Скачать или смотреть Opus Sectile da Porta Marina di Ostia: An exceptional wall decoration of marble inlays, late IVth c.

" Archaeologists found a hall which had almost entirely been decorated with marble inlays. That indicates that the owner or the owners of the building were very rich. It could have been the seat of an important guild or the seaside residence of an important official, e.g. the Praefectus Urbi, a sort of governor of Rome, or the Praefectus Annonae, who was in charge of the grain supply to Rome. The building perhaps collapsed because of an earthquake in 393. Archaeologists did not find evidence of attempts to restore it, notwithstanding the money poured into its construction. The short span of life of the building coincided with the attempts made by members of the Roman senatorial class to resist the imposition of the Christian religion which had been decreed by Emperor Theodosius. In 394 Theodosius defeated a "pagan" army at the Battle of the River Frigidus and eventually the last open temples of Rome were closed. The fact that the building was not completed has been interpreted as indication that its landlord was either a Christian who had been persecuted by the Roman Senate or a pagan who had been persecuted after Theodosius' victory.
In general the decoration of the walls was based on traditional patterns (e.g. acanthus scrolls, peltae, geometric elements). The decoration of the floor recalls that of Curia Julia, the seat of the Roman Senate.
The upper parts of the side walls were decorated with four large panels depicting beasts in the act of attacking deer. This subject was not a novel one as it appeared in an opus sectile panel found at Basilica di Giunio Basso, in many prior mosaics and in the decoration of sarcophagi. Archaeologists were surprised to find two small panels on the right wall which did not fit into the overall decorative scheme. They depicted two men and it is likely that they had not been initially planned for, but were the result of an after-thought.
One of the two small panels portrays the bust of a bearded man raising his right hand and with a halo surrounding his head. The second panel portrays the bust of a young man. It is smaller and it is placed in a lower position and for these reasons it is believed that the young man is a pupil/follower of the bearded man. The initial interpretation of the first panel was that it portrayed Jesus Christ. As a consequence the building was identified as the house of a Christian or as a Christian oratory. This opinion was eventually challenged on the grounds that the early iconography of Jesus Christ was rather that of a young man without a beard (as portrayed in mosaics at Ravenna). According to this view the panel portrays Plotinus or another Neoplatonist philosopher, whose teachings in the late IVth century were regarded as an alternative to the Christian faith.
These two completely different views about the owner of the building do not impact on the artistic value of its opus sectile decoration and in particular of the panels portraying lions and tigers. Their unknown maker managed to depict the muscles of the animals by using pieces of the same marble having slightly different tones. The yellow marbles might have come from Simitthus in today's Tunisia.
https://www.romeartlover.it/Newostip....
Il Museo delle Civiltà Roma conserva una delle opere più straordinarie del periodo Tardo Antico. Tra il 2006 e il 2009 negli spazi del Museo dell’Alto Medioevo è stato ricomposto il sontuoso rivestimento in tarsie marmoree (opus sectile) della grande sala di un edificio del tardo IV secolo d. C., ritrovato nell’area sud-occidentale di Ostia Antica, fuori Porta Marina.
Si tratta di un’opera monumentale di circa 146 metri quadri di estensione, eccezionale per via dello stato conservativo, che rappresenta l’esempio più completo e spettacolare di una tecnica raffinatissima molto apprezzata dall’alta aristocrazia dell’Impero.
Tardo IV secolo d.C.
Museo delle Civiltà – sezione Museo dell’Alto Medioevo - EUR - ROMA
https://museocivilta.cultura.gov.it/l...