The Art
Architecture
and
Gardens of
Italy
created by
Cynthia
Venables
for the use of
TAL K-W
members only
NOT TO BE
COPIED
TAL THIRD AGE LEARNING K-W LECTURE SERIES
The Art, Architecture & Gardens of Italy
Lecture Two
created by Cynthia Venables
Art, Architecture and Gardens of Italy
The Etruscans 800 - 250BCE
Cupressus sempervirens, the Mediterranean cypress ~Italian cypress,
Tuscan cypress, graveyard cypress, or pencil pine
Art & History ~ Trade & Culture
Europes Earliest Wine Region~ Etruria
Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia © UNESCO
The tombs date from the 9th century BC (Villanovan culture) to the later
Etruscan period (3rd century BC).
The necropolis near Cerveteri, known as Banditaccia provide the
only surviving evidence of Etruscan residential architecture.
The Tomb of the Reliefs
of The Matunas family,
among the elite of Caere
300 BCE
depictions of the nude
embrace,
or symplegma, "had the
power to ward off evil"
Any one impression that goes really down into the soul, it is
worth a million hasty impressions of a million important things.
D.H. Lawrence
Sarcophagus of the Spouses, c. 520 B.C.E., Etruscan,
painted terracotta,
3 feet 9-1/2 inches x 6 feet 7 inches, found in
the Banditaccia necropolis, Cerveteri
(Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia in Rome)
At the centre of Etruscan society was
the married couple, tusurthir.
patrilineal and probably egalitarian.
a pomegranate, a symbol of immortality the rose and the myrtle are sacred to Aphrodite
myrtle was symbolic of
love and immortality
The Sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa 150-140 BCE
Etruscan Mirrors
and Women
mirrors are
themselves
documents
of important
rites of
passage in
the lives of
their owners
suthina, « for the grave »
mirrors also had a special power : they allowed women to see the gods.
Etruscan, Cista ca. 300 B.C., Princeton
University Art Museum
Cista ~toiletry box ~
Etruscan Jewelry
Gold Ear Stud, Earrings
rosettes, the solar disc and
the half moon
Gorgons,
pomegranates,
acorns, lotus flowers
and palms
Granulated Gold
crowned with ivy
Wreath with ivy leaves and berries, a satyr's head at either end. Gold
sheet, Etruscan artwork, 400–350 BC. From a tomb near Tarquinia.
Poppy 6000 -3500 BCE
Gold Fibula max width cm 38.1; max height cm 42.0
Regolini Galassi tomb in Cerveteri, 650 B.C.E.
(Vatican Museums)
The Tarquinia National Museum
a transition from farming for subsistence by
individual family groups, to a society where an important core
would farm for the entire population
looking north
from Tarquinia
Monterozzi necropolis ~ 6000 graves
from 600 BCE
UNESCO World Heritage Site 2004
cipi
Tarquinia
Tarquinia
_____________“Civita” city of the living
City of the Dead
The ancient burial
______________________ grounds, dating from the
Iron Age (9th century BC,
or Villanovan period) to
Roman times now at the
edge of th “new” town
Tomb of the Augrs
The Garden after Death
FRESCO - the oldest and most permanent
paint technique painting with raw pigment
into wet plaster
Laurus nobilis
Tomb of the Augrs
*ritual purification
‘person’
from the Etruscan mythological figure ‘Phersu’
before death
‘game’ of blood letting in order to appease the soul of the deceased
Laurus nobilis
*ritual purification
before death
* a source of
prophetic power.
*Crowns, branches
and groves,
protect the living
from
death’s stain
The Garden Symbols
The Garden after Death
The Tomb of the Leopards 480-450 BCE
CELEBRATES THE ABUNDANCE OF LIFE IN ETRURIA AND IN THE LIFE
HERE AFTER
Divine Power
Born from the fertility of the land
The Etruscans
The first great
Italian
Farming
Culture
Fossil Olea pollen has been found around the Med
indicating that this genus is an original element
Mediterranean flora
Dionysus Cup ~ a kylix
(drinking cup) dating to 540-530 BC.
Attic Black-figure potter Exekias
13.6 cm high, diameter of 30.5 cm-held
roughly 8 oz/250ml/ 1 cup of fluid.
Greek Art for
the Etruscan Market
the primary use for
the kylix was at a
symposium – a
“drinking party”
a masterpiece of painting & sculpture
EΞΣΕΚΙΑΣ ΕΠΟΕΣΕ - "Exsekias made this” HUMANISM
the Staatliche
Antikensammlungen in
Munich.
