Collecting Culture: Statues and Fragments in Roman Gardens

chapter 12 Collecting Culture: Statues and Fragments in Roman Gardens

Richard Neudecker

Introduction it forgotten that it was a place of cult (Cicero, in Verrem ii.4,3–4; Zimmer, 1989). In the 2nd century ce Loukianos, Seen from the point of view of our contemporary cultural in a satire with the title “The Lover of Lies”, constructs a activities, Roman collections of art and particularly those virtual private museum of a small collection of high-rank- located in Roma itself give the impression of something ing masterworks of sculpture in the peristylium of a house. familiar (Strong, 1973; Chevallier, 1991: 132–156; Bergmann, One of those statues, a famous work of art by Demetrios of 1995; Bounia, 2004; Rutledge, 2012). In ancient times, Alopeke, is venerated like any cult image of a helpful god they were a rather surprising phenomenon: for the first and the marble’s wonderful surface is covered with wax time, masterpieces of sculpture and painting were cho- to fix all the votives of visitors (Loukianos, Philopseudes sen deliberately for their art value and exhibited in pub- 18–19). This means ancient viewers were always able to lic, and not as single works of art but in great numbers understand and retrieve the religious context surround- as ensembles, exactly as collections are. Their exhibition ing a work’s creation. in public on such a scale distinguishes this phenomenon We should best put to one side the modern, misleading resolutely from acquisitions of individual works of art by notion of “art collections” for the Roman era, and rather Hellenistic rulers, even though the courts in Pergamon look for motivations and cultural codes which led to such (Kuttner, chapter 4) and Alexandria (Calandra, 2011) compilations of works of art at special places, as are called may have strongly inspired Roman aristocrats of the late “collections”. The term, however, has to be preserved and Republic. Indeed it was those aristocrats who arranged without quotation marks – it is our definition, rather than such collections, first in their own private sphere and at our choice of words, that we shall have to adjust. Roman the same time in public spaces (Miles, 2008). collections – and not only Roman ones – are not float- With the recent graphic reconstructions of the ing but always connected with places of a specific sig- Temple of Apollo Sosianus (Viscogliosi, 1996) – to cite one nificance. The locus of works of art has an essential and example – it is easy to put oneself in a public museum, causal influence on their perception; therefore we may perhaps a slightly old-fashioned one. And how easy it is speak of a topology of art – even if this again is part of a to experience an accumulation of sculpture like the one discourse in our current art world (Groys, 2003). In the fol- in the Villa of the Papyri (see below) as a private museum lowing cases of the Roman world, topology is intended to is shown by the material reconstruction arranged by John explain how works of art carry something of their original Paul Getty in Malibu (Mattusch, 2005; Beard, 2009). On contexts with them and bring it to view in new contexts. the other hand, objections to such an understanding of That something is at least as important as enjoyment of ancient art collections are equally easy to find. Sosius’ the aesthetic qualities of the single piece: it is a whole cul- building was a temple with regular cult activities, like ture imagined, memorized and collected (Hölscher, 1987; every locus of public collections in Roma. Experiencing Bravi, 2012). I shall analyse some variations of collecting a museum visit in the way Cicero (in Verrem ii.4,126) culture and use widely known cases in order to avoid tir- describes a visit to the Temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei, ing introductions to sites. the Temple of Felicitas and the Porticus Metelli – other temples rich in statues – at best may be compared with a tourist’s visit to churches of art historical interest and Public Assemblages in Public Places their treasures, in Florence for example (Etienne, 2010; Gahtan, 2012). All works of art in temples are votives, first The best places to admire masterpieces of art in Roma of all, and contemplating them as works of art is a tempo- were public sanctuaries, according to Plinius (naturalis rary and personally restricted event. Excellent statues by historia xxxiv.37–93), who himself was a collector rather the most famous sculptors were gathered in the private than a connoisseur – a collector not of art but of infor- sacellum of Caius Heius in Messene in Cicero’s days, and mation on art (Ferri, 1946; Isager, 1991: 157–168; Carey, many a keen visitor came only to see them, but never was 2003: 99–101). He found a lot of information on the

