1983

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Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 8 février 2019
Publié dans: Abbott, Frank Frost; Johnson, Allan Chester (1926). Municipal Administration in the Roman Empire. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Arenillas, Miguel; Castillo, Juan C. (2003), "Dams from the R, Adam, Jean Pierre. Roman Building: Materials and Techniques. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Anderson, James C. Roman Architecture and Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Ancient Roman architecture, Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture, Senza categoria. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

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The Colosseum in Rome, Italy; the classical orders are used, but purely for aesthetic effect.

The Maison Carrée at Nîmes in France, one of the best preserved Roman temples. A mid-sized Augustanprovincial temple of the Imperial cult.

The Alcántara Bridge, Spain, a masterpiece of ancient bridge building

The Baths of Diocletian, Rome

The Severan Basilica in Leptis Magna

An area at the Ostia Anticaarchaeological site: at one time, shops were located here

« Roman baroque », Leptis Magna, Arch of Septimus Severus

Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans,[citation needed] but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and even more so under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings were constructed. It used new materials, particularly concrete, and newer technologies such as the archand the dome to make buildings that were typically strong and well-engineered. Large numbers remain in some form across the empire, sometimes complete and still in use to this day.

Roman Architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as Late Antique or Byzantine architecture. Almost no substantial examples survive from before about 100 BC, and most of the major survivals are from the later empire, after about 100 AD. Roman architectural style continued to influence building in the former empire for many centuries, and the style used in Western Europe beginning about 1000 is called Romanesque architecture to reflect this dependence on basic Roman forms.

The Romans only began to achieve significant originality in architecture around the beginning of the Imperial period, after they had combined aspects of their original Etruscan architecture with others taken from Greece,[citation needed]including most elements of the style we now call classical architecture. They moved from trabeated construction mostly based on columns and lintels to one based on massive walls, punctuated by arches, and later domes, both of which greatly developed under the Romans. The classical orders now became largely decorative rather than structural, except in colonnades. Stylistic developments included the Tuscan and Compositeorders; the first being a shortened, simplified variant on the Doric order and the Composite being a tall order with the floral decoration of the Corinthian and the scrolls of the Ionic.[citation needed] The period from roughly 40 BC to about 230 AD saw most of the greatest achievements, before the Crisis of the Third Century and later troubles reduced the wealth and organizing power of the central government.

The Romans produced massive public buildings and works of civil engineering, and were responsible for significant developments in housing and public hygiene, for example their public and private baths and latrines, under-floor heating in the form of the hypocaust, micaglazing (examples in Ostia Antica), and piped hot and cold water (examples in Pompeii and Ostia).

Overview

Despite the technical developments of the Romans, which took their buildings far away from the basic Greek conception where columns were needed to support heavy beams and roofs, they were very reluctant to abandon the classical orders in formal public buildings, even though these had become essentially decorative[citation needed]. However, they did not feel entirely restricted by Greek aestheticconcerns, and treated the orders with considerable freedom.[citation needed]

Innovation started in the 3rd or 2nd century BC with the development of Roman concrete as a readily available adjunct to, or substitute for, stone and brick. More daring buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes. The freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale architecture, concrete’s strength freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a more free-flowing environment.

Factors such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The use of vaults and arches, together with a sound knowledge of building materials, enabled them to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of imposing infrastructure for public use. Examples include the aqueducts of Rome, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, the basilicas and Colosseum. These were reproduced at a smaller scale in most important towns and cities in the Empire. Some surviving structures are almost complete, such as the town walls of Lugo in Hispania Tarraconensis, now northern Spain. The administrative structure and wealth of the empire made possible very large projects even in locations remote from the main centres,[1]as did the use of slave labour, both skilled and unskilled.

Especially under the empire, architecture often served a political function, demonstrating the power of the Roman state in general, and of specific individuals responsible for building. Roman architecture perhaps reached its peak in the reign of Hadrian, whose many achievements include rebuilding the Pantheon in its current form and leaving his mark on the landscape of northern Britain with Hadrian’s Wall.

Origins

While borrowing much from the preceding Etruscan architecture, such as the use of hydraulics and the construction of arches, Roman prestige architecture remained firmly under the spell of Ancient Greek architecture and the classical orders.[2] This came initially from Magna Graecia, the Greek colonies in southern Italy, and indirectly from Greek influence on the Etruscans, but after the Roman conquest of Greece directly from the best classical and Hellenistic examples in the Greek world.[citation needed] The influence is evident in many ways; for example, in the introduction and use of the Triclinium in Roman villas as a place and manner of dining. Roman builders employed Greeks in many capacities, especially in the great boom in construction in the early Empire.[citation needed]

Roman Architectural Revolution

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

The Roman Pantheon was the largest dome in the world for more than a millennium.[3] It is the largest unreinforced solid concrete dome to this day[4]

The Roman Architectural Revolution, also known as the Concrete Revolution,[5][6][7]was the widespread use in Roman architecture of the previously little-used architectural forms of the arch, vault, and dome. For the first time in history, their potential was fully exploited in the construction of a wide range of civil engineering structures, public buildings, and military facilities. These included amphitheatres, aqueducts, baths, bridges, circuses, dams, domes, harbours, temples, and theatres.

A crucial factor in this development, which saw a trend toward monumental architecture, was the invention of Roman concrete (opus caementicium), which led to the liberation of shapes from the dictates of the traditional materials of stone and brick.[8]

These enabled the building of the many aqueducts throughout the empire, such as the Aqueduct of Segovia, the Pont du Gard, and the eleven aqueducts of Rome. The same concepts produced numerous bridges, some of which are still in daily use, for example the Puente Romano at Mérida in Spain, and the Pont Julien and the bridge at Vaison-la-Romaine, both in Provence, France.[citation needed]

The dome permitted construction of vaulted ceilings without crossbeams and made possible large covered public space such as public baths and basilicas, such as Hadrian’s Pantheon, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, all in Rome.[citation needed]

The Romans first adopted the arch from the Etruscans, and implemented it in their own building. The use of arches that spring directly from the tops of columns was a Roman development, seen from the 1st century AD, that was very widely adopted in medieval Western, Byzantine and Islamic architecture.[citation needed]

Domes

 History of Roman and Byzantine domes
 List of Roman domes
Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

Dome of the Pantheon, inner view

The Romans were the first builders in the history of architecture to realize the potential of domes for the creation of large and well-defined interior spaces.[9]Domes were introduced in a number of Roman building types such as temples, thermae, palaces, mausoleaand later also churches. Half-domes also became a favoured architectural element and were adopted as apses in Christian sacred architecture.

Monumental domes began to appear in the 1st century BC in Romeand the provinces around the Mediterranean Sea. Along with vaults, they gradually replaced the traditional post and lintel construction which makes use of the column and architrave. The construction of domes was greatly facilitated by the invention of concrete, a process which has been termed the Roman Architectural Revolution.[10] Their enormous dimensions remained unsurpassed until the introduction of structural steel frames in the late 19th century (see List of the world’s largest domes).[9][11][12]

Influence on later architecture

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

Palladian Stowe House, by William Kent

Roman architecture supplied the basic vocabulary of Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture, and spread across Christian Europe well beyond the old frontiers of the empire, to Irelandand Scandinavia for example. In the East, Byzantine architecturedeveloped new styles of churches, but most other buildings remained very close to Late Roman forms. The same can be said in turn of Islamic architecture, where Roman forms long continued, especially in private buildings such as houses and the Turkish bath, and civil engineering such as fortifications and bridges.

In Europe the Italian Renaissance saw a conscious revival of correct classical styles, initially purely based on Roman examples. Vitruviuswas respectfully reinterpreted by a series of architectural writers, and the Tuscan and Composite orders formalized for the first time, to give five rather than three orders. After the flamboyance of Baroque architecture, the Neoclassical architecture of the 18th century revived purer versions of classical style, and for the first time added direct influence from the Greek world.

Numerous local classical styles developed, such as Palladian architecture, Georgian architecture and Regency architecture in the English-speaking world, Federal architecture in the United States, and later Stripped Classicism and PWA Moderne.

Roman influences may be found around us today, in banks, government buildings, great houses, and even small houses, perhaps in the form of a porch with Doric columns and a pediment or in a fireplace or a mosaic shower floor derived from a Roman original, often from Pompeii or Herculaneum. The mighty pillars, domes and arches of Rome echo in the New World too, where in Washington, D.C. stand the Capitol building, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and other government buildings. All across the US the seats of regional government were normally built in the grand traditions of Rome, with vast flights of stone steps sweeping up to towering pillared porticoes, with huge domes gilded or decorated inside with the same or similar themes that were popular in Rome.

In Britain, a similar enthusiasm has seen the construction of thousands of neo-Classical buildings over the last five centuries, both civic and domestic, and many of the grandest country houses and mansions are purely Classical in style, an obvious example being Buckingham Palace.

Materials

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

Frigidarium of Baths of Diocletian, today Santa Maria degli Angeli

Stone

Marble is not found especially close to Rome, and was only rarely used there before Augustus, who famously boasted that he had found Rome made of brick and left it made of marble, though this was mainly as a facing for brick or concrete. The Temple of Hercules Victor of the late 2nd century BC is the earliest surviving exception in Rome. From Augustus’ reign the quarries at Carrara were extensively developed for the capital, and other sources around the empire exploited,[13]especially the prestigious Greek marbles like Parian. Travertinelimestone was found much closer, around Tivoli, and was used from the end of the Republic; the Colosseum is mainly built of this stone, which has good load-bearing capacity, with a brick core.[14] Other more or less local stones were used around the empire.[15]

The Romans were extremely fond of luxury imported coloured marbles with fancy veining, and the interiors of the most important buildings were very often faced with slabs of these, which have usually now been removed even where the building survives. Imports from Greece for this purpose began in the 2nd century BC.[16]

Roman brick

 Roman brick
Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

Close-up view of the wall of the Roman shore fort at Burgh Castle, Norfolk, showing alternating courses of flint and brickwork.

The Romans made fired clay bricks from about the beginning of the Empire, replacing earlier sun-dried mud-brick. Roman brick was almost invariably of a lesser height than modern brick, but was made in a variety of different shapes and sizes.[17]Shapes included square, rectangular, triangular and round, and the largest bricks found have measured over three feet in length.[18] Ancient Roman bricks had a general size of 1½ Roman feet by 1 Roman foot, but common variations up to 15 inchesexisted. Other brick sizes in ancient Rome included 24″ x 12″ x 4″, and 15″ x 8″ x 10″. Ancient Roman bricks found in France measured 8″ x 8″ x 3″. The Constantine Basilica in Trier is constructed from Roman bricks 15″ square by 1½ » thick.[19] There is often little obvious difference (particularly when only fragments survive) between Roman bricks used for walls on the one hand, and tiles used for roofing or flooring on the other, so archaeologists sometimes prefer to employ the generic term ceramic building material (or CBM).

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

The St. George Rotunda (4th century) and some remains of Serdicacan be seen in the foreground

The Romans perfected brick-making during the first century of their empire and used it ubiquitously, in public and private construction alike. The Romans took their brickmaking skills everywhere they went, introducing the craft to the local populations.[19] The Roman legions, which operated their own kilns, introduced bricks to many parts of the empire; bricks are often stamped with the mark of the legion that supervised their production. The use of bricks in southern and western Germany, for example, can be traced back to traditions already described by the Roman architect Vitruvius. In the British Isles, the introduction of Roman brick by the ancient Romans was followed by a 600–700 year gap in major brick production.

Roman concrete

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

Example of opus caementicium on a tomb on the ancient Appian Way in Rome. The original covering has been removed.

Main article: Roman concrete

Concrete quickly supplanted brick as the primary building material,[citation needed] and more daring buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes rather than dense lines of columns suspending flat architraves. The freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. In smaller-scale architecture, concrete’s strength freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a more free-flowing environment.[citation needed]Most of these developments are described by Vitruvius, writing in the first century AD in his work De Architectura.

Although concrete had been used on a minor scale in Mesopotamia, Roman architects perfected Roman concrete and used it in buildings where it could stand on its own and support a great deal of weight. The first use of concrete by the Romans was in the town of Cosasometime after 273 BC. Ancient Roman concrete was a mixture of lime mortar, aggregate, pozzolana, water, and stones, and was stronger than previously-used concretes. The ancient builders placed these ingredients in wooden frames where they hardened and bonded to a facing of stones or (more frequently) bricks. The aggregates used were often much larger than in modern concrete, amounting to rubble.

When the framework was removed, the new wall was very strong, with a rough surface of bricks or stones. This surface could be smoothed and faced with an attractive stucco or thin panels of marble or other coloured stones called revetment. Concrete construction proved to be more flexible and less costly than building solid stone buildings. The materials were readily available and not difficult to transport. The wooden frames could be used more than once, allowing builders to work quickly and efficiently. Concrete is arguably the Roman contribution most relevant to modern architecture.

City design

Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient Roman architecture

The Temple of Claudius to the south (left) of the Colosseum (model of Imperial Rome at the Museo della civiltà romana in Rome)

Further information: Centuriation, Decumanus Maximus, and Cardo

The ancient Romans employed regular orthogonal structures on which they molded their colonies.[20][21] [22]They probably were inspired by Greek and Hellenic examples, as well as by regularly planned cities that were built by the Etruscans in Italy.[23] (see Marzabotto)

The Romans used a consolidated scheme for city planning, developed for military defense and civil convenience. The basic plan consisted of a central forum with city services, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear grid of streets, and wrapped in a wall for defense. To reduce travel times, two diagonal streets crossed the square grid, passing through the central square. A river usually flowed through the city, providing water, transport, and sewage disposal.[24] Hundreds of towns and cities were built by the Romans throughout their empire. Many European towns, such as Turin, preserve the remains of these schemes, which show the very logical way the Romans designed their cities. They would lay out the streets at right angles, in the form of a square grid. All roads were equal in width and length, except for two, which were slightly wider than the others. One of these ran east–west, the other, north–south, and they intersected in the middle to form the center of the grid. All roads were made of carefully fitted flag stones and filled in with smaller, hard-packed rocks and pebbles. Bridges were constructed where needed. Each square marked off by four roads was called an insula, the Roman equivalent of a modern city block.

Model of the 1st century Philippopolis(Plovdiv) in the Roman period created by arch. Matey Mateev

Each insula was 80 yards (73 m) square, with the land within it divided. As the city developed, each insula would eventually be filled with buildings of various shapes and sizes and crisscrossed with back roads and alleys. Most insulae were given to the first settlers of a Roman city, but each person had to pay to construct his own house.

The city was surrounded by a wall to protect it from invaders and to mark the city limits. Areas outside city limits were left open as farmland. At the end of each main road was a large gateway with watchtowers. A portcullis covered the opening when the city was under siege, and additional watchtowers were constructed along the city walls. An aqueduct was built outside the city walls.

The development of Greek and Roman urbanization is relatively well-known, as there are relatively many written sources, and there has been much attention to the subject, since the Romans and Greeks are generally regarded as the main ancestors of modern Western culture. It should not be forgotten, though, that the Etruscans had many considerable towns and there were also other cultures with more or less urban settlements in Europe, primarily of Celtic origin.[25]

Amphitheatre

 Roman amphitheatre
 List of Roman amphitheatres

The amphitheatre was, with the triumphal arch and basilica, the only major new type of building developed by the Romans.[26] Some of the most impressive secular buildings are the amphitheatres, over 200 being known and many of which are well preserved, such as that at Arles, as well as its progenitor, the Colosseum in Rome. They were used for gladiatorial contests, public displays, public meetings and bullfights, the tradition of which still survives in Spain. Their typical shape, functions and name distinguish them from Roman theatres, which are more or less semicircular in shape; from the circuses (akin to hippodromes) whose much longer circuits were designed mainly for horse or chariot racing events; and from the smaller stadia, which were primarily designed for athletics and footraces.[27]

The Amphitheatre of Pompeii, built around 70 BC and buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 79 AD, once hosted spectacles with gladiators

The earliest Roman amphitheatres date from the middle of the first century BC, but most were built under Imperial rule, from the Augustan period (27 BC–14 AD) onwards.[28] Imperial amphitheatres were built throughout the Roman empire; the largest could accommodate 40,000–60,000 spectators, and the most elaborate featured multi-storeyed, arcaded façades and were elaborately decorated with marble, stucco and statuary.[29] After the end of gladiatorial games in the 5th century and of animal killings in the 6th, most amphitheatres fell into disrepair, and their materials were mined or recycled. Some were razed, and others converted into fortifications. A few continued as convenient open meeting places; in some of these, churches were sited.[30]

Architecturally, they are typically an example of the Roman use of the classical orders to decorate large concrete walls pierced at intervals, where the columns have nothing to support. Aesthetically, however, the formula is successful.

Basilica

Northern aisle of the Basilica of Maxentius in Rome

The Aula Palatina of Trier, Germany(then part of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica), built during the reign of Constantine I (r. 306-337 AD)

The Roman basilica was a large public building where business or legal matters could be transacted. They were normally where the magistrates held court, and used for other official ceremonies, having many of the functions of the modern town hall. The first basilicas had no religious function at all. As early as the time of Augustus, a public basilica for transacting business had been part of any settlement that considered itself a city, used in the same way as the late medieval covered market houses of northern Europe, where the meeting room, for lack of urban space, was set above the arcades, however. Although their form was variable, basilicas often contained interior colonnades that divided the space, giving aisles or arcaded spaces on one or both sides, with an apse at one end (or less often at each end), where the magistrates sat, often on a slightly raised dais. The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the clerestory windows.

The oldest known basilica, the Basilica Porcia, was built in Rome in 184 BC by Cato the Elder during the time he was Censor. Other early examples include the basilica at Pompeii (late 2nd century BC). After Christianity became the official religion, the basilica shape was found appropriate for the first large public churches, with the attraction of avoiding reminiscences of the Greco-Roman temple form.

Circus

The Roman circus was a large open-air venue used for public events in the ancient Roman Empire. The circuses were similar to the ancient Greek hippodromes, although circuses served varying purposes and differed in design and construction. Along with theatres and amphitheatres, Circuses were one of the main entertainment sites of the time. Circuses were venues for chariot races, horse races, and performances that commemorated important events of the empire were performed there. For events that involved re-enactments of naval battles, the circus was flooded with water.

The performance space of the Roman circus was normally, despite its name, an oblong rectangle of two linear sections of race track, separated by a median strip running along the length of about two thirds the track, joined at one end with a semicircular section and at the other end with an undivided section of track closed (in most cases) by a distinctive starting gate known as the carceres, thereby creating a circuit for the races.

Forum

 Roman Forum and List of monuments of the Roman Forum

The Roman Forum

A forum was a central public open space in a Romanmunicipium, or any civitas, primarily used as a marketplace, along with the buildings used for shops and the stoas used for open stalls. Other large public buildings were often sited at the edges or close by. Many forums were constructed at remote locations along a road by the magistrate responsible for the road, in which case the forum was the only settlement at the site and had its own name, such as Forum Popili or Forum Livi.[31]

During the years of the Republic, Augustus claimed he « found the city in brick and left it in marble ».[32] While chances are high that this was an exaggeration, there is something to be said for the influx of marble use in Roman Forum from 63 BC onwards. During Augustus reign, the Forum was described to have been « a larger, freer space than was the Forum of imperial times. »[33] The Forum began to take on even more changes upon the arrival of Julius Casear who drew out extensive plans for the market hub. While Casear’s death came prematurely, the ideas himself, as well as Augustus had in regards to the Forum proved to be the most influential for years to come. According to Walter Dennison’s The Roman Forum As Cicero Saw It, the author writes that « the diverting of public business to the larger and splendid imperial fora erected in the vicinity resulted in leaving the general design of the Forum Romanum ».[33]

Every city had at least one forum of varying size. In addition to its standard function as a marketplace, a forum was a gathering place of great social significance, and often the scene of diverse activities, including political discussions and debates, rendezvous, meetings, etc. Much the best known example is the Roman Forum, the earliest of several in Rome.

In new Roman towns the forum was usually located at, or just off, the intersection of the main north-south and east-west streets (the cardoand decumanus). All forums would have a Temple of Jupiter at the north end, and would also contain other temples, as well as the basilica; a public weights and measures table, so customers at the market could ensure they were not being sold short measures; and would often have the baths nearby.

A panoramic view of the Forum Trajanum, with the Trajan’s Column on the far left.

