Wednesday, May 10, 2017

MASSIMO PALACE - NATIONAL ROMAN MUSEUM (second part)

First Gallery - Anonymous Republican Portraits
“Elderly Woman” Augustan period (27 BC/14 AD) from Palombara Sabina
“This hairstyle, attested for the first time in Octavia, later became the official hairstyle of Livia, since when she assumed the title of Augusta. Here it is represented in its simplest form, without the division in the middle, and it highlights, in the eclectic combination with the lifelike features of the face, the phenomenon of Zeitgesicht (face of the period), that is, the conscious attempt by the lower classes of the population to homologate with the official iconographic model, through the quotation of hairstyles or facial features relevant to members of the imperial house” (Brunella Germini)
First Room - Portraits of the Roman Ruling Class
“General from Tivoli” about 70 BC from the Temple of Hercules at Tivoli
“The typical traits of the tradition of the veristic Italic portrait contrast in a unique way with the powerful muscles of the body and the representation of the figure as a hero, which are rather based on late Hellenistic sculpture models” (Brunella Germini)
“Victorious General” II sec. BC
“Head of a young woman” end of the first century BC
It is the only example of the calendar of Numa Pompilius (the second king of Rome) with 355 days in 12 months dating back to the Republican age before the reform of Julius Caesar
Second Room - Evolution of the image during the periods of Caesar and Augustus
“Funerary stele of the Rabirii” about 40 BC with portrait on the right of Usia priestess of Isis reworked not before 40 AD
“Portrait of a Man” beginning of the first century AD
It was found in the River Tiber and it perhaps represents Brutus, the exiled Agrippa Postumus or a private citizen combed and shown according to the canons of the Augustan portraiture
“Relief of limestone with curulis saddle” mid-first century BC from Torre Gaia
“The relief depicts a curulis saddle (a folding stool made of wood, ivory and leather, used by the senators and magistrates on official occasions) and, below this, a cylindrical container (capsa) for documents, resting on a base ( ...). Origin of luck and dissemination of this theme is the gift by the senators of a curulis saddle made of gold to Julius Caesar, on the occasion of his triumph of 50 BC. The seat also appeared as a result on some coins with symbolic value and evocative of the almost kingly prerogatives of the character and it was also used on private monuments as a symbol of the dignity of magistrates” (Vittoria Lecce)
It is a calendar made by the grammarian Verrius Flaccus and it is a very important document showing the reform introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC
In the old Numan calendar the days were calculated according to their distance from three specific days of the month: the Calende (first crescent moon), the Nones (first quarter moon) and the Ides (full moon)
Under the Julian calendar any connection with the phases of the moon was abandoned even if the names were kept. A system of division of the days in groups of nine was introduced, similar to our weeks, as well as a definition of the days which could be fasti (activities permitted), nefasti (activities not permitted), comitiales (activities not permitted except political ones), endotercisi nefasti (nefasti at the beginning and end of the day but fasti in the middle) and so on
The Julian calendar was used until the late 1500s when the Gregorian Calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni (1572/85)

No comments:

Post a Comment