Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: activist, bronze, CO2, emission, environment, gas mask, marble, pollution, protest, rome, statue, terra
Thursday morning, June 5th, 2008 –
The people of Rome woke up to the sight of 150 famous statues wearing gas masks and no-entry road signs bearing the chemical symbol for carbon dioxide.
Activists from an environment group named Terra! have coaxed the statues of Roman emperors lining Via dei Fori Imperiali, magistrates from Rome’s Palace of Justice, and Garibaldi’s generals on Janiculum Hill to join them in urging the European Commission to issue new regulations for reduction of greenhouse gas and carbon emissions from cars.
This movement also demonstrates the effects of air-borne pollutants on the city’s statues and monuments. Marble and bronze masterpieces of Roman gods, angels, and saints have been victims of erosion and discoloration.
-
- Statues protest against pollution
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bronze, copper, melt, metal, pliny the elder, recycle, rome, scrap, statue
According to Roman historian Pliny the Elder, worn metal statues from regions that the Roman Empire conquered were torn down and sent to Rome. Pliny also discusses the reuse of scrap copper and scrap reuse facilities. Brindisi, an Italian port city for melting and recasting foundries, was located at the terminus of the Appian Way, the portal into eastern parts of the Roman Empire.
Scrap metal and statues commemorating ancient gods and heroes were melted down and recast as weapons, armor, and objects for personal use (i.e. bronze mirrors).
One can argue that this ancient bronze recycling trade was founded primarily on political reasons rather than economical ones. As the Roman Empire expanded throughout the Mediterranean world, the areas under Roman control needed to be secured using a psychological tactic — the statues of idols that the conquered people had been attached to would be removed from all the public squares and agoras.
-
- Ancient Bronze Recycling Trade
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: alexander the great, bronze, ephesus, greek, marble, pliny the elder, seven wonders of ancient world, statue, temple of artemis, temple of diana
Pliny the Elder describes the Temple of Artemis as the “most wonderful monument of Graecian magnificence” in his Natural History. It is located in Ephesus, on a site composed of marshy soil, in order to compromise for the effects of violent earthquakes. But since the foundation was loose and shifted, layers of trodden charcoal and fleeces covered with wool were laid on top.
This temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, had been burned down and rebuilt over and over again. Each time the Temple of Artemis was destroyed, it was rebuilt on the same site, except at a higher level and with greater magnificence and richness.
800 BCE – Temple of Artemis was first built.
550 BCE – Temple is destroyed in war. King Croesus of Lydia conquers Ephesus and rebuilds another temple on the same site.
356 BCE – Temple is burned down by Herostratus, whose motive was eternal fame.
350 BCE – Temple begins to be rebuilt.
333 BCE – Temple is still not completely reconstructed. Alexander the Great offers to finance its completion (only if Ephesus credits him as the builder); the city refused to carve his name on the temple.
When Ephesus fell into a decline, the ruins of the temple was used as a source of building materials. In order to make http://ipalimpsest.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/lighthouse/ for wall plaster, the fine sculptures were pounded into powder. The stones of the temple were used to construct a Christian church nearby. When the Turks came years later, they turned that ancient Christian church into a quarry for building materials to create a mosque.
Some portions of the temple remains are kept at the British Museum today. D.G. Hograth found evidence of five temples constructed on top of each other at the site of the Temple of Artemis.
-
- Temple of Artemis (Temple of Diana)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: alexander the great, alexandria, ancient, arab, bronze, engraving, fire, flame, greek, inscription, lighthouse, lime, marble, mirror, monument, nile river, plaster, pliny the elder, seven wonders of ancient world, sostratus
After the death of Alexander the Great, his general, Ptolemy I Soter, made himself king and initiated the building of the Pharos of Alexandria. The Pharos of Alexandria, forerunner of all lighthouses, was built by Sostratus of Knidos during 3rd century BC. It is located on an Island of Pharos, and serves as Alexandria port’s landmark and lighthouse, and idea adopted by the Romans.
The use of fire and reflective mirrors dates back to 1st century AD during the Roman period. A huge, polished, bronze mirror at the very top of the 400-foot, three-stage tower brightly reflects the light of a fire that burns day and night. The flame can be spotted up to 56 kilometers (35 miles) out at sea. A large ramp inside the building allows horse-drawn wagons to carry fuel up to the burning lamp.
Under Ptolemy’s orders, Sostratus was forbidden from putting his name on his work, so Sostratus secretly hid his name underneath a tablet of lime that claimed Ptolemy as the builder of Pharos. Centuries later, the plaster wore away, revealing Sostratus’s name underneath.
The Pharos of Alexandria was severely damaged due to several earthquakes, but survived till the 14th century.