Horreum

The Horrea Epagathiana et Epaphroditiana, a horreum in Ostia (Rome), Italy, built c. 145-150 AD

A horreum was a type of public warehouse used during the ancient Roman period. Although the Latin term is often used to refer to granaries, Roman horrea were used to store many other types of consumables; the giant Horrea Galbae in Rome were used not only to store grain but also olive oil, wine, foodstuffs, clothing and even marble.[34] By the end of the imperial period, the city of Rome had nearly 300 horrea to supply its demands.[35] The biggest were enormous, even by modern standards; the Horrea Galbae contained 140 rooms on the ground floor alone, covering an area of some 225,000 square feet (21,000 m²).[36]

The first horrea were built in Rome towards the end of the 2nd century BC,[37] with the first known public horreum being constructed by the ill-fated tribune, Gaius Gracchus in 123 BC.[38] The word came to be applied to any place designated for the preservation of goods; thus it was often used refer to cellars (horrea subterranea), but it could also be applied to a place where artworks were stored,[39] or even to a library.[40] Some public horrea functioned somewhat like banks, where valuables could be stored, but the most important class of horrea were those where foodstuffs such as grain and olive oil were stored and distributed by the state.[41]

The word itself is thought to have linguist roots tied to the word hordeum which in Latin means ‘barley’.[42] In the John’s Hopkin’s University Press, The Classical Weekly states that « Pliny the Elder does indeed make a distinction between the two words. He describes the horreum as a structure made of brick, the walls of which were not less than three feet thick; it had no windows or openings for ventilation ».[43] Furthermore, the storehouses would also host oil and wine and also utilize large jars that could serve as cache’s for large amounts of products.These storehouses were also used to house keep large sums of money and were used much like personal storage units today are. Romans were « These horrea were divided and subdivided, so that one could hire only so much space as one wanted, a whole room (cella), a closet (armarium), or only a chest or strong box (arca, arcula, locus, loculus). »[43]

Insula

 Insula (building)

Insula in Ostia Antica

Multi-story apartment blocks called insulae catered to a range of residential needs. The cheapest rooms were at the top owing to the inability to escape in the event of a fire and the lack of piped water. Windows were mostly small, facing the street, with iron security bars. Insulae were often dangerous, unhealthy, and prone to fires because of overcrowding and haphazard cooking arrangements.[citation needed] There are examples in the Roman port town of Ostia, that date back to the reign of Trajan, but they seem to have been found only in Rome and a few other places. Elsewhere writers report them as something remarkable, but Livy and Vituvius refer to them in Rome.[44] External walls were in « Opus Reticulatum » and interiors in « Opus Incertum », which would then be plastered and sometimes painted.

To lighten up the small dark rooms, tenants able to afford a degree of painted colourful murals on the walls. Examples have been found of jungle scenes with wild animals and exotic plants. Imitation windows (trompe l’oeil) were sometimes painted to make the rooms seem less confined.

Ancient Rome had elaborate and luxurious houses owned by the elite. The average house, or in cities apartment, of a commoner or plebe did not contain many luxuries. The domus, or single-family residence, was only for the well-off in Rome, with most having a layout of the closed unit, consisting of one or two rooms. Between 312 and 315 A.D. Rome had 1781 domus and 44,850 of insulae.[45]

Insulae have been the subject of great debate for historians of Roman culture, defining the various meanings of the word.[46] Insula was a word used to describe apartment buildings, or the apartments themselves,[47] meaning apartment, or inhabitable room, demonstrating just how small apartments for Plebes were. Urban divisions were originally street blocks, and later began to divide into smaller divisions, the word insula referring to both blocks and smaller divisions. The insula contained cenacula, tabernae, storage rooms under the stairs, and lower floor shops. Another type of housing unit for Plebes was a cenaculum, an apartment, divided into three individual rooms: cubiculum, exedra, and medianum. Common Roman apartments were mainly masses of smaller and larger structures, many with narrow balconies that present mysteries as to their use, having no doors to access them, and they lacked the excessive decoration and display of wealth that aristocrats’ houses contained. Luxury in houses was not common, as the life of the average person did not consist of being in their houses, as they instead would go to public baths, and engage in other communal activities.

Lighthouses

Roman lighthouse

The Tower of Hercules, a Roman lighthouse in Spain

Many lighthouses were built around the Mediterranean and the coasts of the empire, including the Tower of Herculesat A Coruña in northern Spain, a structure which survives to this day. A smaller lighthouse at Dover, England also exists as a ruin about half the height of the original. The light would have been provided by a fire at the top of the structure.

Ruins of the Roman Thermae in Varna, Bulgaria

Thermae

 Thermae
 List of Roman public baths

All Roman cities had at least one thermae, a popular facility for public bathing, exercising and socializing. Exercise might include wrestling and weight-lifting, as well as swimming. Bathing was an important part of the Roman day, where some hours might be spent, at a very low cost subsidized by the government. Wealthier Romans were often accompanied by one or more slaves, who performed any required tasks such as fetching refreshment, guarding valuables, providing towels, and at the end of the session, applying olive oil to their masters’ bodies which was then scraped off with a strigil, a scraper made of wood or bone. Romans did not wash with soap and water as we do now.

Roman bath-houses were also provided for private villas, town housesand forts. They were normally supplied with water from an adjacent river or stream, or by aqueduct. The design of thermae is discussed by Vitruvius in De Architectura.

Temples

 Roman temple

« Roman Baroque » Temple of Bacchus at Baalbek, Lebanon

Roman temples were among the most important and richest buildings in Roman culture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Their construction and maintenance was a major part of ancient Roman religion, and all towns of any importance had at least one main temple, as well as smaller shrines. The main room (cella) housed the cult image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated, and often a small altar for incense or libations. Behind the cella was a room or rooms used by temple attendants for storage of equipment and offerings.

Some remains of many Roman temples survive, above all in Rome itself, but the relatively few near-complete examples were nearly all converted to Christian churches (and sometimes subsequently to mosques), usually a considerable time after the initial triumph of Christianity under Constantine. The decline of Roman religion was relatively slow, and the temples themselves were not appropriated by the government until a decree of the Emperor Honorius in 415. Some of the oldest surviving temples include the Temple of Hercules Victor(mid 2nd century BC) and Temple of Portunus (120-80 BC), both standing within the Forum Boarium.

The Temple of Hercules Victor, Rome, built in the mid-2nd century BC, most likely by Lucius Mummius Achaicus, who won the Achaean War.

The form of the Roman temple was mainly derived from the Etruscan model, but using Greek styles[citation needed]. Roman temples emphasised the front of the building, which followed Greek temple models and typically consisted of wide steps leading to a portico with columns, a pronaos, and usually a triangular pedimentabove, which was filled with statuary in the most grand examples; this was as often in terracotta as stone, and no examples have survived except as fragments. However, unlike the Greek models, which generally gave equal treatment to all sides of the temple, which could be viewed and approached from all directions, the sides and rear of Roman temples might be largely undecorated (as in the Pantheon, Rome and Vic), inaccessible by steps (as in the Maison Carrée and Vic), and even back on to other buildings. As in the Maison Carrée, columns at the side might be half-columns, emerging from (« engaged with » in architectural terminology) the wall.[48] The platform on which the temple sat was typically raised higher in Roman examples than Greek, with up ten or twelve or more steps rather than the three typical in Greek temples; the Temple of Claudius was raised twenty steps. These steps were normally only at the front, and typically not the whole width of that.

The Temple of Portunus, god of grain storage, keys, livestock and ports.[49] Rome, built between 120–80 BC

The Greek classical orders in all their details were closely followed in the façades of temples, as in other prestigious buildings. However the idealized proportions between the different elements set out by the only significant Roman writer on architecture to survive, Vitruvius, and subsequent Italian Renaissance writers, do not reflect actual Roman practice, which could be very variable, though always aiming at balance and harmony. Following a Hellenistic trend, the Corinthian order and its variant the Composite order were most common in surviving Roman temples, but for small temples like that at Alcántara, a simple Tuscan order could be used.[50]

There was considerable local variation in style, as Roman architects often tried to incorporate elements the population expected in its sacred architecture. This was especially the case in Egypt and the Near East, where different traditions of large stone temples were already millennia old. The Romano-Celtic temple was a simple style for small temples found in the Western Empire, and by far the most common type in Roman Britain. It often lacked any of the distinctive classical features, and may have had considerable continuity with pre-Roman temples of the Celtic religion.

Theatres

Roman Theatre (Mérida), Spain

Plovdiv Roman theatre, Bulgaria

Roman theatres were built in all areas of the empire from Spain, to the Middle East. Because of the Romans’ ability to influence local architecture, we see numerous theatres around the world with uniquely Roman attributes.[51]

These buildings were semi-circular and possessed certain inherent architectural structures, with minor differences depending on the region in which they were constructed. The scaenae frons was a high back wall of the stage floor, supported by columns. The proscaeniumwas a wall that supported the front edge of the stage with ornately decorated niches off to the sides. The Hellenistic influence is seen through the use of the proscaenium. The Roman theatre also had a podium, which sometimes supported the columns of the scaenae frons. The scaenae was originally not part of the building itself, constructed only to provide sufficient background for the actors. Eventually, it became a part of the edifice itself, made out of concrete. The theatre itself was divided into the stage (orchestra) and the seating section (auditorium). Vomitoria or entrances and exits were made available to the audience.[52]

Villa

Villa of the Mysteries just outside Pompeii, seen from above

Main article: Roman villa
See also: Villa rustica, List of Roman villas in England, and List of Roman villas in Belgium

A Roman villa was a country house built for the upper class, while a domus was a wealthy family’s house in a town. The Empire contained many kinds of villas, not all of them lavishly appointed with mosaic floors and frescoes. In the provinces, any country house with some decorative features in the Roman style may be called a « villa » by modern scholars.[53] Some were pleasure palaces such as those— like Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli— that were situated in the cool hills within easy reach of Rome or— like the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum— on picturesque sites overlooking the Bay of Naples. Some villas were more like the country houses of England or Poland, the visible seat of power of a local magnate, such as the famous palace rediscovered at Fishbourne in Sussex.

Suburban villas on the edge of cities were also known, such as the Middle and Late Republican villas that encroached on the Campus Martius, at that time on the edge of Rome, and which can be also seen outside the city walls of Pompeii, including the Villa of the Mysteries, famous for its frescos. These early suburban villas, such as the one at Rome’s Auditorium site[54] or at Grottarossa in Rome, demonstrate the antiquity and heritage of the villa suburbana in Central Italy. It is possible that these early, suburban villas were also in fact the seats of power (maybe even palaces) of regional strongmen or heads of important families (gentes).

A third type of villa provided the organizational center of the large farming estates called latifundia; such villas might be lacking in luxuries. By the 4th century, villa could simply mean an agricultural estate or holding: Jerome translated the Gospel of Mark (xiv, 32) chorion, describing the olive grove of Gethsemane, with villa, without an inference that there were any dwellings there at all (Catholic Encyclopedia « Gethsemane »).

With the colossal Diocletian’s Palace, built in the countryside but later turned into a fortified city, a form of residential castle emerges, that anticipates the Middle Ages.

Watermills

List of ancient watermills

The initial invention of the watermill appears to have occurred in the hellenized eastern Mediterranean in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great and the rise of Hellenistic science and technology.[55][56][57] In the subsequent Roman era, the use of water-power was diversified and different types of watermills were introduced. These include all three variants of the vertical water wheelas well as the horizontal water wheel.[58][59] Apart from its main use in grinding flour, water-power was also applied to pounding grain,[60][61][62] crushing ore,[63] sawing stones[64] and possibly fulling and bellows for iron furnaces.[65]

Decorative structures

Monoliths

 List of ancient Greek and Roman monoliths

‘

The capital of Trajan’s Column, Rome

In architecture, a monolith is a structure which has been excavated as a unit from a surrounding matrix or outcropping of rock.[66] Monoliths are found in all types of Roman buildings. They were either: quarried without being moved; or quarried and moved; or quarried, moved and lifted clear off the ground into their position (e.g. architraves); or quarried, moved and erected in an upright position (e.g. columns).

Transporting was done by land or water (or a combination of both), in the later case often by special-built ships such as obelisk carriers.[67]For lifting operations, ancient cranes were employed since ca. 515 BC,[68] such as in the construction of Trajan’s Column.[69]

Obelisks

 List of obelisks in Rome

Obelisco Sallustiano in front of the church of Trinità dei Monti in Rome

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top. These were originally called « tekhenu » by the builders, the ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who saw them used the Greek ‘obeliskos’ to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and then English.[70] The Romans commissioned obelisks in an ancient Egyptian style. Examples include:

Roman gardens

Gardens in Conimbriga, Portugal

Roman gardens were influenced by Egyptian, Persian, and Greek gardening techniques[citation needed]. In Ancient Latium, a garden was part of every farm. According to Cato the Elder, every garden should be close to the house and should have flower beds and ornamental trees.[73] Horace wrote that during his time flower gardens became a national indulgence.[74]

Gardens were not reserved for the extremely wealthy. Excavations in Pompeii show that gardens attaching to residences were scaled down to meet the space constraints of the home of the average Roman. Modified versions of Roman garden designs were adopted in Roman settlements in Africa, Gaul, and Britannia. As town houses were replaced by tall insula (apartment buildings), these urban gardens were replaced by window boxes or roof gardens.[citation needed]

Triumphal arch

List of Roman triumphal arches
Photograph
The Arch of Titus in Rome, an early Roman imperial triumphal arch with a single archway
Close-up photograph of arch ornamentation
Titus‘ triumphal procession depicted on the Arch of Titus, showing the loot captured from Jerusalem in 81 AD

A triumphal arch is a monumental structure in the shape of an archwaywith one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. The origins of the Roman triumphal arch are unclear. There were precursors to the triumphal arch within the Roman world; in Italy, the Etruscans used elaborately decorated single bay arches as gates or portals to their cities. Surviving examples of Etruscan arches can still be seen at Perugia and Volterra.[75] The two key elements of the triumphal arch – a round-topped arch and a square entablature – had long been in use as separate architectural elements in ancient Greece.

The innovation of the Romans was to use these elements in a single free-standing structure. The columns became purely decorative elements on the outer face of arch, while the entablature, liberated from its role as a building support, became the frame for the civic and religious messages that the arch builders wished to convey.[76] Little is known about how the Romans viewed triumphal arches. Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century AD, was the only ancient author to discuss them.[77] He wrote that they were intended to « elevate above the ordinary world » an image of an honoured person usually depicted in the form of a statue with a quadriga.[77]

The first recorded Roman triumphal arches were set up in the time of the Roman Republic.[78] Generals who were granted a triumph were termed triumphators and would erect fornices or honorific arches bearing statues to commemorate their victories.[79] Roman triumphal practices changed significantly at the start of the imperial period when the first Roman Emperor Augustus decreed that only emperors would be granted triumphs. The triumphal arch changed from being a personal monument to being an essentially propagandistic one, serving to announce and promote the presence of the ruler and the laws of the state.[75] Arches were not necessarily built as entrances, but – unlike many modern triumphal arches – they were often erected across roads and were intended to be passed through, not round.[80]

Most Roman triumphal arches were built during the imperial period. By the fourth century AD there were 36 such arches in Rome, of which three have survived – the Arch of Titus (AD 81), the Arch of Septimius Severus (203-205) and the Arch of Constantine (312). Numerous arches were built elsewhere in the Roman Empire.[78] The single arch was the most common, but many triple arches were also built, of which the Triumphal Arch of Orange (circa AD 21) is the earliest surviving example. From the 2nd century AD, many examples of the arcus quadrifrons – a square triumphal arch erected over a crossroads, with arched openings on all four sides – were built, especially in North Africa. Arch-building in Rome and Italy diminished after the time of Trajan (AD 98-117) but remained widespread in the provinces during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD; they were often erected to commemorate imperial visits.[79]

The Arch of Augustus in Rimini(Ariminum), dedicated to Augustus by the Roman Senate in 27 BC, the oldest surviving Roman triumphal arch

The ornamentation of an arch was intended to serve as a constant visual reminder of the triumph and triumphator. The façade was ornamented with marble columns, and the piers and attics with decorative cornices. Sculpted panels depicted victories and achievements, the deeds of the triumphator, the captured weapons of the enemy or the triumphal procession itself. The spandrels usually depicted flying Victories, while the attic was often inscribed with a dedicatory inscription naming and praising the triumphator. The piers and internal passageways were also decorated with reliefs and free-standing sculptures. The vault was ornamented with coffers. Some triumphal arches were surmounted by a statue or a currus triumphalis, a group of statues depicting the emperor or general in a quadriga.[75][79]

Inscriptions on Roman triumphal arches were works of art in themselves, with very finely cut, sometimes gilded letters. The form of each letter and the spacing between them was carefully designed for maximum clarity and simplicity, without any decorative flourishes, emphasizing the Roman taste for restraint and order. This conception of what later became the art of typography remains of fundamental importance down to the present day.[80]

Victory columns

 List of Roman victory columns

Infrastructure

A Roman street in Pompeii

Roads

Roman roads were vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 500 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.[81] They provided efficient means for the overland movement of armies, officials and civilians, and the inland carriage of official communications andtrade goods.[82] At the peak of Rome’s development, no fewer than 29 great military highways radiated from the capital, and the Late Empire’s 113 provinces were interconnected by 372 great road links.[83][84] Roman road builders aimed at a regulation width (see Laws and standards above), but actual widths have been measured at between 3.6 ft (1.1 m) and more than 23 ft (7.0 m). Today, the concrete has worn from the spaces around the stones, giving the impression of a very bumpy road, but the original practice was to produce a surface that was no doubt much closer to being flat.

Aqueduct

Roman aqueduct
 List of aqueducts in the Roman Empire

The Aqueduct of Segovia, Spain

The Pont du Gard, near Vers-Pont-du-Gard, France

The Romans constructed numerous aqueducts in order to bring water from distant sources into their cities and towns, supplying public baths, latrines, fountains and private households. Waste water was removed by complex sewage systems and released into nearby bodies of water, keeping the towns clean and free from effluent. Aqueducts also provided water for mining operations, milling, farms and gardens.

Aqueducts moved water through gravity alone, being constructed along a slight downward gradient within conduits of stone, brick or concrete. Most were buried beneath the ground, and followed its contours; obstructing peaks were circumvented or, less often, tunnelled through. Where valleys or lowlands intervened, the conduit was carried on bridgework, or its contents fed into high-pressure lead, ceramic or stone pipes and siphoned across. Most aqueduct systems included sedimentation tanks, sluices and distribution tanks to regulate the supply at need.

Rome‘s first aqueduct supplied a water-fountain sited at the city’s cattle market. By the third century AD, the city had eleven aqueducts, sustaining a population of over a million in a water-extravagant economy; most of the water supplied the city’s many public baths. Cities and municipalities throughout the Roman Empire emulated this model, and funded aqueducts as objects of public interest and civic pride, « an expensive yet necessary luxury to which all could, and did, aspire. »[85]

Most Roman aqueducts proved reliable, and durable; some were maintained into the early modern era, and a few are still partly in use. Methods of aqueduct surveying and construction are noted by Vitruvius in his work De Architectura (1st century BC). The general Frontinus gives more detail in his official report on the problems, uses and abuses of Imperial Rome’s public water supply. Notable examples of aqueduct architecture include the supporting piers of the Aqueduct of Segovia, and the aqueduct-fed cisterns of Constantinople.

Bridges

The Alcántara Bridge, Spain, a masterpiece of ancient bridge building

Main article: Roman bridge
Further information: List of Roman bridges

Roman bridges, built by ancient Romans, were the first large and lasting bridges built.[86] Roman bridges were built with stone and had the arch as the basic structure (see arch bridge). Most utilized concrete as well, which the Romans were the first to use for bridges.

Roman arch bridges were usually semicircular, although a few were segmental (such as Alconétar Bridge). A segmental arch is an arch that is less than a semicircle.[87] The advantages of the segmentalarch bridge were that it allowed great amounts of flood water to pass under it, which would prevent the bridge from being swept away during floods and the bridge itself could be more lightweight. Generally, Roman bridges featured wedge-shaped primary arch stones (voussoirs) of the same in size and shape. The Romans built both single spans and lengthy multiple arch aqueducts, such as the Pont du Gard and Segovia Aqueduct. Their bridges featured from an early time onwards flood openings in the piers, e.g. in the Pons Fabricius in Rome (62 BC), one of the world’s oldest major bridges still standing. Roman engineers were the first and until the industrial revolution the only ones to construct bridges with concrete, which they called Opus caementicium. The outside was usually covered with brick or ashlar, as in the Alcántara bridge.