Dionysus
Dionysus/Bacchus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine,
of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy
Art, Literature, Music and Gardens
Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Roman Christian,
Medieval ,Renaissance, Baroque, Romantic,Contemporary
Greek Adventures &The Mythic Monsters of Italy
The poisonous witch Circe
Sirens Naples Capri
Sea Monsters
Scylla
&
Charybdis
Straits of Messina
*
*
Cyclops Catania
*
**
*
Persephone
Daedalus Siracusa
Circe, daughter of the sun. smart herbalist with a sense of
humour or a poisonous witch ?
Elba
“Come this way, honored Odysseus, great glory of the Achaians,
and stay your ship, so that you can listen here to our singing”
The Sirens of Homeric Legend
I Faraglioni / Siren Rocks Capri`
Sea Monsters Scylla & Charybdis
What drove these
adventurers here?
~The Cyclops
~
Etna/Catania
Sicily was colonized by
Individual Greek City states
because of their need for fertile
land to survive.
Persephone’s descent into the
underworld
Enna, Sicily
Persephone’s descent into the
Persephone
underworld
personification of
vegetation
&
the seasons
BERNINI Gian Lorenzo ~
Valguarnera July 15-20 1943
The Rape of Proserpina
The Carleton and York Regiment and The West Nova Scotia Regiment moved
~1621
and
1622
to the flanks of the dominating high ground, a feature known as Monte Della
Forma. The
attack
Enna,
Sicilyon this feature was supported by the divisional artillery, the
machine guns and mortars of the Saskatoon Light Infantry, and tanks of The
Three Rivers Regiment in extremely hot weather.
Greek City State expansion/migration
to Sicily was due to hunger
Demeter the goddess of
the harvest, presided over
grains and the fertility of
the earth.
CORNUCOPIA
Pomodoro di Pachino
(Tomato of Pachino)
Sicily
~ a fertile land ~
Siracusa, Sicily
!
home of
Archimedes
Daedalus the great
architect of the
labyrinth of Minos
arrived safely in
Sicily,on the island's
south coast; there
Daedalus built a
temple to Apollo,
and hung up his
wings, an offering
to the god.
Jacob Peter Gowy
The Flight of
Icarus.1650 Prado
Museum
Italy
Layers of History
The Greeks in Italy
~ Magna Graecia ~
a momentous adventure
700 BCE Greek Migration & Colonization
1100, Villanovan 800 BCE? Etruscan civilization developed out of the early Iron Age culture of central Italy. The adoption of iron and steel
coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, the creating of towns, religious beliefs and artistic styles.
!0,000 BCE The Neolithic Era New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human
technology that allowed domestic crops and of domesticated animals, permanent dwellings,
creating pottery vessels and the beginning of towns, and gardens protected by walls.
100,000 BCE Palaeolithic Era is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the
development of the most primitive stone tools discovered It extends from the earliest known use
of stone tools, probably by hominins such as australopithecines, 2.6 million years ago, to the end
of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BCE
The Temple of Concordia c.440-430 BCE
The Parthenon Athens Greece 447-438 BCE
The Acropolis Athens Greece
The Temple of Concordia c.440-430 BCE Valley of
the Temples Agrigento Sicily
The Valley of the Temples/Valle dei Templii, Agrigento Sicily
The Valley includes remains of seven Greek temples from
700 BCE, all in Doric style.
*
Agrigento
Sicily
The Greek Temple~connecting
Gaia, the earth & Uranus, the sky
Earliest Greek Temples
1000BCE ?
from wood to stone - fluting
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
proportion- sacred
geometry-humanism
DORIC COLUMN
the proportions,
strength, and beauty of
the body of a man
1x6
GEOMETRY
GEOS, meaning earth
METRON meaning measure
GREEK DORIC ORDER & HUMANISM
The Temple of Concord Agrigento
Pediment
COLOUR
Temple to Olympian Zeus 480 BCE
atlases/telamons
Segesta Greek Ampitheatre 420 BCE
Greek Ampitheatre
structurally supported by the hillside
Greek acoustical resonance mask
Segesta Doric Temple 420 BCEand Greek Ampitheatre
Greek Doric Temple 420 BCE Segesta Sicily
Greek Doric Temple 450 BCE Paestum Campania
*
*
Core
Philisophical
Values
expressed
architecturally
!
