This review examines some little known aspects of Roman art and architecture, dealing especially with complex allusions to Ancient Egypt. The first part considers the legacy of the Egyptian goddess Isis to European civilisation and goes on to discuss obelisks and the significance of the Isaeum Campense in Imperial and later Rome.
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References
1.
J. S. Curl: ‘Egyptomania. The Egyptian revival as a recurring theme in the history of taste’, 9–24 and passim; 1994, Manchester, Manchester University Press. See alsoDe VosM.: ‘L'Egittomania in pitture e mosaici Romano-Campani della prima età imperiale’; 1980, Leiden, E. J. Brill.
2.
CurlJ. S.: ‘The Egyptian revival’; 1982, London, George Allen & Unwin.
3.
WittR. E.: ‘Isis in the Graeco-Roman world’; 1971, London, Thames& Hudson; V. Tran Tam Tinh: ‘Le culte des divinites orientales en Campanie’; 1972, Leiden, E. J. Brill; V. Tran Tam Tinh: ‘Isis lactans’; 1973, Leiden, E. J. Brill; and F. Dunand: ‘Le culte d'Isis dans le bassin oriental de la Méditerrannée’; 1973, Leiden, E. J. Brill.
4.
1837, Paris, Gaumefrères.
5.
1683, KettelerCologne, P.GrandjeanCompare Y.: ‘Une nouvelle arétalogie d'Isis à Maronée’; 1975, Leiden, E. J. Brill.
6.
Lucius Apuleius: ‘Metamorphoses’, Vol. 11, 47, based on the translation by William Adlington of 1566. SeeDartonF. J. Harvey(ed.): ‘The golden ass of Lucius Apuleius’, 336–338; 1924, London, Navarre Society Ltd.
7.
IversenE.: ‘Obelisks in exile. I. The obelisks of Rome’; 1968, Copenhagen, Gad.
8.
HabachiL.: ‘The obelisks of Egypt: skyscrapers of the past’; 1984, Cairo, American University in Cairo Press.
9.
DebenedettiE.: ‘Valadier’; 1979, Rome, Bulzoni.
10.
CurlJ. S.: ‘The Oxford dictionary of architecture’, 695–696; 1999, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
11.
RoulletA.: ‘The Egyptian and Egyptianising monuments of Imperial Rome’; 1972, Leiden, E. J. Brill. The catalogue raisonné in Roullet's work is an essential reference for all students of this subject.
12.
For Pius VI and obelisks, seeCollinsJ.: ‘Obelisk designs by Giovanni Stern’, Burlington Magazine, February 2000, cxlii, 90–100(I am grateful to Mr Cattermole for this reference). See also A. M. corbo: ‘L'attivita romana e il testamento di Giovanni Antinori, architetto de Pio VI’, L'Arte, 1972, 17, 133–146.
13.
Straight, formal avenue of great magnificence, lined on either side by columns, sphinxes, statues, obelisks, etc., leading to a holy of holies, and associated with courts, porticoes, and colonnades on both sides. At the Isaeum Campense (which Apuleius mentions in‘Metamorphoses’) the dromos provided the formal axis linking the Isaeum to the Serapaeum, Isis the Great Goddess with Osiris the Resurrected, the Invincible. For Serapis (or Sarapis) seeEngelmannH.: ‘The Delian aretalogy of Sarapis’; 1975, Leiden, E. J. Brill and W. Hornbostel: ‘Sarapis’; 1973, Leiden, E. J. Brill, a very comprehensive study.
14.
Called the Circo Agonale, or Circus or Stadium of Domitian. The name ‘Navona’ is said to be derived from the ‘agones’ or contests which took place in the Circus. The great church of Sant’ Agnese in Agone (from 1652), by Girolamo (1570–1655) and Carlo (1611–91) Rainaldi and Francesco Borromini (1599–1667) stands on the western side of the piazza. St Agnes is the virgin martyr who died c. 305 by being pierced through the throat with a sword, and the ‘in Agone’ simply refers to the location of the church, and not to her martyrdom or pain.
15.
D'onofrioC.: ‘Gli obelischi di Roma’; 1967, Rome, Bulzoni.
16.
Face of a pediment contained between the horizontal and raking cornices (in a triangular pediment), or between the horizontal and segmental cornices (in a segmental pediment), often enriched with sculpture in relief, or sometimes plain (see Ref. 10, pp. 488–489).
17.
See, for example, items 1–67 in Anne Roullet's catalogue raisonné (Ref. 11) and also Ref. 1, passim.
18.
GilbertP.: ‘Le fronton arrondi en Égypte et dans l'art Gréco-Romain’, inChronique d’Égypte: Bulletin Périodique de la Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, 1942, xvii, 83–90. See also Ref. 1, pp. 18–36 and P. G. P. Meyboom: ‘The Nile mosaic of Palestrina: early evidence of Egyptian religion in Italy’, 248 (Note 83); 1995, Leiden, E. J. Brill. Professor Meyboom, following previous scholars, has noted that the curved roof and segmental pediment belong to an old tradition in Egyptian wood and reed buildings which entered the classical language of architecture via Ptolemaic Egypt.
19.
GellW. and GandyJ. P.: ‘Pompeiana: the topography, edifices, and ornaments of Pompeii’; 1852, London, Henry G. Bohn. See also V. Tran Tam Tinh: ‘Le culte des divinités orientales à Herculanum’; 1971, Leiden, E. J. Brill.
20.
In other words, with four Ionic columns forming a portico at the front (see Ref. 10, pp. 157, 522, 661–662).
21.
Unit of linear measurement based on a sixteenth part of the level by which the Nile rose in flood, and subsequently standardised as the distance from the human male elbow to the middle fingertip. An Egyptian cubit was about 52–42 cm.
22.
D'onofrioC.: ‘Le fontane di Roma’, 123–124; 1957, Rome, Staderini. See also Ref. 11, pp. 130–131 and C. H. Tatham: ‘Etchings’; 1826, London, Priestley & Weale.