The Romans also introduced segmental arch bridges into bridge construction. The 330 m long Limyra Bridge in southwestern Turkeyfeatures 26 segmental arches with an average span-to-rise ratio of 5.3:1,[88] giving the bridge an unusually flat profile unsurpassed for more than a millennium. Trajan’s bridge over the Danube featured open-spandrel segmental arches made of wood (standing on 40 m high concrete piers). This was to be the longest arch bridge for a thousand years both in terms of overall and individual span length, while the longest extant Roman bridge is the 790 m long Puente Romano at Mérida.

Canals

 List of Roman canals

Roman canals were typically multi-purpose structures, intended for irrigation, drainage, land reclamation, flood control and navigationwhere feasible. Some navigational canals were recorded by ancient geographers and are still traceable by modern archaeology. Channels which served the needs of urban water supply are covered at the List of aqueducts in the Roman Empire.

Cisterns[edit]

 List of Roman cisterns

The Basilica Cistern in Constantinople provided water for the Imperial Palace.

Freshwater reservoirs were commonly set up at the termini of aqueducts and their branch lines, supplying urban households, agricultural estates, imperial palaces, thermae or naval bases of the Roman navy.[89]

Dams

Further information: List of Roman dams and reservoirs

Roman dam construction began in earnest in the early imperial period.[90] For the most part, it concentrated on the semi-arid fringe of the empire, namely the provinces of North Africa, the Near East, and Hispania.[91] [92][93] The relative abundance of Spanish dams below is due partly to more intensive field work there; for Italy only the Subiaco Dams, created by emperor Nero (54–68 AD) for recreational purposes, are attested.[94][90] These dams are noteworthy, though, for their extraordinary height, which remained unsurpassed anywhere in the world until the Late Middle Ages.[90]

The most frequent dam types were earth- or rock-filled embankment dams and masonry gravity dams.[95] These served a wide array of purposes, such as irrigation, flood control, river diversion, soil-retention, or a combination of these functions.[96] The impermeability of Roman dams was increased by the introduction of waterproof hydraulic mortar and especially opus caementicium in the Concrete Revolution. These materials also allowed for bigger structures to be built,[97] like the Lake Homs Dam, possibly the largest water barrier today,[98] and the sturdy Harbaqa Dam, both of which consist of a concrete core.

Roman builders were the first to realize the stabilizing effect of archesand buttresses, which they integrated into their dam designs. Previously unknown dam types introduced by the Romans include arch-gravity dams,[93][99] arch dams,;[100][101][102] [103][104] buttress dams,[105] and multiple-arch buttress dams.[106][107][99][108]

Defensive walls

Roman walls of Lugo, Spain

The Porta Nigra of Trier, Germany, capital of the Roman province of Gallia Belgica, constructed between 186 and 200 AD

The South gate of Hisarya’s Late Roman fortifications, the largest preserved in Bulgaria

 Ancient Roman defensive walls

The Romans generally fortified cities, rather than fortresses, but there are some fortified camps, such as the Saxon Shore forts like Porchester Castle in England. City walls were already significant in Etruscan architecture, and in the struggle for control of Italy under the early Republic many more were built, using different techniques. These included tightly-fitting massive irregular polygonal blocks, shaped to fit exactly in a way reminiscent of later Inca work. The Romans called a simple rampart wall an agger; at this date great height was not necessary. The Servian Wallaround Rome was an ambitious project of the early 4th century BC. The wall was up to 10 metres (32.8 ft) in height in places, 3.6 metres (12 ft) wide at its base, 11 km (7 mi) long,[109] and is believed to have had 16 main gates, though many of these are mentioned only from writings, with no other known remains. Some of it had a fossa or ditch in front, and an agger behind, and it was enough to deter Hannibal. Later the Aurelian Wall replaced it, enclosing an expanded city, and using more sophisticated designs, with small forts at intervals.

The Romans walled major cities and towns in areas they saw as vulnerable, and parts of many walls remain incorporated in later defensive fortifications, as at Córdoba (2nd century BC), Chester(earth and wood in the 70s AD, stone from c. 100), and York (from 70s AD). Strategic walls across open country were far rarer, and Hadrian’s Wall (from 122) and the Antonine Wall (from 142, abandoned only 8 years after completion) are the most significant examples, both on the Pictish frontier of Roman Britain…

Architectural features

Mosaics

 Roman mosaic

On his return from campaigns in Greece, the general Sulla brought back what is probably the most well-known element of the early imperial period, the mosaic, a decoration made of colourful chips of stone inserted into cement. This tiling method took the empire by storm in the late first century and the second century and in the Roman home joined the well known mural in decorating floors, walls, and grottoes with geometric and pictorial designs.

Interior view with mosaics of Villa Armira in Bulgaria

There were two main techniques in Greco-Roman mosaic: opus vermiculatumused tiny tesserae, typically cubes of 4 millimeters or less, and was produced in workshops in relatively small panels which were transported to the site glued to some temporary support. The tiny tesserae allowed very fine detail, and an approach to the illusionism of painting. Often small panels called emblemata were inserted into walls or as the highlights of larger floor-mosaics in coarser work. The normal technique, however, was opus tessellatum, using larger tesserae, which were laid on site.[110] There was a distinct native Italian style using black on a white background, which was no doubt cheaper than fully coloured work.[111]

A specific genre of Roman mosaic obtained the name asaroton (Greek « unswept floor »). It represented an optical illusion of the leftovers from a feast on the floor of rich houses.[112]

Hypocaust

Part-excavated hypocaust under the floor in a Roman villa in Vieux-la-Romaine, near Caen, France

A hypocaust was an ancient Roman system of underfloor heating, used to heat houses with hot air. The Roman architect Vitruvius, writing about the end of the 1st century B.C., attributes their invention to Sergius Orata. Many remains of Roman hypocausts have survived throughout Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa. The hypocaust was an invention which improved the hygiene and living conditions of citizens, and was a forerunner of modern central heating.

Hypocausts were used for heating hot baths (thermae), houses and other buildings, whether public or private. The floor was raised above the ground by pillars, called pilae stacks, with a layer of tiles, then a layer of concrete, then another of tiles on top; and spaces were left inside the walls so that hot air and smoke from the furnace would pass through these enclosed areas and out of flues in the roof, thereby heating but not polluting the interior of the room.

Roman roofs

Further information: List of ancient Greek and Roman roofs

In Sicily truss roofs presumably appeared as early as 550 BC.[113]Their potential was fully realized in the Roman period, which saw trussed roofs over 30 wide spanning the rectangular spaces of monumental public buildings such as temples, basilicas, and later churches. Such spans were three times as wide as the widest prop-and-lintel roofs and only surpassed by the largest Roman domes.[114]

The largest truss roof by span of ancient Rome covered the Aula Regia (throne room) built for emperor Domitian (81–96 AD) on the Palatine Hill, Rome. The timber truss roof had a width of 31.67 m, slightly surpassing the postulated limit of 30 m for Roman roof constructions. Tie-beam trusses allowed for much larger spans than the older prop-and-lintel system and even concrete vaulting. Nine out of the ten largest rectangular spaces in Roman architecture were bridged this way, the only exception being the groin vaulted Basilica of Maxentius.[114]

Spiral stairs

 List of ancient spiral stairs

The spiral stair is a type of stairway which, due to its complex helicalstructure, was introduced relatively late into architecture. Although the oldest example dates back to the 5th century BC,[115] it was only in the wake of the influential design of Trajan’s Column that this space-saving new type permanently caught hold in Roman architecture.[116]

Apart from the triumphal columns in the imperial cities of Rome and Constantinople, other types of buildings such as temples, thermae, basilicas and tombs were also fitted with spiral stairways.[116] Their notable absence in the towers of the Aurelian Wall indicates that although used in medieval castles, they did not yet figure prominently in Roman military engineering.[116] By late antiquity, separate stair towers were constructed adjacent to the main buildings, as in the Basilica of San Vitale.

The construction of spiral stairs passed on both to Christian and Islamic architecture.

Significant buildings and areas

Hadrian’s Wall, built in 122 AD in Roman Britain, in what is now Northern England

Public buildings

Private architecture

Civil engineering

Military engineering

Footnotes

  1. ^ Henig, 26
  2. ^ Henig, 27
  3. ^ « BUILDING BIG: Pantheon ». PBS. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  4. ^ « The Roman Pantheon: The Triumph of Concrete ». Roman Concrete. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
  5. ^ DeLaine 1990, p. 407.
  6. ^ Rook 1992, pp. 18f..
  7. ^ Gardner 2005, p. 170.
  8. ^ Ward-Perkins 1956.
  9. ^ Jump up to:a b Rasch 1985, p. 117.
  10. ^ Lechtman & Hobbs 1986.
  11. ^ Mark & Hutchinson 1986, p. 24.
  12. ^ Heinle & Schlaich 1996, p. 27.
  13. ^ Henig, 28
  14. ^ Henig, 32
  15. ^ Favro, (ii) Materials and construction techniques
  16. ^ Henig, 22; Favro, (ii) Materials and construction techniques, which lists major quarries
  17. ^ Juracek 1996, p. 310.
  18. ^ Peet 1911, p. 35–36.
  19. ^ Jump up to:a b Walters & Birch 1905, p. 330–40.
  20. ^ Morris 1972, pp. 39-41, 51-60.
  21. ^ Kolb 1984, pp. 169-238.
  22. ^ Benevolo 1993, pp. 256-267.
  23. ^ Harris 1989, pp. 375–392: « The Etruscans were, in their turn, probably also influenced in this respect by Greek and Hellenic culture. »
  24. ^ Vitrivius 1914.
  25. ^ Demandt 1998: « In fact, many sites where the Romans created towns, such as Paris, Vienna and Bratislava, had previously been Celtic settlements of more or less urban character. »
  26. ^ Henig, 26. Blagg also mentions baths, granaries, insulae and large villas.
  27. ^ Bomgardner 2000, p. 37.
  28. ^ Bomgardner 2000, p. 59.
  29. ^ Bomgardner 2000, p. 62.
  30. ^ Bomgardner 2000, p. 201–223.
  31. ^ Abbott & Johnson 1926, p. 12.
  32. ^ « A Page from Latin Notes Supplement XV, Entitled SOME STORIES ABOUT THE ROMAN FORUM ». Latin Notes. 3 (6). 1926. JSTOR 43943460.
  33. ^ Jump up to:a b Dennison, Walter (June 1908). « The Roman Forum as Cicero Saw It ». The Classical Journal. 3 (8): 318–326. JSTOR 3287491.
  34. ^ Richardson 1992, p. 193.
  35. ^ Lampe 2006, p. 61.
  36. ^ Potter & Mattingly 1999, p. 180.
  37. ^ Patrich 1996, p. 149.
  38. ^ Métreaux 1998, p. 14-15.
  39. ^ Pliny, Epist. VIII.18
  40. ^ Seneca, Epist. 45
  41. ^ Schmitz 1875, p. 618.
  42. ^ Kaufman, David (2 December 1929). « Horrea Romana: Roman Storehouses ». The John’s Hopkin’s University Press. 7 (7): 49–54. doi:10.2307/4389377. JSTOR 4389377.
  43. ^ Jump up to:a b Kaufman, David (2 December 1929). « Horrea Romana: Roman Storehouses ». The John’s Hopkin’s University Press. no. 7 (7): 49. doi:10.2307/4389377. JSTOR 4389377.
  44. ^ EERA, 134
  45. ^ Hermansen 1970.
  46. ^ Storey 2002.
  47. ^ Storey 2004.
  48. ^ Wheeler, 89
  49. ^ Fowler, W. Warde (1899). Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic. Port Washington, NY: Kennikat Press. pp. 202–204.
  50. ^ Summerson, 8-13
  51. ^ Wilson Jones 2000.
  52. ^ Ros 1996.
  53. ^ Ward-Perkins 2000, p. 333.
  54. ^ La Villa Romana dell’Auditorium
  55. ^ Wikander 2000a, pp. 396f..
  56. ^ Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, p. 11.
  57. ^ Wilson 2002, pp. 7f..
  58. ^ Wikander 2000a, pp. 373–378.
  59. ^ Donners, Waelkens & Deckers 2002, pp. 12–15.
  60. ^ Wikander 1985, p. 158.
  61. ^ Wikander 2000b, p. 403.
  62. ^ Wilson 2002, p. 16.
  63. ^ Wikander 2000b, p. 407.
  64. ^ Ritti, Grewe & Kessener 2007.
  65. ^ Wikander 2000b, pp. 406f..
  66. ^ Michael D. Gunther. « Glossary and Index of (mostly) Asian Art ». Old Stones: The Monuments of Art History. Archived from the original on 5 April 2007. Retrieved 24 September2014.[self-published source]
  67. ^ Wirsching 2000.
  68. ^ Coulton 1974, pp. 7, 16.
  69. ^ Lancaster 1999, pp. 419–439.
  70. ^ Baker & Baker 2001, p. 69.
  71. ^ « Museo del Sannio ». Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  72. ^ « Three Obelisks in Benevento ». Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  73. ^ Semple 1929, pp. 435.
  74. ^ Semple 1929, pp. 436.
  75. ^ Jump up to:a b c Zaho 2004, p. 18–25.
  76. ^ Sullivan 2006, p. 133–134.
  77. ^ Jump up to:a b Fürst & Grundmann 1998, p. 43.
  78. ^ Jump up to:a b Triumphal Arch at Encyclopædia Britannica
  79. ^ Jump up to:a b c F. B. Sear and Richard John. « Triumphal arch. » Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. 30 Jul. 2010
  80. ^ Jump up to:a b Honour & Fleming 2005.
  81. ^ Forbes 1993, p. 146.
  82. ^ Kaszynski 2000, p. 9.
  83. ^ Bunson 2009, p. 195.
  84. ^ O’Flaherty 2002, p. 2.
  85. ^ Gagarin & Fantham 2010, p. 145.
  86. ^ O’Connor 1993, p. 1.
  87. ^ Beall, Christine (1988). « Designing the segmental arch » (PDF). ebuild.com. Retrieved 8 May 2010.[permanent dead link]
  88. ^ O’Connor 1993, p. 126.
  89. ^ Döring 2002, pp. 310–319.
  90. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hodge 1992, p. 87.
  91. ^ Schnitter 1978, p. 28, fig. 7.
  92. ^ Hodge 1992, p. 80.
  93. ^ Jump up to:a b Hodge 2000, p. 332.
  94. ^ Smith 1970, pp. 60f..
  95. ^ Hodge 2000, pp. 331f..
  96. ^ Hodge 1992, pp. 86f..
  97. ^ Smith 1971, p. 49.
  98. ^ Smith 1971, p. 42.
  99. ^ Jump up to:a b James & Chanson 2002.
  100. ^ Smith 1971, pp. 33–35.
  101. ^ Schnitter 1978, pp. 31f..
  102. ^ Schnitter 1987a, p. 12.
  103. ^ Schnitter 1987c, p. 80.
  104. ^ Hodge 2000, p. 332, fn. 2.
  105. ^ Schnitter 1987b, pp. 59–62.
  106. ^ Schnitter 1978, p. 29.
  107. ^ Schnitter 1987b, pp. 60, table 1, 62.
  108. ^ Arenillas & Castillo 2003.
  109. ^ Fields, Nic; Peter Dennis The Walls of Rome Osprey Publishing; 10 Mar 2008 ISBN 978-1-84603-198-4 p.10 [1]
  110. ^ Smith 1983, pp. 116–119.
  111. ^ Smith 1983, pp. 121–123.
  112. ^ Miller 1972.
  113. ^ Hodge 1960, p. 38–44.
  114. ^ Jump up to:a b Ulrich 2007, pp. 148f.
  115. ^ Beckmann 2002.
  116. ^ Jump up to:a b c Beckmann 2002, p. 353–356.

Works cited

Further reading

  • Adam, Jean Pierre. Roman Building: Materials and Techniques. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
  • Anderson, James C. Roman Architecture and Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
  • Boëthius, Axel. Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
  • Fant, J. Clayton. « Quarrying and Stoneworking. » In The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, edited by John P. Oleson, 121–135. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  • Hopkins, John North. The Genesis of Roman Architecture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.
  • Lancaster, Lynne C. Concrete Vaulted Construction In Imperial Rome: Innovations In Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • –. « Roman Engineering and Construction. » In The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World, edited by John P. Oleson, 256–284. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2008.
  • MacDonald, William Lloyd. The Architecture of the Roman Empire. Rev. ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
  • Macready, Sarah, and F. H. Thompson. Roman architecture in the Greek world. London: Society of Antiquaries, 1987.
  • Sear, Frank. Roman Architecture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
  • Thomas, Edmund V. Monumentality and the Roman Empire: Architecture in the Antonine age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
  • Ulrich, Roger B. Roman Woodworking. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007.
  • Ulrich, Roger B., and Caroline K Quenemoen. A Companion to Roman Architecture. Somerset: Wiley, 2013.

Library resources about
Ancient Roman architecture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_architecture

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Questione giottesca

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 6 février 2019
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Giacobbe Giusti, Questione giottesca

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Questione giottesca

 


Giacobbe Giusti, Questione giottesca

Le Rêve du Pape Innocent III, basilique supérieure d’Assise

Questione giottesca (en français : « question giottesque ») est un terme italien soulevant un problème des études sur l’histoire de l’art, problème mis en évidence par l’attribution (ou non) à Giotto des fresques de l’église supérieure de la basilique d’Assise, et dans quelle mesure par rapport à ses collaborateurs qui sont intervenus dans une œuvre aussi importante.

Cette interrogation concerne divers aspects : l’organisation des chantiers artistiques à partir du Moyen Âge ; le rôle des maîtres et les tâches effectuées par les aides ; la validité de l’attribution de grandes œuvres à un seul maître.

La question concerne aussi bien la peinture antique que celle de la Renaissance.

Problèmes soulevés

Partant du principe qu’en l’absence de documents précis, rien ne peut être affirmé avec une certitude il s’agit néanmoins d’établir quelles œuvres, ou partie d’œuvre du peintre peuvent lui être attribuées avec une certitude raisonnable au peintre à l’auteur ou à ses aides ou même serait d’une autre main ou atelier.

En ce qui concerne Assise en particulier, la critique n’est pas unanime sur le fait que Giotto aurait collaboré avec Cimabue dans l’église inférieure de la basilique d’Assise et éventuellement dans quelles parties dans la partie haute des fresques de l’église supérieure.

En ce qui concerne la partie inférieure des fresques de la Basilique qui représentent la Vie de saint François, la tradition les attribue à Giotto, et cette attribution est la plus accréditée par les historiens de l’art, mais certains ont évoqué le nom de Pietro Cavallini, peintre actif à Rome où il a réalisé les fresques de la basilique Santa Cecilia in Trastevere), plus âgé que Giotto, et que celui-ci a probablement rencontré à Rome.

Termes de la Questione Giottesca

  • Giotto, jusqu’à l’obtention du statut juridique de magister, ne pouvait avoir une autonomie artistique et d’entrepreneur ; en effet, seul le magister signait comme entrepreneur tous les contrats de l’atelier.
  • Par leur nature, les grandes fresques nécessitaient le concours de nombreux intervenants, dont les rôles étaient divers allant des plus humbles et à ceux hautement artistiques.

Les grands chantiers nécessitaient de nombreuses « mains » et parfois, partagés commercialement en plusieurs lots, divers ateliers réalisaient simultanément les commandes.

  • La grande aura que Dante a attribuée à Giotto déjà en 1300, année du premier jubilé, provenait probablement du fait que celui-ci avait été appelé par Boniface VIII à Rome justement à l’occasion de cet important évènement ; ce qui expliquerait l’abandon du cycle d’Assise, terminé probablement par un groupe de peintres différent de celui qui l’avait entrepris.
  • Selon certains, Giotto était trop jeune pour avoir une responsabilité aussi importante, mais selon d’autres, à cette époque où à cinquante ans la personne était déjà vieille, à l’âge de vingt-cinq/trente ans, la personne avait atteint sa maturité.

Il faut noter que dans le même cycle de fresques d’Assise, saint François est représenté imberbe dans les trois premiers épisodes, quand il était un peu plus qu’adolescent et vieux grisonnant, plié sous le poids des ans dans les derniers ; on sait que saint François est mort à l’âge de 44/45 ans.

