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The San Vito Tomb at Pozzuoli

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Roger Ling
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Extract

In addition to the series of stucco reliefs recently acquired on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum, to three stuccoed panels from the Hartwig collection, and to a few miscellaneous pieces, the British Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities possesses nine large and eight smaller fragments of stucco-relief work about whose acquisition almost nothing is recorded. Till recently, they were not entered in the Department's Register, and had no accession numbers: the only distinguishing marks were blue diamond-shaped tabs stuck to five of them, and the numbers 63 and 99 scratched on the backs of two. Blue diamonds occur on several ancient objects which formed part of the collection of Sir William Hamilton, so it is possible that the stuccoes once belonged to the same illustrious antiquary. Indeed, a British Museum catalogue of 1817 definitely ascribes one of them to the Hamilton collection, and also reveals, in conjunction with a manuscript of 1824, that the remaining pieces were kept in the so-called ‘Hamilton Room’, most of whose contents had formerly been owned by Sir William.

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Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 38 , November 1970 , pp. 153 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1970

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References

1 PBSR, xxxiv, 1966, pp. 24–34Google Scholar, pls. VII–XI.

2 Accession nos. 1922 5–30, 1–3. One piece illustrated by Strong, E., Art in Ancient Rome (London, 1929), fig. 260Google Scholar.

3 Accession nos. WT 635; 1966 10–31, 11, 17–20. All unpublished.

4 Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum, 11th ed. (London, 1817), p. 103 (no. 3)Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 107; An Inventory or Account of the Contents of the XIIth Room in the Department of Antiquities (commonly called the Hamilton Room), such as they were in the Year 1824 …., p. 97fGoogle Scholar.

6 Sarnelli, P., Guida de' forestieri curiosi di vedere e d'intendere le cose più notabili di Pozzoli, Baja, Miseno, Cuma, ed altri luoghi convicini. Tradotta in Francese, accresciuta e di vaghe figure abbellita da A. Bulifon (Naples, 1697), p. 92Google Scholar and pl. facing. The first Italian edition appeared in 1685.

7 Paoli, P. A., Avanzi delle antichità esistenti a Pozzuoli, Cuma e Baja (Naples, 1768), pls. XXXII–IV, XXXVIII (upper fig.)Google Scholar.

8 Ibid., fol. 23. In fact Natali had died in 1765 (Ibid., fol. 36).

9 E.g. (short titles, publ. Naples unless otherwise stated), Parrino, D. A., Nuova guida de' forestieri (1709), p. 50Google Scholar; d'Ancora, G., Guida ragionata (1792), p. 69n., pl. XXIIGoogle Scholar; Paolini, R., Memorie sui monumenti di antichità (1812), p. 150Google Scholar; Panvini, P., Il forestiere alle antichità (1818), p. 41, pl. XVIIGoogle Scholar; Palatino, L., Storia di Pozzuoli (1826), p. 38f.Google Scholar; Dubois, C., Pouzzoles antique (Paris, 1907), p. 351f.Google Scholar, fig. 50. Most of these merely regurgitate the comments and drawings of their predecessors: there is serious doubt whether Parrino, D'Ancora and Palatino ever saw the tomb. See also, most recently, Maiuri, A., I Campi Flegrei (Itin. dei mus., gall, e mon. d'Italia 32), 3rd ed., 1958, p. 58f, fig. 33Google Scholar.

10 E.g., the recently excavated tombs of Via Celle (cf., before the excavations, ibid., p. 55, fig. 29).

11 Paoli, op. cit., fol. 23.

12 Cf. de Franciscis, A. and Pane, R., Mausolei romani in Campania (Naples, 1957), p. 66Google Scholar. On bradyseism at Pozzuoli, Maiuri, op. cit., p. 25f.

13 Calza, G., La necropoli del porto di Roma nell' Isola Sacra (Rome, 1940), pp. 44, 54, 80, figs. 9, 10Google Scholar.

14 Cf. ibid., pp. 54, 80. Nor did our amphora itself contain any form of burial (at least, no human remains were found in it).

15 If so, the tomb on the right of B was subsequently replaced, for the present building there is certainly ater than B.

16 There the forecourts were usually walled (Vatican cemetery, tombs B, D, H, R; Isola Sacra, tombs 54, 75, 87, 93–5, etc.); but some of the Isola Sacra tombs have only open spaces with benches (e.g., 15, 23, 26, 77, 80). On funeral banquets, Calza, op. cit., p. 56.

