#aracoeli

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social

1 day ago

LORENZO AND JACOPO DI COSMA. PULPIT OF THE GOSPEL, 1190-1210. S. MARIA IN ARACOELI In this church of conspicuous spolia, the two pulpits at the mouth of the transepts are notable examples of the genre. They were once probably united in a single pulpit with two platforms side by side in the predecessor to the Aracoeli on this site, S. Maria in Capitolio, but were later separated, which explains why we can see the rough interior of the pulpit. At left, a large white marble slab with an inscription set sideways forms the slope of the handrail. Within the curve of the pulpit itself, white marble uprights separate slabs of pavonazzetto to either side of a piece of porphyry below and a Romanesque marble relief of an eagle whose rough back we see at centre. This pulpit was used especially when the Holy Roman Emperor was present, hence the imperial purple stone and eagle.

#SpoliaSunday is every day at the #Aracoeli in #Rome. This mighty basilica took its form c. 1268 when it was given its long nave by its new #Franciscan tenants. Here is the interior of the #pulpit of the #Gospel, from c. 1200, full of #spolia including a reused #inscription. #AncientBluesky 🏺

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Anthony Majanlahti

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social

1 week ago

STAIRCASE OF THE ARACOELI, 1347-1349. The short-lived rule of the "Tribune" Cola di Rienzo was popular insofar as it was practical. During the period of the papacy's long residence at Avignon, Cola's revolutionary and anti-aristocratic city government passed a new set of city ordinances which sent the barons out of the city and subjected them to severe legal punishments if they committed violence. The barons pushed back, but were devastated in a battle at Porta S. Lorenzo in November 1347. The powerful Colonna family, whose fortress was built into the ruins of a vast Severan terrace containing a stepped ramp leading from the Campus Martius up to the summit of the Quirinal, lost its leaders and withdrew to their fiefdom of Palestrina. Cola, planning for the Jubilee of 1350, had the marble steps stripped out of the Colonna stronghold, but by December 1347 he had fallen from power and fled. The Comune carried on with the project, assigning it an architect in 1348. It was completed in 1349, and paid for by a Colonna, but it was Cola's project and also served as a thank you to the Virgin for ending the Black Death in the city. It was the most important public work of Trecento Rome, and remains today a silent but eloquent tribute to what the people can achieve even against their overlords.

#SpoliaSunday takes us to the long #staircase of the #Aracoeli, which were once the steps of a huge covered ramp leading to the #Severan temple of #Serapis on the #Quirinal in #Rome. They are also the product of a successful war by the Comune on the #Colonna barons. #AncientBluesky 🏺

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I Observe

@iobserve.bsky.social

9 months ago

#Spolia #AraCoeli #Roma

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Anthony Majanlahti

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social

11 months ago

ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO AND WORKSHOP. TOMB OF LUCA SAVELLI, 1287-1295. S. MARIA IN ARACOELI The extraordinary masterpiece of marble (all certainly spolia) and mosaic atop a magnificent C3 sarcophagus is ascribed to the C13 sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio. The ancient sarcophagus is actually just a base for the late C13 tomb of the strongman of the Aventine, Luca Savelli (d. 1266), father of pope Honorius IV. Luca's body lies within the upper part behind the three identical Savelli crests in mosaic. Atop this marble coffin is a little ædicule with a niche at its centre, where Arnolfo set a small statue of the Virgin and Child that resembles the much larger version he made for the façade of Florence cathedral. The bones of various other Savelli family members lie here within the ancient sarcophagus. Originally this assemblage was housed inside a roofed trefoil Gothic arch. The base, portraying a wife and husband, is one of the best garland sarcophagi surviving in Rome.

#SpoliaSunday leads us back to that treasure-house of #spolia, #SantaMaria in #Aracoeli on the #Capitoline hill in #Rome, where a splendid C3 #sarcophagus is just part of the monumental assemblage of the tomb of several members of the #Savelli family. #AncientBluesky 🏺