  • La conception générale du cycle d’Assise est plutôt uniforme dans le message et dans le style faisant logiquement penser à une seule tête organisatrice.
  • Les caractéristiques de Cavallini, font penser qu’il restait attaché à la tradition pour pouvoir prendre en charge des « cose nuove » (nouveautés) aussi bien du point de vue iconographique que dans le style. La nouveauté, chez Giotto était dans la façon de voir les choses, réunies dans un espace et dans un temps toujours plus précis.
  • Giotto pourrait avoir demandé à Cavallini ou un maître de son atelier de l’aider sur ce chantier.

La hiérarchie des chantiers

Grâce à un document sur Giotto, se rapportant aux travaux près de Castel Nuovo à Naples, et à d’autres documents et témoignages relatifs à d’autres maîtres, il a été possible de reconstituer l’organigramme des chantiers de peinture.

L’existence du prothomagister, une sorte de chef de maîtres qui s’occupait d’opérations particulières, dans le cas des peintures ; il s’occupait du projet et de l’organisation et pouvait intervenir contemporainement sur trois chantiers (comme à Naples).

Sous le prothomagister existait une structure organisée hiérarchiquement de nombreux maîtres-peintres, maîtres -manœuvres et simples aides qui travaillaient sur la planification pendant la période nécessaire à leur intervention (parfois quelques jours).

L’activité « manuelle » du chef-maître était présente uniquement pendant quelques phases, particulièrement lors de la création artistique : son rôle était celui d’un « normalisateur » afin que le résultat final soit homogène grâce au nivellement des variables d’exécution des différents intervenants. Il existe une mention explicite de cette fonction dans un document relatif de Lippo di Benivieni de 1313.

En ce qui concerne la présence du maître et des collaborateurs sur le chantier, un document de 1347 concernant la décoration à fresque du Palais des Papes d’Avignon, par le maître Matteo Giovannetti : sur vingt-cinq travailleurs, trois ont le titre de maître (en incluant Giovannetti), mais seul le prothomagister est présent tous les jours tandis que les deux autres sont présents par intermittence et sont payés huit sous par jour. Les autres ouvriers qui sont payés de six à deux sous par jour ne sont présents qu’à des moments déterminés ou seulement lors de la phase initiale (montage des échafaudages) ou finale (démontage, finition, nettoyage des salles) ou occasionnellement pour des tâches ciblées.

Le maître en chef est présent depuis la création artistique (projet), puis pendant tout le travail il surveille et corrige le travail des autres et enfin comme auteur direct, il intervient dans la décoration en particulier dans la peinture des détails difficiles comme les figures humaines et les visages en particulier.

Un autre personnage parfois mentionné est le sollicitator fabricae, une sorte de contrôleur des travaux finalisant la conclusion du chantier.

La réalisation des grandes œuvres à fresque nécessitait donc un grand nombre d’intervenants et de compétences diverses.

Partage des tâches

Déjà à l’époque de Dioclétien (243-313), dans l’Édit du Maximum(Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium– 301), où sont énumérés les divers travaux et les salaires respectifs pour tout l’Empire, concernant la peinture murale est évoqué un pictor parietarius payé 75 danari et d’un pictor imaginarius payé 150, correspondant probablement respectivement à l’exécuteur manuel des peintures et le projeteur ou dessinateur.

Cennino Cennini dans son Libro dell’arte parle de « maestrio » qui enseigne aux autres hommes comment devenir maîtres, à prendre dans le contexte comme le titulaire d’un atelier ou d’un chantier ayant de simples peintres sous ses ordres.

Un autre document est le contrat daté du 29 juin 1502 par lequel le futur pape Pie III charge Pinturicchiode décorer à fresque la Libreria Piccolomini du Dôme de Sienne :

« [Pinturicchio] sia tenuto a fare tutti li disegni delle istorie di sua mano in cartoni et in muro, fare le teste di sua mano tutte in fresco, et in secho ritocchare et finire infino a la perfectione sua »

— Commentario alla vita di Bernardino Pintoricchio, Gaetano Milanesi.

Les termes de ce document sont confirmés dans de nombreux comptes-rendus de chantiers antérieurs jusqu’à l’époque de Giotto, ce qui laisse présager que les procès et les organisations des chantiers soient restés figés.

Un compte rendu contenu dans une lettre datée du 6 juin 1572 de Giorgio Vasari adressée à Cosme Ierde’ Medici, détaille les dépenses et le personnel nécessaires pour les fresques de la coupole de Santa Maria del Fiore. Sur ce document, Vasari demande outre le maître et personnel annexe, onze hommes pour le déroulement des travaux parmi lesquels :

  • Au moins trois manœuvres et maçons pour l’enduit ;
  • un maestro d’inportanza, picttore praticho, qui dirige le chantier tandis que Vasari reste in terra à faire les cartons
  • trois maestri picttori pour faire les drapés, paysages, modèles en cire et en terre (pour l’étude des ombres par Vasari pendant le dessin des cartons)
  • deux maestri picttori pour le décorations abstraites, décors, ciels et nuages et pour reporter les dessins sur les murs à partir des cartons (jusqu’au xve siècle par les sinopie, ensuite par d’autres moyens comme lespolvero ou la gravure)
  • deux manœuvres pour moudreles couleurs.

Il ne restait au maître que la réalisation du projet général, des cartons, la supervision, la normalisation des travaux des autres peintres et probablement la peinture des détails difficiles, surtout les figures humaines.

Une telle organisation, que Vasari indique être commune et se pratiquant dans d’autres villes, avait pour objectif la rapidité d’exécution des travaux avec le partage des tâches de façon que plusieurs opérations puissent être exécutées simultanément, mais surtout de ne pas perdre de temps lors de la pose de l’« intonaco a fresco » pendant lequel la peinture devait être étalée sans erreurs avant qu’elle ne sèche.

Les dessins préparatoires

Giacobbe Giusti, Questione giottesca

La Divina Commedia de Dante , fresque de Domenico di Michelino de la nef de Santa Maria del Fiore, sur un carton d’Alesso Baldovinetti.

Les dessins sur papier ou parchemin ou sur tout autre support antérieurs au xve siècle sont pratiquement inexistants ce qui pose question quant à leur usage par les maîtres au cours de cette époque.

À ce propos, Cennino Cennini, écrivait qu’il était normal de faire usage de dessins à échelle réelle pour réaliser des casamenti, tandis que Giorgio Vasari, en décrivant une fresque inachevée de Simone Martini, cite comme nostri maestri vecchi avaient l’habitude de faire un dessin de l’œuvre qui, par la suite, était agrandi au carré en sinopia.

Dans un document de l’archive de Francesco Datini daté du 15 octobre 1415 les exécuteurs testamentaires du marchand d’art pratesindemandent aux peintres chargés de décorer à fresque le Palazzo Datini(Ambrogio di Baldese, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini , Alvaro di Piero, Lippo d’Andrea et Scolaio di Giovanni) de leur montrer leurs dessins préparatoires afin « d’évaluer et décider » avant la mise en route du chantier (Purgatoire – Chant XXXII, 64-68, Paradis – Chant XXIV, 24-27 et Convivio X 11).

Les dessins préparatoires avaient pour but de présenter le travail au client et étaient destinés à l’organisation du travail, servant à estimer la quantité en personnel et matériel nécessaire ainsi que le coût et le temps d’exécution.

Sur la disparition de ces dessins, il faut tenir comte que ceux-ci avaient uniquement une fonction de projet et devenaient inutiles une fois le fresque terminée, souvent coupés et tachés et abîmés par leur manutention sur le chantier. Les dessins étaient enfin calqués sur les parois afin de réaliser la sinopia, parachevée par le maître.

Parfois, le maître faisait un croquis puis le donnait à quelqu’un d’autre pour réaliser le dessin. Ce cas est évoque par Vasari dans Le Vitequand il décrit la façon par laquelle Andrea Pisano avait reçu un disegno bellissimo de Giotto pour réaliser la décoration sculpturale de la porte du campanile de Santa Maria del Fiore.

Il ne reste que peu de témoignages de ces pratiques mais il est probable qu’elles aient été largement pratiquées : En effet, récemment il a été découvert que les fresques de Palazzo Trinci à Foligno ont été payées à Gentile da Fabriano, cette hypothèse avait déjà été évoquée par certains historiens d’art en étudiant la composition générale des peintures, mais suivie avec perplexité à cause de la médiocre technique de peinture, expliquée par la création des seuls dessins préparatoires de la part du maître.

Il existe un document où Alesso Baldovinetti est chargé par l’Opera del Duomo di Firenze de créer un dessin pour un Portrait de Danteavec la Divine Comédie pour Domenico di Michelino, qui créa la célèbre fresque de la nef de Santa Maria del Fiore.

À la lumière de ces exemples, qui mettent en évidence de larges collaborations entre les divers maîtres, le concept de paternité et d’attribution est à manier avec précaution.

Travail en série : l’usage des « patrons »

Il problème de la « normalisation » était parfois résolu grâce à des artifices particuliers dont l’existence n’a été découverte que récemment.

Dans les documents des archives du xive et xve siècle on trouve souvent la mention patrones, qui ont été interprétés comme des figures modelées et dessins sur papier huilé ou cirée servent à la réalisation des divers dessins : figures humaines, éléments architecturaux, parties décoratives.

Ces patroni apparaissent à diverses reprises dans des documents servant d’ordres d’achats pour le matériel servant à leur réalisation ou à recruter le personnel pour les réaliser.

Cennino Cennini et certains prescripteurs dédient des chapitres entiers à la création du papier huilé transparent.

Parfois, lors de travaux de restauration, on découvre des feuilles de papier anciennes laissées dans des trous de boulin(Abbaye de Pomposa et Cappellone di San Nicola à Tolentino entre 1959-1964). Souvent l’absence de valeur de telles pièces, souvent usées et endommagées par les travaux, a fait passer sous silence de telles retrouvailles provoquant leur disparition.

En étudiant les fresques d’Assise, il est apparu des détails de certaines figures humaines ayant exactement les mêmes formes et dimensions, avec uniquement des variations dans l’inclinaison et parfois par un renversement recto/verso qui peut être expliqué uniquement par l’usage du compas ou par l’usage de pochoirs ou modèles transparents. Il existe une figure de guerrier et une de berger dont les éléments (veste supérieure, plis de l’habit qui couvre les jambes, bras et jambes) ont des dimensions identiques mais tournées de différentes manières afin de percevoir deux figures bien distinctes.

Sources

Bibliographie

  • (it) Angiola Maria Romanini, Stil novo e maniera greca nella pittura italiana alla fine del ’200in Il Medio Oriente e l’Occidente nell’arte del XIII secolo – Atti del XIV Congresso Internazionale di Storia dell’Arte, par H. Belting (1982), Bologne, , p. 137–152
  • (it) Hans Belting, Assisi e Roma: risultati, problemi, prospettive in Roma anno 1300– Atti della IV settimana di studi di storia dell’arte medievale dell’Università di Roma par A.M.Romanini (1983), Rome, , p. 93-101
  • (en) John White et Bruno Zanardi, Cimabue and the decorative sequence in the Upper Church of S. Francesco, Assisi in Roma anno 1300, , p. 103-117
  • (it) Luciano Bellosi, La decorazione della Basilica superiore di Assisi e la pittura romana di fine ‘200 in Roma anno 1300, , p. 127-139
  • (it) Miklós Boskovits, Proposte (e conferme) per Pietro Cavalliniin Roma anno 1300, , p. 297-329
  • (it) Carlo Volpe, Il lungo percorso del « dipingere dolcissimo e tanto unito » in Storia dell’arte italiana, Turin, Einaudi, , p. 231-304
  • (it) Luciano Bellosi, La pecora di Giotto, Turin, Einaudi, .
  • (it) Angiola Maria Romanini, Gli occhi di Isacco. Classicismo e curiosità scientifica tra Arnolfo e Giotto in « Arte Medievale » n° 1–2, , p. 1–43
  • (it) Angiola Maria Romanini, Arnolfo all’origine di Giotto: l’enigma del Maestro di Isacco in « Storia dell’arte » n° 65, 1989-passage= 5–26
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, Iacobus Torriti pictor: una vicenda figurativa del tardo Duecento romano, Rome, Argos, 
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, I mosaici e gli affreschi della Cappella del Sancta Sanctorum in Il Palazzo Apostolico Lateranense par C. Pietrangeli, Florence, Nardini, , p. 59-80
  • (it) Serena Romano, Il Sancta Sanctorum: gli affreschi in Il Sancta Sanctorum par C. Pietrangeli et A.M. Romanini, Milan, Electa, , p. 38-125
  • (it) Bruno Zanardi, Federico Zeri et Chiara Frugoni, Il cantiere di Giotto, Skira, 
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, Pietro Cavallini, Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 
  • (it) Andreina Draghi, Gli affreschi rinvenuti nell’aula gotica del convento dei Santi Quattro Coronati a Roma in Cavallini/Giotto, Roma/Assisi; proposte e aggiornamenti – Atti del convegno (Roma, 2001) par T. Calvano (2002), p. 33-42
  • (it) Ricerche di prospettiva nel cantiere di Assisi in Cavallini/Giotto, Roma/Assisi; proposte e aggiornamenti, , p. 43-54
  • (it) Cavallini e Giotto: qualche osservazione su una inutile contrapposizione in Cavallini/Giotto, Roma/Assisi; proposte e aggiornamenti, , p. 80-99
  • (it) Serena Romano, La O di Giotto, Electa, 
  • (it) Giotto e Pietro Cavallini. La questione di Assisi e il cantiere medievale della pittura a fresco, Milan, Skira, 
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, La decorazione della Basilica di San Francesco ad Assisi come metafora della questione giottesca in Giotto e il Trecento: « il più Sovrano Maestro stato in dipintura » catalogue de l’exposition par Alessandro Tomei, vol. I, Milan, Skira, , p. 31-49
  • (it) Enrica Neri Lusanna, Giotto e la pittura in Umbria: rinnovamento e tradizione in Giotto e il Trecento, 2009-volume= i, p. 51-61
  • (it) Angelo Tartuferi, La nuova visione pittorica di Giotto a Firenze e in Toscana: giotteschi, non-giotteschi in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 73-89
  • (it) Davide Banzato, L’impronta di Giotto e lo sviluppo della pittura del Trecento a Padova in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 143-155
  • (it) Alessandro Volpe, L’insegnamento di Giotto a riminesi e marchigiani in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 165-177
  • (it) Stefania Paone, Giotto a Napoli: un percorso indiziario tra fonti, collaboratori e seguaci in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 179-185}
  • (it) Massimo Medica, Giotto e Bologna in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 225-239
  • (it) Carla Travi, Giotto e la sua bottega a Milano in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 241-251
  • (it) S. Bandera (a cura di), Un poema cistercense. Affreschi giotteschi a Chiaravalle Milanese, Milan, Silvana, 

Évocation de l’expression dans les arts

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questione_giottesca

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Jacob’s Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 12 septembre 2018
Publié dans: Blunt, Anthony, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1660, 1940 (refs to 1985 edn), OUP, ISBN 0-19-881050-4 Gould, Cecil, The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, National Gallery Catalogues, London 19, Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Jacob's Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican, Jacob's Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican, RAPHAEL: Jacob's Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican, Senza categoria. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

 

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Jacob’s Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican

 

RAPHAEL (RAFFAELLO SANZIO OR SANTI) 1483 – 1520

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL

Raphael 1506 Self Portrait 1506
Raphael 1506
Self Portrait

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino ( March 28 or April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael , was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking.
After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael’s more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates

References

http://artsviewer.com/raphael-home.html

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, question giottesque, église supérieure de la basilique d’Assise

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 11 septembre 2018
Publié dans: église supérieure de la basilique d'Assise, basilique d'Assise, Giacobbe Giusti, question giottesque, Giacobbe Giusti, question giottesque, église supérieure de la basilique d'Assise, question giottesque, Senza categoria. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, question giottesque, église supérieure de la basilique d’Assise

 

Giacobbe Giusti, question giottesque, église supérieure de la basilique d’Assise

Questione giottesca

Giacobbe Giusti, question giottesque

Le Rêve du Pape Innocent III, basilique supérieure d’Assise

Questione giottesca (en français : « question giottesque ») est un terme italien soulevant un problème des études sur l’histoire de l’art, problème mis en évidence par l’attribution (ou non) à Giotto des fresques de l’église supérieure de la basilique d’Assise, et dans quelle mesure par rapport à ses collaborateurs qui sont intervenus dans une œuvre aussi importante.

Cette interrogation concerne divers aspects : l’organisation des chantiers artistiques à partir du Moyen Âge ; le rôle des maîtres et les tâches effectuées par les aides ; la validité de l’attribution de grandes œuvres à un seul maître.

La question concerne aussi bien la peinture antique que celle de la Renaissance.

Problèmes soulevés

Partant du principe qu’en l’absence de documents précis, rien ne peut être affirmé avec une certitude il s’agit néanmoins d’établir quelles œuvres, ou partie d’œuvre du peintre peuvent lui être attribuées avec une certitude raisonnable au peintre à l’auteur ou à ses aides ou même serait d’une autre main ou atelier.

En ce qui concerne Assise en particulier, la critique n’est pas unanime sur le fait que Giotto aurait collaboré avec Cimabue dans l’église inférieure de la basilique d’Assise et éventuellement dans quelles parties dans la partie haute des fresques de l’église supérieure.

En ce qui concerne la partie inférieure des fresques de la Basilique qui représentent la Vie de saint François, la tradition les attribue à Giotto, et cette attribution est la plus accréditée par les historiens de l’art, mais certains ont évoqué le nom de Pietro Cavallini, peintre actif à Rome où il a réalisé les fresques de la basilique Santa Cecilia in Trastevere), plus âgé que Giotto, et que celui-ci a probablement rencontré à Rome.

Termes de la Questione Giottesca

  • Giotto, jusqu’à l’obtention du statut juridique de magister, ne pouvait avoir une autonomie artistique et d’entrepreneur ; en effet, seul le magister signait comme entrepreneur tous les contrats de l’atelier.
  • Par leur nature, les grandes fresques nécessitaient le concours de nombreux intervenants, dont les rôles étaient divers allant des plus humbles et à ceux hautement artistiques.

Les grands chantiers nécessitaient de nombreuses « mains » et parfois, partagés commercialement en plusieurs lots, divers ateliers réalisaient simultanément les commandes.

  • La grande aura que Dante a attribuée à Giotto déjà en 1300, année du premier jubilé, provenait probablement du fait que celui-ci avait été appelé par Boniface VIII à Rome justement à l’occasion de cet important évènement ; ce qui expliquerait l’abandon du cycle d’Assise, terminé probablement par un groupe de peintres différent de celui qui l’avait entrepris.
  • Selon certains, Giotto était trop jeune pour avoir une responsabilité aussi importante, mais selon d’autres, à cette époque où à cinquante ans la personne était déjà vieille, à l’âge de vingt-cinq/trente ans, la personne avait atteint sa maturité.

Il faut noter que dans le même cycle de fresques d’Assise, saint François est représenté imberbe dans les trois premiers épisodes, quand il était un peu plus qu’adolescent et vieux grisonnant, plié sous le poids des ans dans les derniers ; on sait que saint François est mort à l’âge de 44/45 ans.

  • La conception générale du cycle d’Assise est plutôt uniforme dans le message et dans le style faisant logiquement penser à une seule tête organisatrice.
  • Les caractéristiques de Cavallini, font penser qu’il restait attaché à la tradition pour pouvoir prendre en charge des « cose nuove » (nouveautés) aussi bien du point de vue iconographique que dans le style. La nouveauté, chez Giotto était dans la façon de voir les choses, réunies dans un espace et dans un temps toujours plus précis.
  • Giotto pourrait avoir demandé à Cavallini ou un maître de son atelier de l’aider sur ce chantier.

La hiérarchie des chantiers

Grâce à un document sur Giotto, se rapportant aux travaux près de Castel Nuovo à Naples, et à d’autres documents et témoignages relatifs à d’autres maîtres, il a été possible de reconstituer l’organigramme des chantiers de peinture.

L’existence du prothomagister, une sorte de chef de maîtres qui s’occupait d’opérations particulières, dans le cas des peintures ; il s’occupait du projet et de l’organisation et pouvait intervenir contemporainement sur trois chantiers (comme à Naples).

Sous le prothomagister existait une structure organisée hiérarchiquement de nombreux maîtres-peintres, maîtres -manœuvres et simples aides qui travaillaient sur la planification pendant la période nécessaire à leur intervention (parfois quelques jours).

L’activité « manuelle » du chef-maître était présente uniquement pendant quelques phases, particulièrement lors de la création artistique : son rôle était celui d’un « normalisateur » afin que le résultat final soit homogène grâce au nivellement des variables d’exécution des différents intervenants. Il existe une mention explicite de cette fonction dans un document relatif de Lippo di Benivieni de 1313.