17 For these and the swan see below, pp. 179, 181 and nn. 49, 51.

18 Maiuri, B., in Pompeiana. Raccolta di studi per il secondo centenario degli scavi di Pompei (Naples, 1950), pp. 185–91Google Scholar.

19 So Tatiana Warscher, in her unpublished Codex Pompeianus Topographicus (after Schöne, R., in Arch. Zeit., xxvii, 1869, p. 107f.Google Scholar). Other suggestions are less convincing : B. Maiuri, op. cit., pp. 201– 3; Spinazzola, V., Pompei alla luce degli scavi nuovi di Via dell'Abbondanza (Rome, 1953), pp. 289–92Google Scholar.

20 For parallels, Antike Denkmäler, iii, pl. 34(B)Google Scholar; Mon. Ant., xxxi, 1926, col. 742f., fig. 30Google Scholar. The hand-shield is particularly associated with torches used in the lampadedromia: Rend. Linc., v, 31, 1922, p. 330fGoogle Scholar.

21 For permission to publish these pieces, and for their help in enabling me to study them, I am indebted to Dr. D. E. Strong and Mr. D. M. Bailey of the British Museum. The full registration numbers are 1966 10–31 1–10, 12–16 (no. 11 is omitted as being certainly from a different source); and, in the measurements here given, the first figure always refers to the height, the second to the width. For illustrations of some of the pieces, see Bankart, G. P., The Art of the Plasterer (London, 1908), figs. 14–17Google Scholar.

22 The joins were discovered by Dr. Strong.

23 B. Maiuri, op. cit., nos. 31, 40, 48.

24 Ibid., no. 38; cf. nos. 46, 53, 55 (in the latter case there are fillets on the roller itself). The cloth may have served to gird the waist of the operator (Spinazzola, op. cit., p. 289) or to wipe him or the roller clean (Warscher, op. cit.).

25 Paoli, op. cit. (see n. 7), fol. 36.

26 Ibid., fol. 23.

27 A summary catalogue of the first sale exists in the Library of the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. In the case of the 1809 sale, a complete catalogue of the first two days survives in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, but the third day is wanting. For aid with my enquiries into Hamilton and his sales I must thank Messrs. Christie, Manson & Woods, Mr. B. Fothergill, Prof. U. Limentani, and Mr. O. Warner.

28 De Franciscis–Pane, op. cit. (see n. 12), fig. 25.

29 Other possible examples appear in nineteenth-century publications (Minervini, G., Bull. Arch. Ital., i, 1861–1862, pp. 178–82Google Scholar; Ruggiero, M., Degli scavi di antichità nelle province di Terraferma, Naples, 1888, pp. 184f., 188Google Scholar). The single-chambered tombs on a plan published by Paoli (Paoli, op. cit., pl. XXXI) apparently lack the triple-aedicula scheme.

30 E.g., the first phase of columbarium 1 under San Sebastiano (Styger, P., Diss. Pont. Acc., 2nd ser., xiii, 1918, pp. 99–101, figs. 44–5Google Scholar).

31 E.g., tombs 46, 95 (first phases): Calza, op. cit. (see n. 13), pp. 312, 362f.; cf. fig. 40. I omit tombs built with arcosolia in the wall-bases.

32 Lugli, G., La tecnica edilizia romana (Rome, 1957), p. 506, pl. CXXXIXGoogle Scholar.

33 E.g., Blake, M. E., Ancient Roman Construction in Italy from the Prehistoric Period to Augustus (Washington, 1947), pp. 245–7Google Scholar; De Franciscis-Pane, op. cit., passim. On the dating see Mingazzini, P.-Pfister, F., Surrentum (Forma Italiae i, 2) (Florence, 1946), p. 131Google Scholar; cf. below, p. 180. The Suburban Baths at Herculaneum, dated shortly before A.D. 79, provide good examples (Maiuri, A., Ercolano, i nuovi scavi, Rome, 1958, pp. 147–73Google Scholar).

34 De Franciscis-Pane, op. cit., pp. 76ff., figs. 65–73. For the date, Rakob, F., in Kraus, T. ed., Das römische Weltreich (Berlin, 1967), p. 198Google Scholar.

35 Another tomb near San Vito at Pozzuoli (De Franciscis-Pane, op. cit., figs. 41–3); the Building of Eumachia and the Temple of Vespasian at Pompeii (Maiuri, A., L'ultima fase edilizia di Pompei, Spoleto, 1942, pls. IX, XbGoogle Scholar).

36 Günther, R. T., Pausilypon (Oxford, 1913), p. 201Google Scholar. So too were other mausolea in the region (De Franciscis-Pane, op. cit., passim).

