIIth century at Galleria Spada.

Return to the page on the town
Introductory page on Ferdinand Gregorovius
Previous page of this walk: Valmontone and Montefortino
Next pages of this walk: Carpineto, Norma and Cori
Other walks:
The Roman Campagna: Colonna and Zagarolo, Palestrina, Cave, Genazzano, Olevano, Paliano and Anagni
The Ernici Mountains: Ferentino, Frosinone, Ceccano, Ceprano, Alatri, Fiuggi (Anticoli di Campagna), Piglio and Acuto
On the Latin shores: Anzio and Nettuno and Torre Astura plus An Excursion to Ardea and An Excursion to Lavinium (Pratica di Mare)
Circe's Cape: Terracina and San Felice
The Orsini Castle in Bracciano
Subiaco, the oldest Benedictine monastery
Small towns near Subiaco: Cervara, Rocca Canterano, Trevi and Filettino.