En ce qui concerne la présence du maître et des collaborateurs sur le chantier, un document de 1347 concernant la décoration à fresque du Palais des Papes d’Avignon, par le maître Matteo Giovannetti : sur vingt-cinq travailleurs, trois ont le titre de maître (en incluant Giovannetti), mais seul le prothomagister est présent tous les jours tandis que les deux autres sont présents par intermittence et sont payés huit sous par jour. Les autres ouvriers qui sont payés de six à deux sous par jour ne sont présents qu’à des moments déterminés ou seulement lors de la phase initiale (montage des échafaudages) ou finale (démontage, finition, nettoyage des salles) ou occasionnellement pour des tâches ciblées.

Le maître en chef est présent depuis la création artistique (projet), puis pendant tout le travail il surveille et corrige le travail des autres et enfin comme auteur direct, il intervient dans la décoration en particulier dans la peinture des détails difficiles comme les figures humaines et les visages en particulier.

Un autre personnage parfois mentionné est le sollicitator fabricae, une sorte de contrôleur des travaux finalisant la conclusion du chantier.

La réalisation des grandes œuvres à fresque nécessitait donc un grand nombre d’intervenants et de compétences diverses.

Partage des tâches

Déjà à l’époque de Dioclétien (243-313), dans l’Édit du Maximum(Edictum De Pretiis Rerum Venalium– 301), où sont énumérés les divers travaux et les salaires respectifs pour tout l’Empire, concernant la peinture murale est évoqué un pictor parietarius payé 75 danari et d’un pictor imaginarius payé 150, correspondant probablement respectivement à l’exécuteur manuel des peintures et le projeteur ou dessinateur.

Cennino Cennini dans son Libro dell’arte parle de « maestrio » qui enseigne aux autres hommes comment devenir maîtres, à prendre dans le contexte comme le titulaire d’un atelier ou d’un chantier ayant de simples peintres sous ses ordres.

Un autre document est le contrat daté du 29 juin 1502 par lequel le futur pape Pie III charge Pinturicchiode décorer à fresque la Libreria Piccolomini du Dôme de Sienne :

« [Pinturicchio] sia tenuto a fare tutti li disegni delle istorie di sua mano in cartoni et in muro, fare le teste di sua mano tutte in fresco, et in secho ritocchare et finire infino a la perfectione sua »

— Commentario alla vita di Bernardino Pintoricchio, Gaetano Milanesi.

Les termes de ce document sont confirmés dans de nombreux comptes-rendus de chantiers antérieurs jusqu’à l’époque de Giotto, ce qui laisse présager que les procès et les organisations des chantiers soient restés figés.

Un compte rendu contenu dans une lettre datée du 6 juin 1572 de Giorgio Vasari adressée à Cosme Ierde’ Medici, détaille les dépenses et le personnel nécessaires pour les fresques de la coupole de Santa Maria del Fiore. Sur ce document, Vasari demande outre le maître et personnel annexe, onze hommes pour le déroulement des travaux parmi lesquels :

  • Au moins trois manœuvres et maçons pour l’enduit ;
  • un maestro d’inportanza, picttore praticho, qui dirige le chantier tandis que Vasari reste in terra à faire les cartons
  • trois maestri picttori pour faire les drapés, paysages, modèles en cire et en terre (pour l’étude des ombres par Vasari pendant le dessin des cartons)
  • deux maestri picttori pour le décorations abstraites, décors, ciels et nuages et pour reporter les dessins sur les murs à partir des cartons (jusqu’au xve siècle par les sinopie, ensuite par d’autres moyens comme lespolvero ou la gravure)
  • deux manœuvres pour moudreles couleurs.

Il ne restait au maître que la réalisation du projet général, des cartons, la supervision, la normalisation des travaux des autres peintres et probablement la peinture des détails difficiles, surtout les figures humaines.

Une telle organisation, que Vasari indique être commune et se pratiquant dans d’autres villes, avait pour objectif la rapidité d’exécution des travaux avec le partage des tâches de façon que plusieurs opérations puissent être exécutées simultanément, mais surtout de ne pas perdre de temps lors de la pose de l’« intonaco a fresco » pendant lequel la peinture devait être étalée sans erreurs avant qu’elle ne sèche.

Les dessins préparatoires

Giacobbe Giusti, question giottesque

La Divina Commedia de Dante , fresque de Domenico di Michelino de la nef de Santa Maria del Fiore, sur un carton d’Alesso Baldovinetti.

Les dessins sur papier ou parchemin ou sur tout autre support antérieurs au xve siècle sont pratiquement inexistants ce qui pose question quant à leur usage par les maîtres au cours de cette époque.

À ce propos, Cennino Cennini, écrivait qu’il était normal de faire usage de dessins à échelle réelle pour réaliser des casamenti, tandis que Giorgio Vasari, en décrivant une fresque inachevée de Simone Martini, cite comme nostri maestri vecchi avaient l’habitude de faire un dessin de l’œuvre qui, par la suite, était agrandi au carré en sinopia.

Dans un document de l’archive de Francesco Datini daté du 15 octobre 1415 les exécuteurs testamentaires du marchand d’art pratesindemandent aux peintres chargés de décorer à fresque le Palazzo Datini(Ambrogio di Baldese, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini , Alvaro di Piero, Lippo d’Andrea et Scolaio di Giovanni) de leur montrer leurs dessins préparatoires afin « d’évaluer et décider » avant la mise en route du chantier (Purgatoire – Chant XXXII, 64-68, Paradis – Chant XXIV, 24-27 et Convivio X 11).

Les dessins préparatoires avaient pour but de présenter le travail au client et étaient destinés à l’organisation du travail, servant à estimer la quantité en personnel et matériel nécessaire ainsi que le coût et le temps d’exécution.

Sur la disparition de ces dessins, il faut tenir comte que ceux-ci avaient uniquement une fonction de projet et devenaient inutiles une fois le fresque terminée, souvent coupés et tachés et abîmés par leur manutention sur le chantier. Les dessins étaient enfin calqués sur les parois afin de réaliser la sinopia, parachevée par le maître.

Parfois, le maître faisait un croquis puis le donnait à quelqu’un d’autre pour réaliser le dessin. Ce cas est évoque par Vasari dans Le Vitequand il décrit la façon par laquelle Andrea Pisano avait reçu un disegno bellissimo de Giotto pour réaliser la décoration sculpturale de la porte du campanile de Santa Maria del Fiore.

Il ne reste que peu de témoignages de ces pratiques mais il est probable qu’elles aient été largement pratiquées : En effet, récemment il a été découvert que les fresques de Palazzo Trinci à Foligno ont été payées à Gentile da Fabriano, cette hypothèse avait déjà été évoquée par certains historiens d’art en étudiant la composition générale des peintures, mais suivie avec perplexité à cause de la médiocre technique de peinture, expliquée par la création des seuls dessins préparatoires de la part du maître.

Il existe un document où Alesso Baldovinetti est chargé par l’Opera del Duomo di Firenze de créer un dessin pour un Portrait de Danteavec la Divine Comédie pour Domenico di Michelino, qui créa la célèbre fresque de la nef de Santa Maria del Fiore.

À la lumière de ces exemples, qui mettent en évidence de larges collaborations entre les divers maîtres, le concept de paternité et d’attribution est à manier avec précaution.

Travail en série : l’usage des « patrons »

Il problème de la « normalisation » était parfois résolu grâce à des artifices particuliers dont l’existence n’a été découverte que récemment.

Dans les documents des archives du xive et xve siècle on trouve souvent la mention patrones, qui ont été interprétés comme des figures modelées et dessins sur papier huilé ou cirée servent à la réalisation des divers dessins : figures humaines, éléments architecturaux, parties décoratives.

Ces patroni apparaissent à diverses reprises dans des documents servant d’ordres d’achats pour le matériel servant à leur réalisation ou à recruter le personnel pour les réaliser.

Cennino Cennini et certains prescripteurs dédient des chapitres entiers à la création du papier huilé transparent.

Parfois, lors de travaux de restauration, on découvre des feuilles de papier anciennes laissées dans des trous de boulin(Abbaye de Pomposa et Cappellone di San Nicola à Tolentino entre 1959-1964). Souvent l’absence de valeur de telles pièces, souvent usées et endommagées par les travaux, a fait passer sous silence de telles retrouvailles provoquant leur disparition.

En étudiant les fresques d’Assise, il est apparu des détails de certaines figures humaines ayant exactement les mêmes formes et dimensions, avec uniquement des variations dans l’inclinaison et parfois par un renversement recto/verso qui peut être expliqué uniquement par l’usage du compas ou par l’usage de pochoirs ou modèles transparents. Il existe une figure de guerrier et une de berger dont les éléments (veste supérieure, plis de l’habit qui couvre les jambes, bras et jambes) ont des dimensions identiques mais tournées de différentes manières afin de percevoir deux figures bien distinctes.

Sources

Bibliographie

  • (it) Angiola Maria Romanini, Stil novo e maniera greca nella pittura italiana alla fine del ’200in Il Medio Oriente e l’Occidente nell’arte del XIII secolo – Atti del XIV Congresso Internazionale di Storia dell’Arte, par H. Belting (1982), Bologne, , p. 137–152
  • (it) Hans Belting, Assisi e Roma: risultati, problemi, prospettive in Roma anno 1300– Atti della IV settimana di studi di storia dell’arte medievale dell’Università di Roma par A.M.Romanini (1983), Rome, , p. 93-101
  • (en) John White et Bruno Zanardi, Cimabue and the decorative sequence in the Upper Church of S. Francesco, Assisi in Roma anno 1300, , p. 103-117
  • (it) Luciano Bellosi, La decorazione della Basilica superiore di Assisi e la pittura romana di fine ‘200 in Roma anno 1300, , p. 127-139
  • (it) Miklós Boskovits, Proposte (e conferme) per Pietro Cavalliniin Roma anno 1300, , p. 297-329
  • (it) Carlo Volpe, Il lungo percorso del « dipingere dolcissimo e tanto unito » in Storia dell’arte italiana, Turin, Einaudi, , p. 231-304
  • (it) Luciano Bellosi, La pecora di Giotto, Turin, Einaudi, .
  • (it) Angiola Maria Romanini, Gli occhi di Isacco. Classicismo e curiosità scientifica tra Arnolfo e Giotto in « Arte Medievale » n° 1–2, , p. 1–43
  • (it) Angiola Maria Romanini, Arnolfo all’origine di Giotto: l’enigma del Maestro di Isacco in « Storia dell’arte » n° 65, 1989-passage= 5–26
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, Iacobus Torriti pictor: una vicenda figurativa del tardo Duecento romano, Rome, Argos, 
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, I mosaici e gli affreschi della Cappella del Sancta Sanctorum in Il Palazzo Apostolico Lateranense par C. Pietrangeli, Florence, Nardini, , p. 59-80
  • (it) Serena Romano, Il Sancta Sanctorum: gli affreschi in Il Sancta Sanctorum par C. Pietrangeli et A.M. Romanini, Milan, Electa, , p. 38-125
  • (it) Bruno Zanardi, Federico Zeri et Chiara Frugoni, Il cantiere di Giotto, Skira, 
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, Pietro Cavallini, Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 
  • (it) Andreina Draghi, Gli affreschi rinvenuti nell’aula gotica del convento dei Santi Quattro Coronati a Roma in Cavallini/Giotto, Roma/Assisi; proposte e aggiornamenti – Atti del convegno (Roma, 2001) par T. Calvano (2002), p. 33-42
  • (it) Ricerche di prospettiva nel cantiere di Assisi in Cavallini/Giotto, Roma/Assisi; proposte e aggiornamenti, , p. 43-54
  • (it) Cavallini e Giotto: qualche osservazione su una inutile contrapposizione in Cavallini/Giotto, Roma/Assisi; proposte e aggiornamenti, , p. 80-99
  • (it) Serena Romano, La O di Giotto, Electa, 
  • (it) Giotto e Pietro Cavallini. La questione di Assisi e il cantiere medievale della pittura a fresco, Milan, Skira, 
  • (it) Alessandro Tomei, La decorazione della Basilica di San Francesco ad Assisi come metafora della questione giottesca in Giotto e il Trecento: « il più Sovrano Maestro stato in dipintura » catalogue de l’exposition par Alessandro Tomei, vol. I, Milan, Skira, , p. 31-49
  • (it) Enrica Neri Lusanna, Giotto e la pittura in Umbria: rinnovamento e tradizione in Giotto e il Trecento, 2009-volume= i, p. 51-61
  • (it) Angelo Tartuferi, La nuova visione pittorica di Giotto a Firenze e in Toscana: giotteschi, non-giotteschi in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 73-89
  • (it) Davide Banzato, L’impronta di Giotto e lo sviluppo della pittura del Trecento a Padova in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 143-155
  • (it) Alessandro Volpe, L’insegnamento di Giotto a riminesi e marchigiani in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 165-177
  • (it) Stefania Paone, Giotto a Napoli: un percorso indiziario tra fonti, collaboratori e seguaci in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 179-185}
  • (it) Massimo Medica, Giotto e Bologna in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 225-239
  • (it) Carla Travi, Giotto e la sua bottega a Milano in Giotto e il Trecento, , p. 241-251
  • (it) S. Bandera (a cura di), Un poema cistercense. Affreschi giotteschi a Chiaravalle Milanese, Milan, Silvana, 

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questione_giottesca

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Giacobbe Giusti, AMBROGIO LORENZETTI: Annunciation, 1344

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 2 mars 2018
Publié dans: Ambrogio Lorenzetti (or Ambruogio Laurati) (c. 1290 – 9 June 1348)[1] was an Italian painter of the Sienese school. He was active from approximately 1317 to 1348. He painted The Allegory of Good and, AMBROGIO LORENZETTI: Annunciation, 1344, Ambrogio_Lorenzetti, Annunciation, 1344, Frank N Magill; Alison Aves (1 November 1998). Dictionary of World Biography. Routledge. pp. 595–. ISBN 978-1-57958-041-4. Chiara Frugoni, Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, (Florence: Scala Books, 198, Senza categoria. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, AMBROGIO LORENZETTI: Annunciation, 1344

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrogio_Lorenzetti

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Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 31 janvier 2018
Publié dans: A detail from one of Sandro Botticelli's illustrations for Inferno, Canto XVIII, 1480s. Silverpoint on parchment, completed in pen and ink., art, art européen, art occidental, botticelli sandro giacobbe giusti, Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino's fresco, Dante's Divine comedy. Slade, Carole., Cecchetti, Giovanni, 1922-1998. New York, N.Y.: Modern Language Association of America, DANTE: Divine Comedy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on p. 75. Jump up^ Carlyle-Okey-Wicksteed, Divine Comedy, "Notes to Dante's Inferno" Jump up^ Inferno, Canto 34, lines 121–126. Jump up^ Richard Lansing and , Encyclopedia Americana, 2006, Vol. 30. p. 605: "the greatest single work of Italian literature;" John Julius Norwich, The Italians: History, Art, and the Genius of a People, Abrams, 1983, p. 27: "his, Michelino's fresco, Sandro Botticelli - La Carte de l'Enfer.j, Sandro Botticelli - Botticelli : de Laurent le Magnifique à Savonarole : catalogue de l'exposition à Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, du 1er octobre 2003 au 22 février 2004 et à Florence, Palazzo , Senza categoria, Universal Man", an illumination from a 13th-century copy of Hildegard von Bingen's Liber Divinorum Operum ("Book of Divine Works", c. 1165).. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Sandro Botticelli – La Carte de l’Enfer.

Sandro Botticelli – Botticelli : de Laurent le Magnifique à Savonarole : catalogue de l’exposition à Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, du 1er octobre 2003 au 22 février 2004 et à Florence, Palazzo Strozzi, du 10 mars au 11 juillet 2004. Milan : Skira editore, Paris : Musée du Luxembourg

 

Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino‘s fresco

Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Universal Man », an illumination from a 13th-century copy of Hildegard von Bingen’s Liber Divinorum Operum (« Book of Divine Works », c. 1165).

 

Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

A detail from one of Sandro Botticelli‘s illustrations for Inferno, Canto XVIII, 1480s. Silverpoint on parchment, completed in pen and ink.

« The Divine Comedy » redirects here. For other uses, see The Divine Comedy (disambiguation).
« La Divina Commedia » redirects here. For other uses, see Commedia (disambiguation).
Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy
Cover of Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), circa 1555.jpeg

Title page of the first edition with the adjective « Divina » in the title (1555)
Author Dante
Original title Comedia
Country Italy
Language Italian
Genre Poem, canto and religious
Publication date
 11 April 1472

Dante shown holding a copy of the Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelino‘s fresco
Part of a series on
Christian mysticism
"Universal Man", an illumination from a 13th-century copy of Hildegard von Bingen's Liber Divinorum Operum ("Book of Divine Works", c. 1165).
This article is part of the series on the
Italian language
History
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Grammar
Alphabet
Phonology

The Divine Comedy(Italian: Divina Commedia[diˈvina komˈmɛdja]) is a long narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun c. 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before his death in 1321. It is widely considered to be the preeminent work in Italian literature[1]and one of the greatest works of world literature.[2] The poem’s imaginative vision of the afterlife is representative of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church by the 14th century. It helped establish the Tuscan language, in which it is written, as the standardized Italian language.[3] It is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso.

The narrative describes Dante’s travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise or Heaven,[4] while allegorically the poem represents the soul’s journey towards God.[5] Dante draws on medieval Christian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the Summa Theologicaof Thomas Aquinas.[6] Consequently, the Divine Comedy has been called « the Summa in verse ».[7]In Dante’s work Virgil is presented as human reason/ and Beatrice is presented as divine knowledge.[8]

The work was originally simply titled Comedia (so also in the first printed edition, published on 1472). The adjective Divina was added by Giovanni Boccaccio and the first edition to name the poem Divina Comedia in the title was that of the Venetian humanistLodovico Dolce,[9]published in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari.

Structure and story

The Divine Comedy is composed of 14,233 lines that are divided into three canticas (Italian plural cantiche) – Inferno (Hell), Purgatorio (Purgatory), and Paradiso (Paradise) – each consisting of 33 cantos (Italian plural canti). An initial canto, serving as an introduction to the poem and generally considered to be part of the first cantica, brings the total number of cantos to 100. It is generally accepted, however, that the first two cantos serve as a unitary prologue to the entire epic, and that the opening two cantos of each cantica serve as prologues to each of the three canticas.[10][11][12]

The number « three » is prominent in the work, represented in part by the number of canticas and their lengths. Additionally, the verse scheme used, terza rima, is hendecasyllabic (lines of eleven syllables), with the lines composing tercetsaccording to the rhyme schemeaba, bcb, cdc, ded, ….

Written in the first person, the poem tells of Dante’s journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night beforeGood Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman, guides him through Heaven. Beatrice was a Florentine woman whom he had met in childhood and admired from afar in the mode of the then-fashionable courtly love tradition, which is highlighted in Dante’s earlier work La Vita Nuova.[citation needed]

The structure of the three realms follows a common numerical pattern of 9 plus 1, for a total of 10: 9 circles of the Inferno, followed by Lucifer contained at its bottom; 9 rings of Mount Purgatory, followed by the Garden of Edencrowning its summit; and the 9 celestial bodies of Paradiso, followed by the Empyrean containing the very essence of God. Within each group of 9, 7 elements correspond to a specific moral scheme, subdivided into three subcategories, while 2 others of greater particularity are added to total nine. For example, the seven deadly sins of the Catholic Church that are cleansed in Purgatory are joined by special realms for the Late repentant and the excommunicated by the church. The core seven sins within Purgatory correspond to a moral scheme of love perverted, subdivided into three groups corresponding to excessive love (Lust, Gluttony, Greed), deficient love (Sloth), and malicious love (Wrath, Envy, Pride).[citation needed]

In central Italy’s political struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Dante was part of the Guelphs, who in general favored the Papacy over the Holy Roman Emperor. Florence’s Guelphs split into factions around 1300: the White Guelphs and the Black Guelphs. Dante was among the White Guelphs who were exiled in 1302 by the Lord-Mayor Cante de’ Gabrielli di Gubbio, after troops under Charles of Valois entered the city, at the request of Pope Boniface VIII, who supported the Black Guelphs. This exile, which lasted the rest of Dante’s life, shows its influence in many parts of the Comedy, from prophecies of Dante’s exile to Dante’s views of politics, to the eternal damnation of some of his opponents.[citation needed]

The last word in each of the three canticas is stelle (« stars »).