37 In the apodyterium of the Sarno Baths at Pompeii; in tombs near Osimo (Auximum) and on the Via Laurentina at Ostia; and in two of the three sections of the tripartite vault in the apodyterium of the Stabian Baths at Pompeii.

38 Cumont, F., Lux perpetua (Paris, 1949), p. 293f.Google Scholar (birds); idem, Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des romains (Paris, 1942), p. 347f. (cupids).

39 Cf. Andreae, B., Studien zur römischen Grabkunst (Heidelberg, 1963), pp. 45, 84Google Scholar.

40 Ibid., pp. 133–9, 166.

41 Cumont, , Lux perpetua, p. 286Google Scholar; Recherches, p. 155 (n. 4), and p. 157 f. for another possibility.

42 Recherches, p. 455 f. (n. 3).

43 Strong, E. and Jolliffe, N., JHS, xliv, 1924, pp. 86, 92Google Scholar; Carcopino, J., La basilique pythagoricienne de la Porte Majeure (Paris, 1926), p. 298fGoogle Scholar.

44 Weicker, G., Der Seelenvogel in der alten Literatur und Kunst (Leipzig, 1902)Google Scholar; Dar.-Sag. iv, 2, p. 1354 f; Cumont, , Recherches, pp. 327 ffGoogle Scholar. For another view, Nilsson, M. P., Geschichte der griechischen Religion i 2 (Munich, 1967), pp. 197 f., 228 fGoogle Scholar. More simply, the Siren could be a type of grief: Nock, A. D., AJA, 1, 1946, p. 158Google Scholar.

45 Cf. van Hoorn, G., Med. Nederl. Hist. Inst. Rome, iv, 1924, p. 5Google Scholar; Cumont, , Recherches, pp. 469 ffGoogle Scholar. One wonders whether the inverted torch in our decoration does not also embody an allusion to death, like the lowered torches carried by cupids on sarcophagi (ibid., pp. 341, 391, 409, 411, 444).

46 On Dionysiac ideas in funerary art, see most recently Matz, F., Die dionysischen Sarkophage, i (Berlin, 1969), pp. 86–8Google Scholar. I prefer to think that representations of this sort are allegories of the joys available in the Afterlife to every one, rather than direct portrayals of joys reserved for the initiated.

47 Reinach, S., Répertoire de peintures grecques et romaines (Paris, 1922), pp. 94 (12, 13), 95 (1, 3, 4)Google Scholar.

48 Cf. paintings in the Catacombs of Domitilla (Wilpert, J., Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms, Freiburg, 1903, pls. 52, 53Google Scholar) and in the tomb of Octavia Paulina (Cumont, op. cit., p. 345f., fig. 76), both at Rome.

49 In a superficial search I have found over 40 monuments (mostly Pompeian houses) where the swan definitely appears, either painted or in stucco relief: in at least 18 cases it has a drape or fillet hanging from its beak, and in two it is perched on a patera (see Curtius, L., Die Wandmalerei Pompejis, Leipzig, 1929, fig. 109Google Scholar; Wadsworth, E. L., in MAAR, iv, 1924, pl. XIGoogle Scholar). Hawks occur in at least eight monuments (six houses or villas, one bath-building, one uncertain).

50 Cf. PBSR, xxxiv, 1966, p. 31 and n. 47Google Scholar.

51 Unillustrated. The only other close parallels known to me are in the Stabian Baths at Pompeii—in the socle of the palaestra-wall and the frieze of the women's caldarium (where perhaps water-birds are meant) and in the vault of the vestibule to the men's section.

52 Spinazzola, V., Le arti decorative in Pompei (1928), pl. 167Google Scholar. Sunken fields, like double-fillet frames, are rare in stucco-work outside the Pozzuoli region.

53 Inventory nos. 9581, 9585, 9594, 9629. Cf. nos. 9568, 9571, 9573, of unknown provenance.

54 The domed tomb-chamber mentioned in PBSR cit., p. 31, n. 47.

55 Not. Scav., 1927, p. 331, fig. 12Google Scholar.

56 The published illustration (Lugli, Tecnica edilizia, pl. CCVII, 1) does not show the decoration adequately. Similar use of a double fillet appears in stucco fragments in the ‘Baths of Mercury’, also at Baia.

