A Tradition of Adventures in the Imperial Grotto
Author(s): Sorcha Carey
Source: Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Apr., 2002), pp. 44-61
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
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Greece & Rome, Vol. 49, No. 1, April 2002
A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IMPERIAL GROTTO
By
SORCHA
IN THE
CAREY
At the heart of the debate about originality in Roman art lie four
sculptural groups uncovered in 1957 in a cave belonging to a Roman
villa complex at Sperlonga, situated on the coast south of Rome (Figs. 1
& 2). Illustrating episodes from the Homeric cycle - the blinding of
Polyphemus, the encounter with the Scylla, the theft of the Palladium,
and the so-called Pasquino group, variously identified as Menelaos with
the body of Patroclus, or Odysseus with the body of Achilles' - the
sculptures have become a particularly important piece of evidence in
discussions of the authorship and date of one of the most famous statues
to have survived from antiquity - the Laocoon. While there are clear
similarities in style between two of the Sperlonga groups - the Blinding
of Polyphemus (Fig. 2) and the encounter with the Scylla - and the
Laocoon (most notably in the leonine hair and agonized expressions of
Polyphemus, and the helmsman in the Scylla group2), attention has
focused particularlyon the inscription in Greek on the boat of the Scylla
group naming the three artists to whom Pliny the Elder attributed the
creation of the Laocoon, Hagesander, Athanadorus, and Polydorus.3
' The
Pasquino Group survives in several copies, including the example which gives the statue
type its name, outside the Palazzo Braschi in Rome. Bernard Schweitzer, 'Das Original der
sogenannten Pasquino-Gruppe', AbhLeip43.4 (1936), argued for the identification of Menelaos
and Patroclus. Bernard Andreae, PraetoriumSpeluncae. Tiberiusund Ovid in Sperlonga (Mainz,
1994), 31, accepts this identification for the original,but argues, partlyon the basis of the portrayalof
the foot of the corpse, that the Sperlonga group shows Odysseus with the body of Achilles.
N. Himmelmann, Die HomerischenGruppenund Ihre Bildquellen(Opladen, 1996), 13 ff., maintains
that the Sperlonga group shows Ajax with the body of Achilles. Most recently, Anne Weis, 'The
PasquinoGroup and Sperlonga:Menelaos and Patroklosor Aeneas and Lausus (Aen. 10.791-832)?',
in K. J. Hartswick and M. C. Sturgeon (eds.), Stephanos. Studies in Honor of Brunilde Sismondo
Ridgway (Philadelphia, 1998), 255-86 has argued that the group can be identified as Aeneas with the
body of Lausus. Andreae includes a detailed bibliography of discussions of the Sperlonga sculptures.
2 There remains some uncertainty about the identification of this figure as the helmsman. Some
have wanted to identify it as Odysseus himself. Anne Weis in her review of Himmelmann, 'Sperlonga
and Hellenistic Sculpture', JRA 11 (1998), 417-19 provides a useful summary of the arguments.
3 Indeed when the sculptures were first discovered, the inscription led scholars to believe that
they had uncovered another version of the Laocoon (particularly given the snakelike fragments
from the Scylla group). See G. Iacopi, L'Antrodi Tiberioa Sperlonga(Rome, 1963), 26f. On the
inscription and the relationship with the artists of the Laocoon see Andreae op. cit., 15-16;
N. Cassieri, II Museo Archeologicodi Sperlonga(Rome, 1996), 37; Himmelman op. cit., 11 f., Weis
JRA 11 (1998), 412-13.
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A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
45
The evidence which the Sperlonga sculptures contribute to the debate
about the Laocoon is far from straightforward, and a range of suggestions has been put forward for the date and authorship of the sculptures.
For some they are original works, designed specifically for the space by a
group of Rhodian sculptors working in the early first century A.D., for
others they are copies of original Hellenistic sculptures.4 But unlike the
Laocoon which survives in only one version, the two groups from
Sperlonga which are closest to the Laocoon in style, the blinding of
Polyphemus, and the Scylla, are not isolated examples, but just one
instance in a succession of sculptures illustrating these Odyssean
adventures which appear in grottoes and nymphaea attached to imperial
villas throughout the first and early second centuries A.D.
Most interpretationsof this phenomenon have focused on reconstructing specific programmes behind the display, rooted in the personal tastes
and ideology of their imperial patrons.s But while these factors may well
have played a role in the commissioning of an Odyssean group, an
exclusively programmatic interpretation of these sculptures belies the
extent to which the same sculptural theme, often even the same model,
recurs in the same imperial context over the course of a century. It is this
notion of tradition and quotation which I wish to consider. Instead of
seeking to uncover specific symbolic meanings for the Odyssean stories
in their individual imperial contexts, I wish to explore how the repeated
display of Odyssean sculptures in imperial grottoes testifies to a sustained
imperial tradition of commissioning and display, and to consider how the
blinding of Polyphemus and the encounter with the Scylla not only
became canonical for display in imperial grottoes, but helped to define
and articulate a particular kind of imperial space. In attempting to
understand sculptural displays in imperial villas, the examples of Polyphemus and Scylla groups are particularlyhelpful, since we not only have
the remains of the sculptures (admittedly often no more than fragments),
but also fixed contexts for their display.