Inferno

Gustave Doré‘s engravings illustrated the Divine Comedy (1861–1868); here Charon comes to ferry souls across the river Acheron to Hell.
Main article: Inferno (Dante)

The poem begins on the night before Good Fridayin the year 1300, « halfway along our life’s path » (Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita). Dante is thirty-five years old, half of the biblical lifespan of 70 (Psalms 89:10, Vulgate), lost in a dark wood(understood as sin),[13][14][15] assailed by beasts (a lion, a leopard, and a she-wolf) he cannot evade, and unable to find the « straight way » (diritta via) – also translatable as « right way » – to salvation (symbolized by the sun behind the mountain). Conscious that he is ruining himself and that he is falling into a « low place » (basso loco) where the sun is silent (‘l sol tace), Dante is at last rescued by Virgil, and the two of them begin their journey to the underworld. Each sin’s punishment in Inferno is a contrapasso, a symbolic instance of poetic justice; for example, in Canto XX, fortune-tellers and soothsayers must walk with their heads on backwards, unable to see what is ahead, because that was what they had tried to do in life:

they had their faces twisted toward their haunches
and found it necessary to walk backward,
because they could not see ahead of them.
… and since he wanted so to see ahead,
he looks behind and walks a backward path.[16]

Allegorically, the Inferno represents the Christian soul seeing sin for what it really is, and the three beasts represent three types of sin: the self-indulgent, the violent, and the malicious.[17] These three types of sin also provide the three main divisions of Dante’s Hell: Upper Hell, outside the city of Dis, for the four sins of indulgence (lust, gluttony, avarice, anger); Circle 7 for the sins of violence; and Circles 8 and 9 for the sins of malice (fraud and treachery). Added to these are two unlike categories that are specifically spiritual: Limbo, in Circle 1, contains the virtuous pagans who were not sinful but were ignorant of Christ, and Circle 6 contains the heretics who contradicted the doctrine and confused the spirit of Christ. The circles number 9, with the addition of Satan completing the structure of 9 + 1 = 10.[18]

Purgatorio

Purgatorio
Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Dante gazes at Mount Purgatory in an allegorical portrait by Agnolo Bronzino, painted c. 1530

Having survived the depths of Hell, Dante and Virgil ascend out of the undergloom to the Mountain of Purgatory on the far side of the world. The Mountain is on an island, the only land in the Southern Hemisphere, created by the displacement of rock which resulted when Satan’s fall created Hell[19] (which Dante portrays as existing underneath Jerusalem[20]). The mountain has seven terraces, corresponding to the seven deadly sins or « seven roots of sinfulness. »[21] The classification of sin here is more psychological than that of the Inferno, being based on motives, rather than actions. It is also drawn primarily from Christian theology, rather than from classical sources.[22]However, Dante’s illustrative examples of sin and virtue draw on classical sources as well as on the Bible and on contemporary events.

Love, a theme throughout the Divine Comedy, is particularly important for the framing of sin on the Mountain of Purgatory. While the love that flows from God is pure, it can become sinful as it flows through humanity. Humans can sin by using love towards improper or malicious ends (Wrath, Envy, Pride), or using it to proper ends but with love that is either not strong enough (Sloth) or love that is too strong (Lust, Gluttony, Greed). Below the seven purges of the soul is the Ante-Purgatory, containing the Excommunicated from the church and the Late repentant who died, often violently, before receiving rites. Thus the total comes to nine, with the addition of the Garden of Eden at the summit, equaling ten.[23]

Allegorically, the Purgatorio represents the Christian life. Christian souls arrive escorted by an angel, singing In exitu Israel de Aegypto. In his Letter to Cangrande, Dante explains that this reference to Israel leaving Egypt refers both to the redemption of Christ and to « the conversion of the soul from the sorrow and misery of sin to the state of grace. »[24] Appropriately, therefore, it is Easter Sunday when Dante and Virgil arrive.

The Purgatorio is notable for demonstrating the medieval knowledge of a spherical Earth. During the poem, Dante discusses the different stars visible in the southern hemisphere, the altered position of the sun, and the various timezones of the Earth. At this stage it is, Dante says, sunset at Jerusalem, midnight on the River Ganges, and sunrise in Purgatory.

Paradiso

Paradiso (Dante)
Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Paradiso, Canto 3: Dante and Beatrice speak to Piccarda and Constance of Sicily, in a fresco by Philipp Veit.

After an initial ascension, Beatrice guides Dante through the nine celestial spheres of Heaven. These are concentric and spherical, as in Aristotelian and Ptolemaic cosmology. While the structures of the Inferno and Purgatorio were based on different classifications of sin, the structure of the Paradisois based on the four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues.

The first seven spheres of Heaven deal solely with the cardinal virtues of Prudence, Fortitude, Justiceand Temperance. The first three describe a deficiency of one of the cardinal virtues – the Moon, containing the inconstant, whose vows to God waned as the moon and thus lack fortitude; Mercury, containing the ambitious, who were virtuous for glory and thus lacked justice; and Venus, containing the lovers, whose love was directed towards another than God and thus lacked Temperance. The final four incidentally are positive examples of the cardinal virtues, all led on by the Sun, containing the prudent, whose wisdom lighted the way for the other virtues, to which the others are bound (constituting a category on its own). Mars contains the men of fortitude who died in the cause of Christianity; Jupiter contains the kings of Justice; and Saturncontains the temperate, the monks who abided by the contemplative lifestyle. The seven subdivided into three are raised further by two more categories: the eighth sphere of the fixed stars that contain those who achieved the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, and represent the Church Triumphant – the total perfection of humanity, cleansed of all the sins and carrying all the virtues of heaven; and the ninth circle, or Primum Mobile (corresponding to the Geocentricism of Medieval astronomy), which contains the angels, creatures never poisoned by original sin. Topping them all is the Empyrean, which contains the essence of God, completing the 9-fold division to 10.

Dante meets and converses with several great saints of the Church, including Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventure, Saint Peter, and St. John. The Paradiso is consequently more theological in nature than the Inferno and the Purgatorio. However, Dante admits that the vision of heaven he receives is merely the one his human eyes permit him to see, and thus the vision of heaven found in the Cantos is Dante’s personal vision.

The Divine Comedy finishes with Dante seeing the Triune God. In a flash of understanding that he cannot express, Dante finally understands the mystery of Christ‘s divinity and humanity, and his soul becomes aligned with God’s love:[25]

But already my desire and my will
were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed,
by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.[26]

History

Manuscripts

According to the Italian Dante Society, no original manuscript written by Dante has survived, although there are many manuscript copies from the 14th and 15th centuries – more than 825 are listed on their site.[27]

Early printed editions

Title page of the first printed edition (Foligno, 11 April 1472)

First edition to name the poem Divina Comedia, 1555

Illustration of Lucifer in the first fully illustrated print edition. Woodcut for Inferno, canto 33. Pietro di Piasi, Venice, 1491.

The first printed edition was published in Foligno, Italy, by Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi on 11 April 1472.[28] Of the 300 copies printed, fourteen still survive. The original printing press is on display in the Oratorio della Nunziatella in Foligno.

Early printed editions
Date Title Place Publisher Notes
1472 La Comedia di Dante Alleghieri Foligno Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi First printed edition (or editio princeps)
1477 La Commedia Venice Wendelin of Speyer
1481 Comento di Christophoro Landino fiorentino sopra la Comedia di Dante Alighieri Florence Nicolaus Laurentii With Cristoforo Landino‘s commentary in Italian, and some engraved illustrations by Baccio Baldini after designs by Sandro Botticelli
1491 Comento di Christophoro Landino fiorentino sopra la Comedia di Dante Alighieri Venice Pietro di Piasi First fully illustrated edition
1506 Commedia di Dante insieme con uno diagolo circa el sito forma et misure dello inferno Florence Philippo di Giunta
1555 La Divina Comedia di Dante Venice Gabriel Giolito First use of « Divine » in title

Thematic concerns

The Divine Comedy can be described simply as an allegory: each canto, and the episodes therein, can contain many alternative meanings. Dante’s allegory, however, is more complex, and, in explaining how to read the poem – see the Letter to Cangrande[29] – he outlines other levels of meaning besides the allegory: the historical, the moral, the literal, and the anagogical.

The structure of the poem, likewise, is quite complex, with mathematical and numerological patterns arching throughout the work, particularly threes and nines, which are related to the Trinity. The poem is often lauded for its particularly human qualities: Dante’s skillful delineation of the characters he encounters in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise; his bitter denunciations of Florentineand Italian politics; and his powerful poetic imagination. Dante’s use of real characters, according to Dorothy Sayers in her introduction to her translation of the Inferno, allows Dante the freedom of not having to involve the reader in description, and allows him to « [make] room in his poem for the discussion of a great many subjects of the utmost importance, thus widening its range and increasing its variety. »[30]

Dante called the poem « Comedy » (the adjective « Divine » was added later in the 16th century) because poems in the ancient world were classified as High (« Tragedy ») or Low (« Comedy »).[31] Low poems had happy endings and were written in everyday language, whereas High poems treated more serious matters and were written in an elevated style. Dante was one of the first in the Middle Ages to write of a serious subject, the Redemption of humanity, in the low and « vulgar » Italian language and not the Latin one might expect for such a serious topic. Boccaccio‘s account that an early version of the poem was begun by Dante in Latin is still controversial.[32][33]

Scientific themes

Albert Ritter sketched the Comedy’s geography from Dante’s Cantos: Hell’s entrance is near Florence with the circles descending to Earth’s centre; sketch 5 reflects Canto 34’s inversion as Dante passes down, and thereby up to Mount Purgatory’s shores in the southern hemisphere, where he passes to the first sphere of Heaven at the top.

Although the Divine Comedy is primarily a religious poem, discussing sin, virtue, and theology, Dante also discusses several elements of the science of his day (this mixture of science with poetry has received both praise and blame over the centuries[34]). The Purgatorio repeatedly refers to the implications of a spherical Earth, such as the different stars visible in the southern hemisphere, the altered position of the sun, and the various timezones of the Earth. For example, at sunset in Purgatory it is midnight at the Ebro, dawn in Jerusalem, and noon on the River Ganges:[35]

Just as, there where its Maker shed His blood,
the sun shed its first rays, and Ebro lay
beneath high Libra, and the ninth hour’s rays

were scorching Ganges’ waves; so here, the sun
stood at the point of day’s departure when
God’s angel—happy—showed himself to us.[36]

Dante travels through the centre of the Earth in the Inferno, and comments on the resulting change in the direction of gravity in Canto XXXIV (lines 76–120). A little earlier (XXXIII, 102–105), he queries the existence of wind in the frozen inner circle of hell, since it has no temperature differentials.[37]

Inevitably, given its setting, the Paradisodiscusses astronomy extensively, but in the Ptolemaic sense. The Paradiso also discusses the importance of the experimental method in science, with a detailed example in lines 94–105 of Canto II:

Yet an experiment, were you to try it,
could free you from your cavil and the source
of your arts’ course springs from experiment.

Taking three mirrors, place a pair of them
at equal distance from you; set the third
midway between those two, but farther back.

Then, turning toward them, at your back have placed
a light that kindles those three mirrors and
returns to you, reflected by them all.

Although the image in the farthest glass
will be of lesser size, there you will see
that it must match the brightness of the rest.[38]

A briefer example occurs in Canto XV of the Purgatorio (lines 16–21), where Dante points out that both theory and experiment confirm that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. Other references to science in the Paradiso include descriptions of clockwork in Canto XXIV (lines 13–18), and Thales’ theoremabout triangles in Canto XIII (lines 101–102).

Galileo Galilei is known to have lectured on the Inferno, and it has been suggested that the poem may have influenced some of Galileo’s own ideas regarding mechanics.[39]

Theories of influence from Islamic philosophy

In 1919, Miguel Asín Palacios, a Spanish scholar and a Catholic priest, published La Escatología musulmana en la Divina Comedia (Islamic Eschatology in the Divine Comedy), an account of parallels between early Islamic philosophy and the Divine Comedy. Palacios argued that Dante derived many features of and episodes about the hereafter from the spiritual writings of Ibn Arabiand from the Isra and Mi’raj or night journey of Muhammad to heaven. The latter is described in the Hadith and the Kitab al Miraj (translated into Latin in 1264 or shortly before[40] as Liber Scalae Machometi, « The Book of Muhammad’s Ladder »), and has significant similarities to the Paradiso, such as a sevenfold division of Paradise,[41]although this is not unique to the Kitab al Miraj.[citation needed]

Some « superficial similarities »[42] of the Divine Comedy to the Resalat Al-Ghufran or Epistle of Forgiveness of Al-Ma’arri have also been mentioned in this debate. The Resalat Al-Ghufrandescribes the journey of the poet in the realms of the afterlife and includes dialogue with people in Heaven and Hell, although, unlike the Kitab al Miraj, there is little description of these locations,[43] and it is unlikely that Dante borrowed from this work.[44][45]

Dante did, however, live in a Europe of substantial literary and philosophical contact with the Muslim world, encouraged by such factors as Averroism(« Averrois, che’l gran comento feo » Commedia, Inferno, IV, 144, meaning « Averrois, who wrote the great comment ») and the patronage of Alfonso X of Castile. Of the twelve wise men Dante meets in Canto X of the Paradiso, Thomas Aquinas and, even more so, Siger of Brabant were strongly influenced by Arabic commentators on Aristotle.[46] Medieval Christian mysticism also shared the Neoplatonic influence of Sufis such as Ibn Arabi. Philosopher Frederick Coplestonargued in 1950 that Dante’s respectful treatment of Averroes, Avicenna, and Siger of Brabant indicates his acknowledgement of a « considerable debt » to Islamic philosophy.[46]

Although this philosophical influence is generally acknowledged, many scholars have not been satisfied that Dante was influenced by the Kitab al Miraj. The 20th century Orientalist Francesco Gabrieli expressed skepticism regarding the claimed similarities, and the lack of evidence of a vehicle through which it could have been transmitted to Dante. Even so, while dismissing the probability of some influences posited in Palacios’ work,[47] Gabrieli conceded that it was « at least possible, if not probable, that Dante may have known the Liber scalae and have taken from it certain images and concepts of Muslim eschatology ». Shortly before her death, the Italian philologist Maria Corti pointed out that, during his stay at the court of Alfonso X, Dante’s mentor Brunetto Latini met Bonaventura de Siena, a Tuscan who had translated the Kitab al Miraj from Arabic into Latin. Corti speculates that Brunetto may have provided a copy of that work to Dante.[48]René Guénon, a Sufi convert and scholar of Ibn Arabi, rejected in The Esoterism of Dante the theory of his influence (direct or indirect) on Dante.[49]

Literary influence in the English-speaking world and beyond

A detail from one of Sandro Botticelli‘s illustrations for Inferno, Canto XVIII, 1480s. Silverpoint on parchment, completed in pen and ink.

The Divine Comedywas not always as well-regarded as it is today. Although recognized as a masterpiece in the centuries immediately following its publication,[50] the work was largely ignored during the Enlightenment, with some notable exceptions such as Vittorio Alfieri; Antoine de Rivarol, who translated the Inferno into French; and Giambattista Vico, who in the Scienza nuova and in the Giudizio su Danteinaugurated what would later become the romantic reappraisal of Dante, juxtaposing him to Homer.[51] The Comedy was « rediscovered » in the English-speaking world by William Blake – who illustrated several passages of the epic – and the romantic writers of the 19th century. Later authors such as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Samuel Beckett, C. S. Lewis and James Joyce have drawn on it for inspiration. The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was its first American translator,[52]and modern poets, including Seamus Heaney,[53]Robert Pinsky, John Ciardi, W. S. Merwin, and Stanley Lombardo, have also produced translations of all or parts of the book. In Russia, beyond Pushkin‘s translation of a few tercets,[54]Osip Mandelstam‘s late poetry has been said to bear the mark of a « tormented meditation » on the Comedy.[55] In 1934, Mandelstam gave a modern reading of the poem in his labyrinthine « Conversation on Dante ».[56] In T. S. Eliot’s estimation, « Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them. There is no third. »[57] For Jorge Luis Borges the Divine Comedy was « the best book literature has achieved ».[58]

English translations

Main article: English translations of Dante’s Divine comedy

New English translations of the Divine Comedycontinue to be published regularly. Notable English translations of the complete poem include the following.[59]

Year Translator Notes
1805–1814 Henry Francis Cary An older translation, widely available online.
1867 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The first U.S. translation, raising American interest in the poem. It is still widely available, including online.
1891–1892 Charles Eliot Norton Translation used by Great Books of the Western World. Available online at Project Gutenberg.
1933–1943 Laurence Binyon An English version rendered in terza rima, with some advisory assistance from Ezra Pound
1949–1962 Dorothy L. Sayers Translated for Penguin Classics, intended for a wider audience, and completed by Barbara Reynolds.
1969 Thomas G. Bergin Cast in blank verse with illustrations by Leonard Baskin.[60]
1954–1970 John Ciardi His Inferno was recorded and released by Folkways Records in 1954.
1970–1991 Charles S. Singleton Literal prose version with extensive commentary; 6 vols.
1981 C. H. Sisson Available in Oxford World’s Classics.
1980–1984 Allen Mandelbaum Available online.
1967–2002 Mark Musa An alternative Penguin Classics version.
2000–2007 Robert and Jean Hollander Online as part of the Princeton Dante Project.
2002–2004 Anthony M. Esolen Modern Library Classics edition.
2006–2007 Robin Kirkpatrick A third Penguin Classicsversion, replacing Musa’s.
2010 Burton Raffel A Northwestern World Classics version.
2013 Clive James A poetic version in quatrains.

A number of other translators, such as Robert Pinsky, have translated the Inferno only.

In the arts

Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Dante and Virgil in Hell, painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1850)
Giacobbe Giusti, DANTE: Divine Comedy

Rodin‘s The Kissrepresents Paolo and Francesca from the Inferno.[61]
Main article: Dante and his Divine Comedy in popular culture

The Divine Comedyhas been a source of inspiration for countless artists for almost seven centuries. There are many references to Dante’s work in literature. In music, Franz Liszt was one of many composers to write worksbased on the Divine Comedy. In sculpture, the work of Auguste Rodin includes themes from Dante, and many visual artists have illustrated Dante’s work, as shown by the examples above. There have also been many references to the Divine Comedy in cinema and computer games.