796 AD – Pharos of Alexandria lost its upper story.
896 AD – Ibn Touloun built domed mosque on the summit of Pharos of Alexandria.
950-956 AD – Pharos of Alexandria lost 22 meters in height.
1261 – More masonry fell after another earthquake.
1272 – Sultan Saladin ordered restoration work.
1326 – Final collapse of Pharos of Alexandria.
1480 – Egyptian Mameluke Sultan Ashraf Quaitbay built a fort over the ruins.
-
- Pharos of Alexandria
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ancient, christian, concrete, fire, great fire of rome, julia domna, marble, nero, restoration, sacred flame, temple, theodosius, vesta
The Romans attached great importance to sacred or eternal flames. On the first day of every new year (March 1st), flames within every house would be put out and new ones would be lit from the flame in the Temple of Vesta, which dates back to the 4th century BC.
The Temple of Vesta housed a sacred flame as a dedication to the protectress of family and Senate as well as a reminder of the history of worshipping Vesta, which began on the hearths of private homes.
The small temple itself is modeled after Roman houses, shaped like a round hut. Ten of the twenty slender columns supporting the roof remains standing today. An opening in the center of the roof allowed smoke from the sacred flame to escape.
The Temple of Vesta burned down twice in written history. The first time was during the Great Fire of Rome, started by Nero in 64 AD. Then in 191 AD, it burned to its foundations, but Empress Julia Domna, Septimus Severus’ wife, restored it afterwards.
However, during its original restorations, the temple was not rebuilt from scratch. Most of the scorched marble was resurfaced with Roman concrete, concealing all the intricate carvings on the original marble.
In 394 AD, Theodosius I put out the sacred flame. The temple became a Christian church for centuries, and by the 16th century, the temple has been stripped of its marble and contents.
-
- Eternal/Sacred Flame
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: baths of titus, baths of trajan, brick, bronze, colosseum, concrete, domus aurea, flavian amphitheatre, fresco, gold, golden house, great fire of rome, ivory, marble, nero, pliny the elder, sol, statue, tempus of venus and roma, trajan, trompe l'oeuil, urban, vespasian, via appia
After the Great Fire in 64 AD devastated Rome and destroyed two-thirds of the city, Nero used created a new urban development plan, leading to Roman houses to be more spaced out, built in brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads.
Nero used from 100 to 300 acres of the land that was cleared away by the fire to build himself the Domus Aurea, also known as the “Golden House.” The Domus Aurea was built of brick and concrete and included a man-made lake. His 300 rooms were sheathed in polished white marble. The hallways were decorated almost entirely in gold. The stuccoed ceilings had semi-precious stones and veneers of ivory, and the walls were decorated with many frescoed trompe l’oeuil works. One of the rooms had frescoes of Romans who seemed to be looking at you through painted windows on the walls.
At the entrance of the main palace by the terminus of Via Appia is a colossal bronze statue of Nero. Pliny the Elder writes about the resemblance he saw between Nero and the sun god Sol, and shortly after Nero’s death, the face of the statue was modified to appear more like Sol’s.
Since the Domus Aurea was such a severe embarrassment to Nero’s successors after his death, the palace and grounds were filled in with earth. Within a decade, the Domus Aurea was stripped of its marble, jewels, and ivory.
In 79 BC, Trajan built the Baths of Titus on part of the Domus Aurea site. Also, Emperor Vespasian tore down large parts of Domus Aurea and built the Flavian Amphitheatre on the site of the man-made lake, in the middle of the palace grounds. The Baths of Trajan and the Temple of Venus and Roma were built on the site as well.
-
- Domus Aurea (“Golden House”)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: borromini, fabullus, fresco, illusion, painting, painting style, palazzo spada, perspective, pliny the elder, pompei, rome, trompe-l'oeil
Trompe-l’oeil is incorporated into the second Pompeian style or the “architectonic style,” one of the four different styles in Roman wall painting. Parts of the wall are painted with architectural features and atmospheric, multi-point perspectives. The key characteristic of this painting style is to give a strong illusion of spatial extension of the wall.
The frescoes from Domus Aurea give the illusion of portability with trompe-l’oeil works of Romans who appear to be looking at you through windows painted on the walls. Other frescoed walls show mythical beasts among vines, trees, and fields. Fabullus, the Roman wall painter who worked on the Domus Aurea, is mentioned in Pliny the Elder’s writings.
The idea of trompe-l’oeil can be applied to more than just paintings, as seen in Francesco Borromini’s gallery within Palazzo Spada in Rome. The optical illusion of the gallery (only 8 meters long) appears to be 37 meters long, and the sculpture at the end (just 60 centimeters high) appears to be life-sized from the entry doorway. The illusion also tricks one into believing that both doorways are of the height through a subtle inclination of the pavement and ceiling, and a gradual decrease in the height of the columns.
-
- “Romans looking at you” Trompe-l’oeuil Fresco