4 Andreae op. cit. argues that they are copies of Hellenistic originals dating to the second century
B.C., Himmelmann op. cit. that they are eclectic creations of the first century B.C. based on
representations of the Odyssean adventures in the minor arts. Anne Weis, JRA 11 (1998), 413f.
gives a concise account of their arguments.
5 E.g. A. Stewart, 'To entertain an emperor: Sperlonga, Laokoon and Tiberius at the dinnertable', JRS 67 (1977), 76-90; Andreae op. cit. who argues that the whole display is linked to Ovid's
account of Odysseus' adventures in the Metamorphoses.Himmelmann op. cit. 16-17 argues against
a programmatic interpretation, linking the sculptures to a reference by Vitruvius (7.5.20) to the
fashion for sculptures illustrating episodes from the Trojan War and Odysseus' adventures. Most
recently, Anne Weis op. cit. has again proposed a programmatic interpretation, seeing in the display
a contrast between Homeric and Virgilian myth.
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YT-
Oa
..
.....
...
4Ya
AP-1
Fig. 1: Reconstruction of the sculptural display in the cave at Sperlonga, 4-26 A.D.: (a) Pasquino G
Polyphemus (d) Rape of the Palladium) (after Andreae)
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A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE
GROTTO
IMPERIAL
47
..
.....
Fig. 2: The Blinding of Polyphemus,
Sperlonga Museo Nazionale.
Photo: S. Carey
Most scholars now agree that the installation of the sculptures in the
cave at Sperlonga dates to early in the first century, somewhere between
4 and 26 A.D., and they have been particularly associated with the
emperor Tiberius.6 And whether the sculptures themselves are original
Roman creations, or copies or elaborations of earlier Hellenistic models,
there is no doubt that their display in this natural cave added an entirely
new and original dimension. The display was designed to emphasize the
6
C. Kunze, 'Zur Datierung des Laokoon und der Skyllagruppe aus Sperlonga', JdI 111 (1996),
139-223, has recently argued, on the basis of surviving masonry, for a significantly earlier date - no
later than 30-20 B.C. See, however, Anne Weis' response to this proposal (A. Weis, 'Odysseus at
Sperlonga. Hellenistic Hero or Roman Heroic Foil?', in N. T. de Grummond and B. S. Ridgeway
(eds.), FromPergamontoSperlonga.Cultureand Context,(Berkeleyand Los Angeles, 2000), 111-65 at
137-9), where she argues that the continued deployment of the earliermasonry style of opus incertum
after the introduction of opus reticulatum,suggests that a Julio-Claudian date cannot definitely be
precluded. On aJulio-Claudian date for the sculptures, see H. Lavagne, Operosa Antra. Recherchessur
la Grottea Romede Sylla a Hadrien, (Paris, 1988), 532 f., Andreae, op. cit., 138-9, and Weis, op. cit.,
281 n. 83. B. S. Ridgway, 'The Sperlonga Sculptures. The Current State of Research', in Grummond
and Ridgeway (eds.), op. cit., 78-91 provides an excellent summary of the arguments to date. On the
association of the villa at Sperlonga with Tiberius, based in part on references in Suetonius (Tib. 39)
and Tacitus (Ann 4.59), see Stewart, op. cit., 83 f., Andreae, op. cit., 14-23 and Himmelmann, op.
cit., 54-5. On the history of the villa's development, see Andreae, op. cit., 21-3, Cassieri, op. cit., 18 f.
and 30-2 on the alterations made to the cave, and idem in B. Andreae and C. Parisi Presicce (eds.),
Ulisse. II Mito e la Memoria. Roma, Palazzo delle Esposizioni. 22 Febraio-2 Settembre1996 (Rome,
1996), 270-9, and Weis, op. cit., 264-5.