Gallery

Series of woodcuts illustrating Dante’s Hell by Antonio Manetti (1423–1497):
From Dialogo di Antonio Manetti, cittadino fiorentino, circa al sito, forma, et misure dello inferno di Dante Alighieri poeta excellentissimo (Florence: F. Giunta, 1510?)
« Everything Reduced to One Plan », 1506
« The Chamber of Hell », 1506
« Overview of Hell », 1506
« Circles Six and Seven », 1506
« The Lair of Geryon », 1506
« The Tomb of Lucifer », 1506
La materia della Divina commedia di Dante Alighieri, dichiarata in VI tavole, by Michelangelo Caetani (1804–1882)
1855 title page
Plate I: « Overview of the Divine Comedy »
Plate III: « Map of Hell »
Plate IV: « Cross Section of Hell »
Plate V: « The Ordering of Purgatory »
Plate VI: « The Ordering of Paradise »

Notes and references

  1. Jump up^ For example, Encyclopedia Americana, 2006, Vol. 30. p. 605: « the greatest single work of Italian literature; » John Julius Norwich, The Italians: History, Art, and the Genius of a People, Abrams, 1983, p. 27: « his tremendous poem, still after six and a half centuries the supreme work of Italian literature, remains – after the legacy of ancient Rome – the grandest single element in the Italian heritage; » and Robert Reinhold Ergang, The Renaissance, Van Nostrand, 1967, p. 103: « Many literary historians regard the Divine Comedy as the greatest work of Italian literature. In world literature it is ranked as an epic poem of the highest order. »
  2. Jump up^ Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon.See also Western canon for other « canons » that include the Divine Comedy.
  3. Jump up^ See Lepschy, Laura; Lepschy, Giulio (1977). The Italian Language Today. or any other history of Italian language.
  4. Jump up^ Peter E. Bondanella, The Inferno, Introduction, p. xliii, Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003, ISBN 1-59308-051-4: « the key fiction of the Divine Comedy is that the poem is true. »
  5. Jump up^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, notes on page 19.
  6. Jump up^ Charles Allen Dinsmore, The Teachings of Dante, Ayer Publishing, 1970, p. 38, ISBN 0-8369-5521-8.
  7. Jump up^ The Fordham Monthly Fordham University, Vol. XL, Dec. 1921, p. 76
  8. Jump up^ Approaches to teaching Dante’s Divine comedy. Slade, Carole., Cecchetti, Giovanni, 1922-1998. New York, N.Y.: Modern Language Association of America. 1982. ISBN 0873524780. OCLC 7671339.
  9. Jump up^ Ronnie H. Terpening, Lodovico Dolce, Renaissance Man of Letters (Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 1997), p. 166.
  10. Jump up^ Dante The Inferno A Verse Translation by Professor Robert and Jean Hollander p. 43
  11. Jump up^ Epist. XIII 43 to 48
  12. Jump up^ Wilkins E.H The Prologue to the Divine Comedy Annual Report of the Dante Society, pp. 1–7.
  13. Jump up^ « Inferno, la Divina Commedia annotata e commentata da Tommaso Di Salvo, Zanichelli, Bologna, 1985 ». Abebooks.it. Retrieved 16 January 2010.
  14. Jump up^ Lectura Dantis, Società dantesca italiana
  15. Jump up^ Online sources include [1], [2], [3] [4], « Archived copy ». Archived from the originalon 2 December 2009. Retrieved 1 December2009., [5], and [6] Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  16. Jump up^ Inferno, Canto XX, lines 13–15 and 38–39, Mandelbaum translation.
  17. Jump up^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on p. 75.
  18. Jump up^ Carlyle-Okey-Wicksteed, Divine Comedy, « Notes to Dante’s Inferno »
  19. Jump up^ Inferno, Canto 34, lines 121–126.
  20. Jump up^ Richard Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, The Dante Encyclopedia, p. 475, Garland Publishing, 2000, ISBN 0-8153-1659-3.
  21. Jump up^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, Introduction, pp. 65–67 (Penguin, 1955).
  22. Jump up^ Robin Kirkpatrick, Purgatorio, Introduction, p. xiv (Penguin, 2007).
  23. Jump up^ Carlyle-Oakey-Wickstead, Divine Comedy, « Notes on Dante’s Purgatory.
  24. Jump up^ « The Letter to Can Grande, » in Literary Criticism of Dante Alighieri, translated and edited by Robert S. Haller (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1973), 99
  25. Jump up^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Paradise, notes on Canto XXXIII.
  26. Jump up^ Paradiso, Canto XXXIII, lines 142–145, C. H. Sisson translation.
  27. Jump up^ « Elenco Codici ». Dante Online. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  28. Jump up^ Christopher Kleinhenz, Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-93930-5, p. 360.
  29. Jump up^ « Epistle to Can Grande ». faculty.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 20 October2014.
  30. Jump up^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Hell, Introduction, p. 16 (Penguin, 1955).
  31. Jump up^ « Ancient History Encyclopedia ».
  32. Jump up^ Boccaccio also quotes the initial triplet: »Ultima regna canam fluvido contermina mundo, / spiritibus quae lata patent, quae premia solvunt /pro meritis cuicumque suis ». For translation and more, see Guyda Armstrong, Review of Giovanni Boccaccio. Life of Dante. J. G. Nichols, trans. London: Hesperus Press, 2002.
  33. Jump up^ Peri, Hiram (1955). « The Original Plan of the Divine Comedy ». Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 18 (3/4): 189–210. doi:10.2307/750179. JSTOR 750179.
  34. Jump up^ Michael Caesar, Dante: The Critical Heritage, Routledge, 1995, pp. 288, 383, 412, 631.
  35. Jump up^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Purgatory, notes on p. 286
  36. Jump up^ Purgatorio, Canto XXVII, lines 1–6, Mandelbaum translation.
  37. Jump up^ Dorothy L. Sayers, Inferno, notes on p. 284.
  38. Jump up^ Paradiso, Canto II, lines 94–105, Mandelbaum translation.
  39. Jump up^ Mtholyoke.edu « Mark Peterson Sheds New Light on Discovery by Galileo, » College Street Journal, 8 March, 2002. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  40. Jump up^ I. Heullant-Donat and M.-A. Polo de Beaulieu, « Histoire d’une traduction, » in Le Livre de l’échelle de Mahomet, Latin edition and French translation by Gisèle Besson and Michèle Brossard-Dandré, Collection Lettres Gothiques, Le Livre de Poche, 1991, p. 22 with note 37.
  41. Jump up^ See the https://web.archive.org/web/20080319003125/http://www20.brinkster.com/gurupak/Miraaj%20-%20The%20Ascension%20to%20Heaven.htm. Archived from the original on 19 March 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help) of the Kitab al Miraj. https://web.archive.org/web/20080319003125/http://www20.brinkster.com/gurupak/Miraaj%20-%20The%20Ascension%20to%20Heaven.htm. Archived from the original on 19 March 2008. Retrieved June 1, 2016. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  42. Jump up^ William Montgomery Watt and Pierre Cachia, A History of Islamic Spain, 2nd edition, Edinburgh University Press, 1996, pp. 125–126, ISBN 0-7486-0847-8.
  43. Jump up^ Dionisius A. Agius and Richard Hitchcock, The Arab Influence in Medieval Europe, Ithaca Press, 1996, p. 70, ISBN 0-86372-213-X.
  44. Jump up^ Kāmil Kīlānī and G. Brackenbury, Introduction to Risalat ul Ghufran: A Divine Comedy, 3rd ed, Al-Maaref Printing and Publishing House, 1943, p. 8.
  45. Jump up^ The theory « receives little credence », according to Watt and Cachia, p. 183.
  46. ^ Jump up to:a b Frederick Copleston (1950). A History of Philosophy, Volume 2. London: Continuum. p. 200.
  47. Jump up^ Francesco Gabrieli, « New light on Dante and Islam », Diogenes, 2:61–73, 1954
  48. Jump up^ « Errore ».
  49. Jump up^ Guenon, René (1925). The Esoterism of Dante.
  50. Jump up^ Chaucer wrote in the Monk’s Tale, « Redeth the grete poete of Ytaille / That highte Dant, for he kan al devyse / Fro point to point; nat o word wol he faille ».
  51. Jump up^ Erich Auerbach, Dante: Poet of the Secular World. ISBN 0-226-03205-1.
  52. Jump up^ Irmscher, Christoph. Longfellow Redux. University of Illinois, 2008: 11. ISBN 978-0-252-03063-5.
  53. Jump up^ Seamus Heaney, « Envies and Identifications: Dante and the Modern Poet. » The Poet’s Dante: Twentieth-Century Responses. Ed. Peter S. Hawkins and Rachel Jacoff. New York: Farrar, 2001. 239–258.
  54. Jump up^ ‘Dante in Russia’ in The Dante encyclopediaby Richard H. Lansing and Teodolinda Barolini, [7]
  55. Jump up^ Marina Glazova, Mandelstam and Dante: The Divine Comedy in Mandelstam’s poetry of the 1930s Studies in East European Thought, Volume 28, Number 4, November 1984.
  56. Jump up^ James Fenton, Hell set to music, The Guardian, 16 July 2005
  57. Jump up^ T. S. Eliot (1950) « Dante. » Selected Essays, pp. 199–237. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
  58. Jump up^ Jorge Luis Borges, « Selected Non-Fictions ». Ed. Eliot Weinberger. Trans. Esther Allen et. al. New York: Viking, 1999. 303.
  59. Jump up^ A comprehensive listing and criticism, covering the period 1782–1966, of English translations of at least one of the three books (cantiche; singular: cantica) is given by Gilbert F. Cunningham, « The Divine comedy in English: a critical biography 1782–1966 ». 2 vols., Barnes & Noble, NY; esp. v. 2 pp. 5–9.
  60. Jump up^ Dante Alighieri. Bergin, Thomas G. trans. Divine Comedy. Grossman Publishers; 1st edition (1969) .
  61. Jump up^ Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette (1999). Rodin:The Gates of Hell. Paris: Musée Rodin. ISBN 2-901428-69-X.
 www.giacobbegiusti.com

神曲

曖昧さ回避 「神曲」のその他の用法については「神曲 (曖昧さ回避)」をご覧ください。

Divina Comedia 1555

神曲の初版（1472年4月11日発行）

Comencia la Comedia, 1472

『神曲』（しんきょく、伊: La Divina Commedia）は、13世紀から14世紀にかけてのイタリアの詩人・政治家、ダンテ・アリギエーリの代表作である。

地獄篇、煉獄篇、天国篇の3部から成る[1]、全14,233行の韻文による長編叙事詩であり、聖なる数「3」を基調とした極めて均整のとれた構成から、しばしばゴシック様式の大聖堂にたとえられる。イタリア文学最大の古典とされ、世界文学史にも重きをなしている。当時の作品としては珍しく、ラテン語ではなくトスカーナ方言で書かれていることが特徴である。

目次

 [非表示] 

題名『神曲』の由来

原題はイタリア語で「神聖喜劇」を意味する。ただし、ダンテ自身は、単に「喜劇（Commedia）」とのみ題した。喜劇としたのは、悲劇と違って円満な結末を迎えるためや、比較的平易に読める当時の俗語で書かれているためだという。出版史上では、『神曲』の最初期の写本には、「ダンテ」「三行韻詩」などの題がつけられていた。15世紀から16世紀頃には、ダンテの詩が活版印刷で出版されるようになり、1555年に刊行のヴェネツィア版により「神聖喜劇」の題名が定着した。

邦題の「神曲」は、森鴎外訳の代表作であるアンデルセンの『即興詩人』の中で用いられた。その一章「神曲、吾友なる貴公子」において『神曲』の魅力が語られ、上田敏や正宗白鳥ら同時代の文人を魅了し、翻訳紹介の試みが始まった。

上記が日本における最初期の『神曲』紹介であり、ダンテ作品の受容はここから始まったとも言える。故に、今日でもほぼ全ての訳題が『神聖喜劇』ではなく、『神曲』で統一されている。

『神曲』の成立

ダンテが『神曲』を世に出した背景には、当時のイタリアにおける政争と自身のフィレンツェ追放、そして永遠の淑女ベアトリーチェへの愛の存在が大きい。また、ダンテは、ヴェローナのパトロンであるカングランデ1世（イタリア語版）への書簡で、人生における道徳的原則を明らかにすることが『神曲』を執筆した目的であると記している。

『神曲』地獄篇は、1304年から1308年頃に執筆されたと考えられている。1319年には、地獄篇と煉獄篇は既に多くの人に読まれており、ダンテは名声を得ていたことが分かっている。天国篇は1316年頃から死の直前、1321年にかけて完成された。『神曲』は、当時の知識人の共通語であったラテン語ではなく、トスカーナ方言で執筆されたことも、多くの人に読まれた理由である。

ベアトリーチェ

『神曲』では、実在の人物の名前が多々登場する。ウェルギリウスに地獄界の教導を請い、煉獄山の頂上でダンテを迎えるベアトリーチェは、ダンテが幼少のころ出会い、心惹かれた少女の名である。しかし、のちにベアトリーチェは24歳で夭逝してしまう。ダンテは、それを知ってひどく嘆き悲しみ、彼女のことをうたった詩文『新生』をまとめた（ダンテ・アリギエーリの項も参照）。

『神曲』に登場するベアトリーチェに関しては、実在した女性ベアトリーチェをモデルにしたという実在論と、「永遠の淑女」「久遠の女性」としてキリスト教神学を象徴させたとする象徴論が対立している。実在のモデルを取る説では、フィレンツェの名門フォルコ・ポルティナーリの娘として生れ、のちに銀行家シモーネ・デ・バルティの妻となったベアトリーチェ（ビーチェ）を核として、ダンテがその詩の中で「永遠の淑女」として象徴化していったと見る。非実在の立場を取る神学の象徴説では、ダンテとベアトリーチェが出会ったのは、ともに9歳の時で、そして再会したのは9年の時を経て、2人が18歳になった時であるというように、三位一体を象徴する聖なる数「3」の倍数が何度も現われていることから、ベアトリーチェもまた神学の象徴であり、ダンテは見神の体験を寓意的に「永遠の淑女」として象徴化したという説を取る。

いずれにせよ、ベアトリーチェは、愛を象徴する存在として神聖化され、神学の象徴ともあると考えられている。地獄と煉獄を案内するウェルギリウスも実在した古代ローマの詩人であり、神曲の中では「理性と哲学」の象徴とされている。

フィレンツェの政争

ダンテが『神曲』を執筆するきっかけの1つには、当時のイタリアでの教皇派（グエルフ）と皇帝派（ギベッリーニ）の対立、および党派抗争を制したグエルフィ内部での「白党」と「黒党」による政争がある。ダンテは、白党に所属しており、フィレンツェ市政の重鎮に就いていたが、この政争に敗れてフィレンツェを追放されることになる。『神曲』には、ここかしこにダンテが経験した政治的不義に対する憤りが現れており、自分を追放したフィレンツェへの怒りと痛罵も込められている。また、ダンテを陥れた人物は、たとえ至尊の教皇であろうと地獄界に堕とし、そこで罰せられ苦しむ様子も描かれている。ほかにも、ダンテは、自由に有名無名の実在した人物を登場させ、地獄や煉獄、天国に配置しており、これによって生まれるリアリティが『神曲』を成功させた理由の1つであると考えられる。

『神曲』の構成

『神曲』は、

  • 地獄篇 (Inferno)
  • 煉獄篇 (Purgatorio)
  • 天国篇 (Paradiso)

の三部から構成されており、各篇はそれぞれ34歌、33歌、33歌の計100歌から成る。このうち地獄篇の最初の第一歌は、これから歌う三界全体の構想をあらわした、いわば総序となっているので、各篇は3の倍数である33歌から構成されていることになる。

また詩行全体にわたって、三行を一連とする「三行韻詩」あるいは「三韻句法」（テルツァ・リーマ）の詩型が用いられている。各行は11音節から成り、3行が一まとまりとなって、三行連句の脚韻が aba bcb cdc と次々に韻を踏んでいって鎖状に連なるという押韻形式である。各歌の末尾のみ3+1行で、xyx yzy z という韻によって締めくくられる。したがって、各歌は3n+1行から成る。このように、『神曲』は細部から全体の構成まで作品の隅々において、聖なる数「3」が貫かれており、幾何学的構成美を見せている。ダンテはローマカトリックの教義、「三位一体」についての神学を文学的表現として昇華しようと企図した。すなわち、聖数「3」と完全数「10」を基調として、1，3，9(32)，10(32+1)，100(102，33×3+1) の数字を『神曲』全体に行き渡らせることで「三位一体」を作品全体で体現したのである。

なお、地獄、煉獄、天国の各篇とも、最終歌の末節は星 (stella) という言葉で結ばれている。また地獄篇はキリスト教新約聖書外典である「ペトロの黙示録」で語られている世界観を踏襲している。

あらすじ

ユリウス暦1300年の聖金曜日（復活祭前の金曜日）、暗い森の中に迷い込んだダンテは、そこで古代ローマの詩人ウェルギリウスと出会い、彼に導かれて地獄、煉獄、天国と彼岸の国を遍歴して回る。ウェルギリウスは、地獄の九圏を通ってダンテを案内し、地球の中心部、魔王ルチーフェロの幽閉されている領域まで至る。そして、地球の対蹠点に抜けて煉獄山にたどり着く[2]。ダンテは、煉獄山を登るにつれて罪が清められていき、煉獄の山頂でウェルギリウスと別れることになる。そして、ダンテは、そこで再会した永遠の淑女ベアトリーチェの導きで天界へと昇天し、各遊星の天を巡って至高天（エンピレオ）へと昇りつめ、見神の域に達する。

地獄篇 Inferno

地獄篇の冒頭。気が付くと深い森の中におり、恐怖にかられるダンテ。ギュスターヴ・ドレ による挿絵

西暦（ユリウス暦）1300年の聖金曜日（復活祭直前の金曜日）、人生の半ばにして暗い森に迷い込んだダンテは、地獄に入った。作者であり主人公でもあるダンテは、私淑する詩人ウェルギリウスに案内され、地獄の門をくぐって地獄の底にまで降り、死後の罰を受ける罪人たちの間を遍歴していく。ウェルギリウスは、キリスト以前に生れたため、キリスト教の恩寵を受けることがなく、ホメロスら古代の大詩人とともに未洗礼者の置かれる辺獄（リンボ）にいた。しかし、ある日、地獄に迷いこんだダンテの身を案じたベアトリーチェの頼みにより、ダンテの先導者としての役目を引き受けて、辺獄を出たのである。

冥界の渡し守カロンが死者の霊を舟に乗せてゆく。地獄篇の挿絵より。

『神曲』において、地獄の世界は、漏斗状の大穴をなして地球の中心にまで達し、最上部の第一圏から最下部の第九圏までの九つの圏から構成される。かつて最も光輝はなはだしい天使であったルチフェロが神に叛逆し、地上に堕とされてできたのが地獄の大穴である。地球の対蹠点では、魔王が墜落した衝撃により、煉獄山が持ち上がったという。地獄は、アリストテレスの『倫理学』でいう三つの邪悪、「放縦」「悪意」「獣性」を基本として、それぞれ更に細分化され、「邪淫」「貪欲」「暴力」「欺瞞」などの罪に応じて、亡者が各圏に振り分けられている。地獄の階層を下に行くに従って罪は重くなり、中ほどにあるディーテの市（ディーテはプルートーの別名）を境として、地獄は、比較的軽い罪と重罪の領域に分けられている。

ボッティチェッリの 地獄の図 c. 1490年

『神曲』の地獄において最も重い罪とされる悪行は「裏切り」で、地獄の最下層コキュートス（嘆きの川）には裏切者が永遠に氷漬けとなっている。数ある罪の中で、「裏切り」が特別に重い罪とされているのは、ダンテ自身がフィレンツェにおける政争の渦中で体験した、政治的不義に対する怒りが込められている。

地獄界は、まず「この門をくぐる者は一切の希望を捨てよ」と銘された地獄の門を抜けると、地獄の前庭とでも言うべきところに、罪も誉もなく人生を無為に生きた者が、地獄の中に入ることも許されず留め置かれている。その先にはアケローン川が流れており、冥府の渡し守カロンの舟で渡ることになっている。地獄界の階層構造は、以下のようになっている。