simplicity
honesty
reason
order
balance
Greek Temple
The first Greek Classical Revival
ROME
CLASSIC ~ TIME HONOURED
Pediment
M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT,
Lintel
Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul for the third time, built this
Post
The Pantheon 126 CE Rome
~ HADRIAN~
Post & Lintel
Facade - false front marks a very differant philosophical
attitude between the Greeks and the Romans
The Pantheon Rome 126 CE Controlling the Natural World
Grandeur & Convenience
GREEK
STRUCTURAL
DEVICE
ROMAN STRUCTURAL
DEVICES
ROMAN STRUCTURAL DEVICES
THE DOME
43m (142 ft) wide
and
43m (142 ft) high
Oculus
27 feet in diameter
The Dome & Roman Engineering
The Pantheon
the downward thrust of
the dome is carried by
eight barrel vaults in
the 6.4 metres (21 ft)
thick drum wall
into eight piers.
4,535 metric tons weight of
the Roman concrete dome
The Dome
&
Roman
Engineering
ROMAN
CONCRETE
MARBLE
VENEER
B
R
I
C
K
C
O
N
C
R
E
T
E
B
R
I
C
K
MARBLE
VENEER
THE ROMAN CONCRETE REVOLUTION
Roman concrete, also called
opus caementicium,
hydraulic-setting cement
1 part lime to 3 parts pozzolana
for cements used in buildings
and a 1:2 ratio of lime to pulvis
Puteolanus for underwater
work, essentially the same ratio
mixed today for concrete used
at sea.
brick walls
become thin
and concrete
lighter as you
reach the top
of the dome
CIRCLE & SUN
Circle-wholeness, original perfection, the Self, the infinite, eternity, timelessness,
all cyclic movement,
“God is a circle whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere”
Light, which allows us to find our way among darkness, has always been
perceived as a metaphor of progression toward the achievement of knowledge.
Sol Invictus
Light in an urban setting
SACRED GEOMETRY
sacred geometry
ROMAN
ARCHITECTURE
~firmitas, utilitas, venustas ~
strong, durable, useful, and beautiful.
Brunelleschi, Pallodio,
Christopher Wren
!
!
Cultural Core Values
expressed architecturally
GREEKS
simplicity
honesty/truth
reason
order balance
ROMANS
more is more - embracing many cultures
surprise ~ mystery ~ illusion
emotion ~ suspend belief
push the boundaries
Italy
Layers of History
Roman Civilization 400 BCE- 400 CE
700 BCE Greek Migration & Colonization
1100, Villanovan 800 BCE? Etruscan civilization developed out of the early Iron Age culture of central Italy. The adoption of iron and steel coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural
practices, the creating of towns, religious beliefs and artistic styles.
!0,000 BCE The Neolithic Era New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology that allowed domestic crops and of domesticated animals, permanent
dwellings, creating pottery vessels and the beginning of towns, and gardens protected by walls.
100,000 BCE Palaeolithic Era is a prehistoric period of human history distinguished by the development of the most primitive
stone tools discovered It extends from the earliest known use of stone tools, probably by hominins such as australopithecines,
2.6 million years ago, to the end of the Pleistocene around 10,000 BCE
Colosseum
Roman Colosseum construction began under the emperor
Vespasian in 70 AD, and was completed in 80 AD under
his successor and heir Titus
ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
!
*
*
*MASSIVE ENGINEERING TRIUMPH
SCALE DIMINISHES MAN
SPEAKS TO THE POWER OF THE EMPIRE-EMPEROR
* CONVENIENT URBAN LOCATION
Colosseum Rome
CORINTHIAN
IONIC
pilasters/marble veneer
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
REDUCED TO DECORATION
DORIC
ARCHITECTURE & GARDENS
GREEK ORDERS POST&LINTEL STRUCTURE BECOME
DECORATIVE ONLY IN ROMAN ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE AND THE NATURAL WORLD
IONIC
CORINTHIAN
acanthus
Villa Adriana ~ Roman Imperial Garden 100 AD TIVOLI
remembering HADRIAN
Poecile - A large rectangular area
(232100
by rooms
97 meters or 761x318ft) with a large pond at the
center and surrounded by colonnaded porticos.
Maritime Theatre
If you have a garden and
a library, you have
everything you need.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Canopus
Roman Villa of
Hadrian
Antinous was a
Bithynian Greek youth
and a favourite of the
Emperor Hadrian.
He died at 19.
Roman
nymphaeum
served the
threefold
purpose of
sanctuaries,
reservoirs and
pleasure garden
The Nympheum
Roman Nympheum
Aqua Anio Novus
Roman Aqueducts
Aqua Anio Novus
Tivoli
sweet water
Roman Architecture & Garden Tradition Established
at Tivoli