Significant underground construction of the second half of the fourth century AD, excavated at the end of 1800s within the Salario Cemetery
Believed to be a Christian baptistery or a mysteries sanctuary, but more likely to be a monumental fountain
Plan similar to the one of a circus (hippodrome) of 21 x 7 m (69 x 23 feet)
RECTANGULAR BASIN separated from the rest of the room by a pierced marble balustrade rebuilt with original fragments. It is topped by an arched wall with fragments of mosaic representing "Figure kneeling in front of a source and another standing figure" maybe St. Peter who makes water flow from the rock to baptize the converted centurion. In the lower part of the wall fresco "Cupids fishing"
NICHE IN THE WALL offset from the axis of the building with frescoes: in the basin "Kàntharos from which water flows and on which doves rest"
On the left end side of the niche "Diana the huntress extracting an arrow from his quiver as two deers run away"
On the right end side of the niche "Nymph petting a deer"
"During the revival of classical and pagan themes, linked to the empire of Julian the Apostate (361/363), the dense pictoricial qualities, the uses of different shades of color to achieve a naturalistic rendering of the body and a sense of plasticity are the result of a clear classicist intention, also linked to the adoption of models derived from the Hellenistic tradition, as well as the taste for landscape setting" (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)
No comments:
Post a Comment