地獄界の構造

  • 地獄の門 – 「この門をくぐる者は一切の希望を捨てよ」の銘が記されている。
  • 地獄前域 – 無為に生きて善も悪もなさなかった亡者は、地獄にも天国にも入ることを許されず、ここで蜂や虻に刺される。
  • アケローン川 – 冥府の渡し守カロンが亡者を櫂で追いやり、舟に乗せて地獄へと連行していく。
  • 第一圏 辺獄（リンボ） – 洗礼を受けなかった者が、呵責こそないが希望もないまま永遠に時を過ごす。
  • 地獄の入口では、冥府の裁判官ミーノスが死者の行くべき地獄を割り当てている。
  • 第二圏 愛欲者の地獄 – 肉欲に溺れた者が、荒れ狂う暴風に吹き流される。
  • 第三圏 貪食者の地獄 – 大食の罪を犯した者が、ケルベロスに引き裂かれて泥濘にのたうち回る。
  • 冥府の神プルートーの咆哮。「パペ・サタン・パペ・サタン・アレッペ！」
  • 第四圏 貪欲者の地獄 – 吝嗇と浪費の悪徳を積んだ者が、重い金貨の袋を転がしつつ互いに罵る。
  • 第五圏 憤怒者の地獄 – 怒りに我を忘れた者が、血の色をしたスティージュの沼で互いに責め苛む。
  • ディーテの市 – 堕落した天使と重罪人が容れられる、永劫の炎に赤熱した環状の城塞。ここより下の地獄圏はこの内部にある。
  • 第六圏 異端者の地獄 – あらゆる宗派の異端の教主と門徒が、火焔の墓孔に葬られている。
  • 二人の詩人はミノタウロスとケンタウロスに出会い、半人半馬のケイロンとネッソスの案内を受ける。
  • 第七圏 暴力者の地獄 – 他者や自己に対して暴力をふるった者が、暴力の種類に応じて振り分けられる。
    • 第一の環 隣人に対する暴力 – 隣人の身体、財産を損なった者が、煮えたぎる血の河フレジェトンタに漬けられる。
    • 第二の環 自己に対する暴力 – 自殺者の森。自ら命を絶った者が、奇怪な樹木と化しアルピエに葉を啄ばまれる。
    • 第三の環 神と自然と技術に対する暴力 – 神および自然の業を蔑んだ者、男色者に、火の雨が降りかかる(当時のキリスト教徒は同性愛を罪だと考えていた)。
  • 第八圏 悪意者の地獄 – 悪意を以て罪を犯した者が、それぞれ十の「マーレボルジェ（英語版）」（悪の嚢）に振り分けられる。
    • 第一の嚢 女衒 – 婦女を誘拐して売った者が、角ある悪鬼から鞭打たれる。
    • 第二の嚢 阿諛者 – 阿諛追従の過ぎた者が、糞尿の海に漬けられる。
    • 第三の嚢 沽聖者 – 聖物や聖職を売買し、神聖を金で汚した者（シモニア）が、岩孔に入れられて焔に包まれる。
    • 第四の嚢 魔術師 – 卜占や邪法による呪術を行った者が、首を反対向きにねじ曲げられて背中に涙を流す。
    • 第五の嚢 汚職者 – 職権を悪用して利益を得た汚吏が、煮えたぎる瀝青に漬けられ、12人の悪鬼であるマレブランケから鉤手で責められる。
    • 第六の嚢 偽善者 – 偽善をなした者が、外面だけ美しい金張りの鉛の外套に身を包み、ひたすら歩く。
    • 第七の嚢 盗賊 – 盗みを働いた者が、蛇に噛まれて燃え上がり灰となるが、再びもとの姿にかえる。
    • 第八の嚢 謀略者 – 権謀術数をもって他者を欺いた者が、わが身を火焔に包まれて苦悶する。
    • 第九の嚢 離間者 – 不和・分裂の種を蒔いた者が、体を裂き切られ内臓を露出する。
    • 第十の嚢 詐欺師 – 錬金術など様々な偽造や虚偽を行った者が、悪疫にかかって苦しむ。
  • 最下層の地獄、コキュートスの手前には、かつて神に歯向かった巨人が鎖で大穴に封じられている。
  • 第九圏 裏切者の地獄 – 「コキュートス」（Cocytus 嘆きの川）と呼ばれる氷地獄。同心の四円に区切られ、最も重い罪、裏切を行った者が永遠に氷漬けとなっている。裏切者は首まで氷に漬かり、涙も凍る寒さに歯を鳴らす。
    • 第一の円 カイーナCaina – 肉親に対する裏切者 （旧約聖書の『創世記』で弟アベルを殺したカインに由来する）
    • 第二の円 アンテノーラAntenora – 祖国に対する裏切者 （トロイア戦争でトロイアを裏切ったとされるアンテーノールに由来する）
    • 第三の円 トロメーアPtolomea – 客人に対する裏切者 （旧約聖書外典『マカバイ記』上16:11-17に登場し、シモン・マカバイとその息子たちを祝宴に招いて殺害したエリコの長官アブボスの子プトレマイオスの名に由来するか）
    • 第四の円 ジュデッカJudecca – 主人に対する裏切者 （イエス・キリストを裏切ったイスカリオテのユダに由来する）

地獄の中心ジュデッカのさらに中心、地球の重力がすべて向かうところには、神に叛逆した堕天使のなれの果てである魔王ルチフェロ（サタン）が氷の中に永遠に幽閉されている。魔王は、かつて光輝はなはだしく最も美しい天使であったが、今は醜悪な三面の顔を持った姿となり、半身をコキュートスの氷の中に埋めていた。魔王は、イエス・キリストを裏切ったイスカリオテのユダ、カエサルを裏切ったブルートゥスとカッシウスの三人をそれぞれの口で噛み締めていた。

2人の詩人は、魔王の体を足台としてそのまま真っ直ぐに反対側の地表に向けて登り、岩穴を抜けて地球の裏側に達する。そこは、煉獄山の麓であった。

煉獄篇 Purgatorio

ダンテに呼びかけるベアトリーチェ。ウィリアム・ブレイク画

ヒエロニムス・ボスの『七つの大罪と四終』

煉獄は、地獄を抜けた先の地表に聳える台形の山で、ちょうどエルサレムの対蹠点にある。「浄火」あるいは「浄罪」とも言う。永遠に罰を受けつづける救いようのない地獄の住人と異なり、煉獄においては、悔悟に達した者、悔悛の余地のある死者がここで罪を贖う。

煉獄山の構造は、下から昇るごとに幾つかの段階に分かれている。亡者は煉獄山の各階梯で生前になした罪を浄めつつ上へ上へと登り、浄め終えるとやがては天国に到達するのである。

地獄を抜け出したダンテとウェルギリウスは、煉獄山の麓で小カトと対面する。ペテロの門の前でダンテは天使の剣によって額に印である七つの P を刻まれた。P は煉獄山の七冠で浄められるべき「七つの大罪」、Peccati を象徴する印である。そして、ウェルギリウスに導かれて山を登り、生前の罪を贖っている死者と語り合う。ダンテは煉獄山を登るごとに浄められ、額から P の字が一つずつ消えていく。

山頂でダンテは永遠の淑女ベアトリーチェと出会う。ウェルギリウスはキリスト教以前に生れた異端者であるため天国の案内者にはなれない。そこでダンテはウェルギリウスと別れ、ベアトリーチェに導かれて天国へと昇天する。

煉獄山の構造

  • 煉獄前域 – 煉獄山の麓。小カトがここに運ばれる死者を見張る。
    • 第一の台地 破門者 – 教会から破門された者は、臨終において悔い改めても、煉獄山の最外部から贖罪の道に就く。
    • 第二の台地 遅悔者 – 信仰を怠って生前の悔悟が遅く、臨終に際してようやく悔悟に達した者はここから登る。
  • ペテロの門 – 煉獄山の入口。それぞれに色の異なる三段の階段を上り、金と銀の鍵をもって扉を押し開く。
  • 第一冠 高慢者 – 生前、高慢の性を持った者が重い石を背負い、腰を折り曲げる。ダンテ自身はここに来ることになるだろうと述べている。
  • 第二冠 嫉妬者 – 嫉妬に身を焦がした者が、瞼を縫い止められ、盲人のごとくなる。
  • 第三冠 憤怒者 – 憤怒を悔悟した者が、朦朦たる煙の中で祈りを発する。
  • 第四冠 怠惰者 – 怠惰に日々を過ごした者が、ひたすらこの冠を走り回り、煉獄山を周回する。
  • 第五冠 貪欲者 – 生前欲深かった者が、五体を地に伏して嘆き悲しみ、欲望を消滅させる。
  • 第六冠 暴食者 – 暴食に明け暮れた者が、決して口に入らぬ果実を前に食欲を節制する。
  • 第七冠 愛欲者 – 不純な色欲に耽った者が互いに走りきたり、抱擁を交わして罪を悔い改める。
  • 山頂 地上楽園 – 常春の楽園。煉獄で最も天国に近い所で、かつて人間が黄金時代に住んでいた場所という。

天国篇 Paradiso

至高天を見つめるダンテとベアトリーチェ

地獄の大淵と煉獄山の存在する地球を中心として、同心円状に各遊星が取り巻くプトレマイオスの天動説宇宙観に基づき、ダンテは、天国界の十天を構想した。地球の周りをめぐる太陽天や木星天などの諸遊星天（当時、太陽も遊星の一つとして考えられていた）の上には、十二宮の存する恒星天と、万物を動かす力の根源である原動天があり、さらにその上には神の坐す至高天が存在する。

ダンテは、ベアトリーチェに導かれて諸遊星天から恒星天、原動天と下から順に登っていく。ダンテは、地獄から煉獄山の頂上までの道をウェルギリウスに案内され、天国では、至高天（エンピレオ）に至るまではベアトリーチェの案内を受けるが、エンピレオではクレルヴォーのベルナルドゥスが三人目の案内者となる。天国へ入ったダンテは、各々の階梯でさまざまな聖人と出会い、高邁な神学の議論が展開され、聖人たちの神学試問を経て、天国を上へ上へと登りつめる。至高天において、ダンテは、天上の純白の薔薇を見、この世を動かすものが神の愛であることを知る。

天国界の構造

  • 火焔天 – 地球と月の間にある火の本源。焔が上へ上へと向かうのは、この天へ帰らんとするためと考えられた。
  • 第一天 月天 – 天国の最下層で、生前、神への請願を必ずしも満たしきれなかった者が置かれる。
  • 第二天 水星天 – 徳功を積みはしたものの、現世的な野心や名声の執着を断ち切れなかった者が置かれる。
  • 第三天 金星天 – まだ生命あった頃、激しい愛の情熱に駆られた者が置かれる。
  • 第四天 太陽天 – 聖トマス・アクィナスら智恵深き魂が置かれる。
  • 第五天 火星天 – ダンテの先祖カッチャグイダをはじめとする、キリスト教を護るために戦った戦士たちが置かれる。
  • 第六天 木星天 – 地上にあって大いなる名声を得た正義ある統治者の魂が置かれる。
  • 第七天 土星天 – 信仰ひとすじに生きた清廉な魂が置かれる。
  • 第八天 恒星天 – 七つの遊星の天球を内包し、十二宮が置かれている天。聖ペトロら諸聖人が列する。
  • 第九天 原動天 – 諸天の一切を動かす根源となる天。
  • 第十天 至高天 – エンピレオ。諸天使、諸聖人が「天上の薔薇」に集い、ダンテは永遠なる存在を前にして刹那、見神の域に達する。

『神曲』の評価

文学的評価

『神曲』は、世界文学を代表する作品として評価は定着しており、西洋において最大級の賛辞を受けている。「世界文学」を語る際にはほぼ筆頭の位置に置かれ、古典文学の最高傑作、ルネサンスの先蹤となる作品とも評されている。特に英語圏では『神曲』の影響は極めて大きく、部分訳を含めれば百数十作にのぼる翻訳が行われ、膨大な数の研究書や批評紹介が発表されている。ダンテ文献を多く蔵するアメリカのコーネル大学図書館では、ダンテ関連の文献だけで4冊の目録が作成されているほどという。日本における『神曲』の受容も、西洋からの翻訳紹介から始まったこともあって、基本的にはこの流れを汲む。

『神曲』は、執筆当時から様々な毀誉褒貶を受けていた。ダンテとほぼ同時代に活躍したボッカッチョは、深くダンテに傾倒し、最初の崇拝者となった。彼は『神曲註解』や『ダンテ礼賛』を著してダンテを顕彰し、後には『神曲』の講義も行っている。一方で、ダンテによって地獄に堕とされた人々の子孫や関係者は、当然のごとく快く思っていなかった。また、ダンテの正義、倫理観に反する者は、例え教皇であろうと容赦なく地獄に堕として責め苦に遭わせたため、この点を反教的と批判する者もいた。

『神曲』の中には様々な書物からの引用がある。中でも聖書が最も多く、次にアリストテレスやウェルギリウスなどの哲学や倫理学、詩が多用されている。また、当時の自然科学における天文学、測量学などの知見を素材として論理的・立体的に構成されていることから、中世における百科全書的書物であるとも評価される。さらに聖書の伝説、ギリシャ神話やローマ神話の神々や怪物も多数登場し、古典文学の流れを引く幻想文学の代表作とも言えよう。実際、その幻想的な内容と豊饒なイメージから、後述するように数々の文学や芸術作品に大きな影響を与えてきた。『神曲』の持つファンタスティックな描写は、現代のSFやファンタジーの源流の一つともみなされている。

日本語訳

『神曲』日本語訳は、十数名を数えるが、文語訳で山川丙三郎訳（岩波文庫全3巻）が、口語訳で、平川祐弘訳（河出文庫全3巻[3]）、寿岳文章訳（集英社文庫ヘリテージ全3巻）が、最も一般に流通している。

全訳は他に、戦前では竹友藻風訳、中山昌樹訳、生田長江訳。戦後は野上素一訳[4]、三浦逸雄訳[5]、21世紀での訳は原基晶訳[6]などがある。「地獄篇」のみの訳は、北川冬彦訳、荒木嘉之訳、原光訳がある。河島英昭訳が、〈地獄篇〉より一歌ずつ、岩波書店の月刊誌「図書」で連載[7]している。他に粟津則雄『ダンテ地獄篇精読』（筑摩書房、1988年）がある。

抄訳では、繁野天來『ダンテ神曲物語』がある。これは明治36年に刊行されたもので、最初の『神曲』の翻訳でもある。また上田敏の未定稿翻訳があり、急逝したため地獄篇の冒頭部や天国篇の一部のみの訳だが重要である（「定本上田敏全集」全10巻、教育出版センター）。他にいずれもギュスターヴ・ドレの挿画を載せた抄訳版に、平澤彌一郎『絵で読むダンテ「神曲」地獄篇』、谷口江里也『神曲』がある。とりわけ谷口訳『神曲』（宝島社、2009年[8]）は、百枚以上のドレ『神曲』挿画が収められたドレ画集となっている。

ウェブ上の「青空文庫」で、山川丙三郎訳『神曲』[9]が公開されている。

ウェブ上のみでの試みで、「ダンテと沙漠と詩」[10]にて、中西治嘉が翻訳・研究を発表している。

北川冬彦訳は、『神曲』地獄篇[11]の電子版が発売されており、冒頭の第三歌のみを試し読み版でダウンロードできる。（北川訳は、原典の第一歌、第二歌を削除し、またウェルギリウスを登場させずダンテ一人で地獄巡りさせるという原作無視の展開である）

三浦逸雄訳『神曲』[12]は三篇の電子版であり、試し読み版で地獄篇第一歌が公開されている。

『神曲』の影響

イタリア国内

  • トスカーナ方言で書かれた『神曲』の文体が、現代のイタリア語の基礎となった。方言問題や、俗語と文語について説いたダンテの『俗語論』の影響も大きい。
  • イタリアにおいてダンテは国民的詩人とされ、イタリア文学の基となるとも言われる。また、高等教育において、全歌、深く突き詰めて学習する。
  • 欧州連合の共通通貨ユーロは、片面に各国ごとの独自デザインがなされているが、イタリアの最高額2ユーロ硬貨には、ダンテの肖像（ラファエロ原画）が採用されている。

芸術・文学

  • 数々の芸術作品に『神曲』のイメージが多用された。ミケランジェロは、『神曲』地獄篇に霊感を得て、ヴァティカンのシスティーナ礼拝堂に、大作「最後の審判」の地獄風景を描いている。オーギュスト・ロダンの有名な彫刻「考える人」も、そもそもは地獄篇第三歌より着想された「地獄の門」を構成する群像の一人（恐らくはダンテ自身）として作られたものである。
  • ボッティチェッリ、ウィリアム・ブレイク、サルバドール・ダリ、ギュスターヴ・ドレら高名な芸術家が、『神曲』の挿絵を描いている。
  • チャイコフスキーは、『神曲』中の絶唱とされる地獄篇第五歌に歌われた、フランチェスカとパオロの悲恋を題材として、幻想曲『フランチェスカ・ダ・リミニ』を作曲した。
  • フランツ・リストは、『神曲』の構想をもとに『ダンテ交響曲』を作曲した。ただし、天国を描写するのは不可能ではないか、とのリヒャルト・ワーグナーの意見に従い、煉獄を描いた第2楽章の終結部で天国を象徴する「讃歌」を置くに留めている。ピアノ曲としては『神曲』の地獄篇におけるすさまじい情景を描写した『ソナタ風幻想曲「ダンテを読んで」』（『巡礼の年 第2年』）を作曲している。
  • 1911年、イタリアで Giuseppe de Liguoro 監督によって地獄篇が『L’Inferono』として映画化（無声映画）されている。同映画は2004年にドイツの音楽グループ・タンジェリン・ドリーム(Tangerine Dream) の制作した音楽をのせる企画でDVD『L’Inferono』として発売されている。
  • ポルトガルの映画監督マノエル・デ・オリヴェイラの映画作品に、精神病院を舞台にした『神曲』 (1991年) がある。聖書やドストエフスキー作品の作中人物になりきった人々が各々の妄想の中に生き、西洋における「罪の意識」を明らかにする。
  • ボッカッチョはダンテに傾倒し、『神曲』の注釈書やダンテの評伝を残している。のちにはフィレンツェで『神曲』の講義を開いたこともある。彼がもともと『喜劇』と題された作品に『神聖なる』の形容を冠したことから、『神曲』の書名が始まった。また、代表作『デカメロン』は人間模様を赤裸々に描写したことから、『神曲』ならぬ『人曲』とも呼ばれる。
  • T・S・エリオット、ホルヘ・ルイス・ボルヘス、ジェイムズ・ジョイス、ヘンリー・W・ロングフェローら世界中の文学者にも影響を及ぼし、ロングフェローのように自ら翻訳を発表した者もいる。
  • ドイツの古典主義作家ゲーテの代表作『ファウスト』の世界観も『神曲』の影響を色濃く受けているといわれている。また、『ファウスト第2部』第1幕における主人公ファウストの独白部分は『神曲』と同じTerzineの韻律であり、ゲーテが『神曲』を意識して書いたことが見てとれる。
  • アレクサンドル・デュマは『モンテ・クリスト伯』の主人公の名字をダンテスにしたが、これはダンテに由来するとされる。また、当時『神曲』の特に地獄篇がフランスで流行っていた (Wordsworth Classics 版モンテ・クリスト伯より)。
  • 夏目漱石は、短編『倫敦塔』で、貴人が幽閉され消えていった倫敦塔と重ねて、地獄の門に刻まれた銘を引用している。
  • 中原中也は『神曲』を愛読しており、彼の詩に『神曲』の影響を見て取る者もいる。
  • 大西巨人の代表作『神聖喜劇』の題は『神曲』の原題を意識した命名。また、オノレ・ド・バルザックは、自らの作品集を『人間喜劇』（La Comédie humaine）と名づけたが、これもダンテの“神聖喜劇”に対するもの。
  • BBC Radio4が実施した世界の名著ランキングでシェイクスピア、トルストイをおさえて1位を獲得。
  • ジャン＝リュック・ゴダールの映画作品「アワーミュージック」の構成は、『神曲』に倣い地獄、煉獄、天国の3部構成をとっている。
  • アメリカの作曲家R.W.スミスが作曲した吹奏楽曲『神曲』 (The Divine Comedy) は、地獄編、煉獄編、昇天、天国編の4楽章にて構成されている。概ね原典の構成に沿って作曲されており、現代的な作曲手法を取り入れながら聴き手にも伝わりやすい内容となっている。
  • アレクサンドル・ソルジェニーツィンの『煉獄の中で』（原題は『第一圏の中で』）は、舞台となった合同国家政治局 (OGPU) 管轄の特殊研究収容所をリンボになぞらえて名付けられた。
  • イタリアの音楽グループ・メタモルフォシは『神曲』に想を得た『Inferno』と『Paradiso』という組曲を発表している。

エンターテインメント

その他

  • 神戸連続児童殺傷事件で犯人とされる少年が、「第三の犯行声明文」と言われる作文「懲役十三年」において、地獄篇第一歌の冒頭部分を引用している。これは寿岳文章訳の冒頭部分を改変したもの。

日本語文献

脚注

  1. ^“ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典の解説”. コトバンク. 2018年1月8日閲覧。
  2. ^ダンテの時代、地獄は聖地エルサレムの真下に存在すると信じられていた。また、エルサレムより西へ90度にジブラルタル、中間にイタリア、東へ90度にインド・ガンジス川があるという世界観である
  3. ^平川訳は、単行判全1巻（河出書房新社）がある。
  4. ^野上訳は、筑摩書房の「世界文学全集」シリーズで刊行
  5. ^三浦訳は2014年に、角川ソフィア文庫全3巻で再刊された。
  6. ^原訳は最新の研究の成果に基づいた訳注・解説。講談社学術文庫全3巻、2014年6月-8月
  7. ^河島訳は、〈地獄篇〉が「図書」（岩波書店）で、2005年（平成17年）6月号より2008年（平成20年）6月号まで連載。〈煉獄篇〉は「図書」2011年1月号から2013年にかけ連載。三篇全て完訳すれば、岩波書店で解説研究と併せ刊行予定。
  8. ^なお宝島社版『ドレの神曲』は、初版1989年、旧版1996年（平成8年）。平川祐弘訳『神曲 完全版』（河出書房新社、2010年8月）も、ドレの挿画全135点を所収
  9. ^http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index_pages/person960.html
  10. ^http://www7a.biglobe.ne.jp/~dantesque/ [リンク切れ]
  11. ^名作を新しく 読むシリーズ（2008年2月10日時点のアーカイブ）
  12. ^http://www.gutenberg21.co.jp/dante1_3.htm

関連項目

外部リンク

イタリア語版ウィキソースに本記事に関連した原文があります。
ウィキメディア・コモンズには、神曲に関連するカテゴリがあります。

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com