57 There is only Maiuri's proposed date for the Via Vigna tomb (Not. Scav. cit., p. 329).

58 For his opinion on this point I must thank Dr F. Rakob. Cf. also n. 33 above.

59 I owe this information to Dr. W. Johannowsky. I have no pre-Hadrianic measurements, apart from those of the Pozzuolan amphitheatre, for Campania (but cf. those given by Lugli for the Rome area: op. cit., pp. 505–8); but 7 cm. is standard in Hadrianic work at Baia (Rakob, F., Röm. Mitt., 68, 1961, chart opp. p. 134Google Scholar; cf. Billig, R., Op. Arch., iii, 1944, p. 142Google Scholar).

60 Maiuri, , Campi Flegrei (see n. 9), p. 41Google Scholar; Blake, M. E., Roman Construction in Italy from Tiberius through the Flavians (Washington, 1959), p. 146Google Scholar. Lugli (op. cit., p. 628) suggests work was begun under Nero, finished under Domitian.

61 Maiuri, A., Studi e ricerche sull'anfiteatro flavio puteolano (Naples, 1955), p. 70Google Scholar.

62 Here I am indebted to Mr. M. W. Frederiksen, who looked at the best-preserved fragments for me.

63 Maiuri, , Not. Scav., 1927, p. 329Google Scholar.

64 They belong to the same complex as the so-called ‘Temple of Venus’ and its annexe, on whose dating see Rakob, op. cit., pp. 133–5.

65 I accept the dating of Schefold, K. (Die Wände Pompejis, Berlin, 1957, p. 2f.Google Scholar; Vergessenes Pompeji, Bern, 1962, pp. 65, 104f., 183Google Scholar) rather than that of Beyen, H. G. (in Bericht über den VI. internationalen Kongress für Archäologie Berlin, 21.–26. August 1939, p. 504Google Scholar; Antiquity and Survival, ii, 4, 1958, pp. 352–5Google Scholar).

66 On the latter, Schefold, , Vergessenes Pompeji, pp. 140–5Google Scholar. Of all the Pompeian swans that I have investigated (cf. n. 49), only two sets are confidently dated before A.D. 62: those of the Boscotrecase villa (von Blanckenhagen, P. H. and Alexander, C., The Paintings from Boscotrecase, Heidelberg, 1962, pl. 5Google Scholar and, on the villa's date, p. 10f) and the tablinum in the House of Caecilius Jucundus (Schefold, , Wände, p. 66fGoogle Scholar). Outside Pompeii, all the examples seem to be Neronian or later.

67 In room d of the House of Trebius Valens at Pompeii (Schefold, , Wände, p. 56Google Scholar).

68 I have collected twelve decorations with trefoil mouldings in the buried cities, plus two in Rome. The latter are those of the tomb of Hylas (on whose dating see Borda, M., Mem. Linc., viii, 1, 1947, p. 378Google Scholar) and a tomb beneath San Sebastiano (P. Styger, art. cit. (see n. 30), p. 102f. with fig. 46; and for the date Mancini, G., Not. Scav., 1923, p. 34Google Scholar). There are further examples at Pozzuoli, Capua, and Taranto (in the two former cases almost certainly post-Nero).

69 I have evidence of 22 vault-decorations securely datable before A.D. 60, all adopting different (generally simpler) principles from those in question. On the development of vault-schemes, see Bendinelli, G., in Architettura ed Arti Decorative, ii, 1922–1923, pp. 97ffGoogle Scholar. (some oversimplifications); Andreae, op. cit. (see n. 39), pp. 111–8.

70 We know of three personalities: Severus and Celer, the architects and engineers (Tac., , Ann., xv, 42Google Scholar), and Fabullus (or Famulus), the painter (Pliny, , NH, xxxv, 120Google Scholar).

71 See n. 65 above.

72 On the octagonal room and the new concept of space, Ward-Perkins, J. B., Antiquity, xxx, 1956, pp. 217–9Google Scholar. Blake, M. E., Roman Construction in Italy from Tiberius through the Flavians (Washington, 1959), p. 50fGoogle Scholar. refers also to ‘groined cross-vaulting’.

73 Curvilinear: the vestibule of the men's section in the Stabian Baths at Pompeii, an arch in the theatre at Herculaneum, octagonal panels from Herculaneum in Naples Museum. Concentric squares: examples in the House of the Lovers, House of the Ephebe, Villa of Diomedes, so-called ‘Imperial Villa’, and Villa of the Mosaic Columns at Pompeii, and the House of the Mosaic Atrium at Herculaneum. All except the vault in the Villa of the Mosaic Columns (which no modern writer deals with) are dated by Maiuri and Schefold to the post-earthquake period. Slightly more elaborate schemes of concentric decoration, also apparently new, were used in the House of the Moralist and the Taberna Attiorum.