Templum Pacis, the sanctuary of Pax, the goddess of Peace preserved and from their inscriptions (La Rocca, 2001: (Meneghini, 2009: 79–97), opened in 75 ce, financed ex 195–207), taken together with information written down manubiis (by booty from the Jewish War during the years by Plinius and in isolated notes, we can draw up a par- 66–70 ce), and filled with Greek statues and paintings, all tial inventory and thus gain an impression of the col- labelled with informative inscriptions – providing in this lection’s high rank. The bulk of the works was from the way a kind of a three-dimensional source book of Greek Classical period. The sculptors Praxiteles, Kephisodotos art history. Immediately after opening, Iosepos (historia and Parthenokles are attested by their inscribed names Ioudaikou polemou pros Rhomaious vii.5,7) also marvelled on bases in Greek. Statues of athletes from the Classical at the sanctuary’s architectural conception and the wealth period had arrived mostly from Olympia where their orig- of its decoration. It was “embellished” he reports “with inal bases were left behind. There, Pausanias (ix.1,20) in ancient masterpieces of painting and sculpture: indeed – the 2nd century ce saw the statue base of the pentathlete into that sanctuary were accumulated and stored all Pythokles by Polykleitos which had been transferred into objects for the sight of which men had once wandered the Templum Pacis. One of the best bronze statues ever over the whole world – πα᷑σαν τὴν οἰκουμένην –, eager to created by Naukydes, the statue of the athlete Khimon, still see them severally while they lay in various countries”. was to be admired in Olympia – tells Pausanias – but its Greece had finally been brought to Roma and nobody had duplicate at Argos, the athlete’s home town, had likewise to travel round the world to see the wonders of art. Every migrated into the Templum. By the hand of Leokhares, visitor of the Templum who had travelled in Greece, or at there was at least one sculpture, representing Zeus dis- a minimum to Attike, admiring works of art in the origi- guised as an eagle abducting Ganymedes, which served nal scene, knew that this was not the case (Adams & Roy, as a meeting point for homoerotic rendezvous (Plinius, 2007; Casson, 1974: 229–299; Elsner, 1994). naturalis historia xxxiv.79; Iuvenalis, saturarum libri Walking under the porticus, visitors admired a flower- ix.22–26 and scholia in Iuvenalem vetustiora, ad loc.), and ing sacred garden with long flowerbeds full of Gallic roses by Myron’s chisel a most famous cow (Prokopios, hyper and with water sparkling [fig. 12.1]. In the same moment ton polemon logoi [peri ton gotthikon polemon] iv.21). A they could admire works of art within the same porticus. statue of the personified River Nile from Egypt was much The porticus was divided lengthwise by a barrier made of noticed due to the rare stone it was made of, the basan- precious cipollino marble, which may be explained as a ite (Plinius, naturalis historia xxxvi.58). Paintings, too, device to separate a lane for walking at the back from a were exhibited. According to Ptolemaios Hephaistion, a safeguarded space nearer to the columns on which the “Battle of Alexandros at Issos” was the work of the female statues were exhibited (Meneghini, Corsaro & Pinna painter Helena (in Photios, bibliotheke, cxlix.28–33) and Caboni, 2009; Bravi, 2010; Bravi, 2012: 167–181). In later a “Skylla” was painted by Nikomakhos (Plinius, naturalis times, when Hadrianus, too, celebrated a triumph over historia xxxv.108). Further sculptures were transferred Iudaea, further sculptures were added on large bases in from Nero’s Domus Aurea nearby in order to “make them front of the temple, situated in the middle axis of the public” again. Most of them, including works by Isigonos, area. Some of the bases for Greek sculpture have been Pyromakhos, Stratonikos and Antigonos, belonged to the

figure 12.1 Reconstruction of Templum Pacis in Rome (drawing by Inklink Firenze with kind permission).