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48
A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
sculptures' illusionistic qualities, so the blinding of Polyphemus was set in
a darkrecess to the back of the cave, while the Scylla group rose out of the
pool at the grotto's centre, transformingits calm waters into a spectacular
struggle between monster and hero.' (Fig. 1.) The local area surrounding
the villa complex and its grotto only enhanced this sculptured theatre, for
it was here that Odysseus was said to have experienced many of his
adventures. Across the bay, in plain view of the villa complex, rises Monte
Circeo, called after the island in which Circe was said to have imprisoned
Odysseus and his companions.8 The cave and its sculptures presented a
vivid theatricaltableau to the diners on the island triclinium built into the
pool outside, and indeed, like a theatre, came complete with seats for
spectators, on either side as you entered the cave.9
But if the sculptural display at Sperlonga was designed to exploit both
the specific space of the cave itself, and the rich mythological associations
of the local area, it was not in any way an isolated example. Instead, it is the
first of a series of imperial grottoes and nymphaea decorated with
Polyphemus and Scylla groups. These include a nymphaeum-triclinium
at Baiae, on the coast just north of Naples, uncovered during underwater
excavations in 1969 and 1981-2.1' Dating to the mid 40's A.D., it formed
part of the imperial villa complex of the emperor Claudius. In contrast to
Sperlonga, the Claudian cave is entirely artificial, hewn out of the
mountain rock to create a rectangular dining room, with an apse at one
end, in which a sculptural group of Odysseus and the Cyclops was
displayed, on a raised platform. (Fig. 3.) Here the group showed not
the actual blinding as at Sperlonga, but the moment just before in the
Homeric story, when Odysseus offered Polyphemus some wine, intending to induce a drunken sleep in the Cyclops which would enable him to
blind him. Nothing much survives of the Cyclops, although the remains of
a support structureand some colossal locks of hair close in style to those of
the Sperlonga Polyphemus allow us to reconstruct his presence."
7 The reconstruction of the display is supported for the most part by the find spots recorded for
the main fragments. See B. Conticello in B. Conticello, B. Andreae and P. C. Bol, 'Die Skulpturen
von Sperlonga', Antike Plastik 14 (1974), 15-20, Himmelmann op. cit., 10.
' Andreae
op. cit., 14, Himmelmann op. cit., 9.
9 On the view of the island triclinium, see Stewart op. cit., 80-1 and Andreae op. cit., 122-4.
"o See G. T. Sciarelli (ed.), II ninfeo imperiale sommersodi Punta Epitaffio (Naples, 1983),
B. Andreae, 'Il Ninfeo di Punta dell'Epitaffio a Baia', Studi Misc. 28 (1984-5), 237-65, Lavagne
op. cit., 573-77, Andreae, 'Zur Einheitlichkeit der Statuenausstattung im Nymphium des Kaisers
Claudius bei Baiae' in V. M. Strocka (ed.) Die Regierungszeitdes Kaisers Claudius 41-54 n. Chr.
Umbruchoder Episode?InternationalesinterdisziplindresSymposion. Freiburg 16-18 Februar 1991
(1994), 221-443, F. Zevi, 'Claudio e Nerone: Ulisse a Baia e nella Domus Aurea' in Andreae and
Parisi Presicce (eds.), 316-31.
" Andreae
op. cit. (1984-5), 241, idem op. cit. (1994), 225-6, idem (1998), 368-9.
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i....
.....
Fig. 3: Reconstruction of the nymphaeum at Baiae (mid 40's A.D.). (Photo. G. Lat
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50
A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
Odysseus and a companion who held the sack filled with wine are almost
intact, lacking only their heads, nibbled away by centuries of molluscs.
While the nymphaeum at Baiae clearly emulates, and plays upon the
natural cave at Sperlonga (in, for example, the 'natural' pumice which
decorated the vaulted apse), the character of the sculptural display is
quite different. At Sperlonga, it was precisely the theatrical nature of the
display which served as such a potent expression of imperial power. If
an emperor is to a large extent defined and characterized by the space
which he occupies and inhabits,12 then the illusionistic and dramatic
space of the grotto at Sperlonga, populated by strange beasts and
heroes, cast the emperor as the artist par excellence.He had the power
to bring mythical creatures and heroes to life - his dinner parties were
literally the stuff of legends.13
Where the rectangular island triclinium in front of the cave at
Sperlonga allowed the viewers to devour the spectacle (from a safe
distance) as they dined, at Baiae triclinium and cave merge. Anne Weis
has noted the intimacy of this arrangement, in effect allowing the guests
to dine with the Cyclops.14 But the setting brings the Cyclops closer not
only to the diners, but also to the statues displayed directly behind them,
in the niches on either side of the triclinium.15While the siting of the
Polyphemus group in an apse at the end of the triclinium still pays
homage to the cavernous setting of the myth which was played on to
such great effect at Sperlonga, there is no longer the illusionism of the
Tiberian display. The group has more the character of a prize exhibit,
taking its place amidst a wider sculptural display which includes two
statues of Dionysus and portraitsof the imperial family. Here, it is less in
the symbolism of the Homeric legend than in the possession of a statue
group of Odysseus and Polyphemus, that Claudius openly declares his
place in an imperial tradition - he too has his Polyphemus in a grotto.
It is interesting that this Claudian quotation of a Tiberian precedent is
12 Cf. F. Millar, The Emperorin the Roman World (London, 1977), 15-28, esp. 23-4: 'Thus,
even within Rome, an emperor had a choice . . . of a range of different imperial dwellings with
different associations and different architectural and social characters.'
13 Compare the similar role
played by the emperor in the hosting of fake battles and lavish
gladiatorialshows, P. Veyne, Bread and Circuses(London, 1990), (trans. Brian Pearce from Le Pain
et le Cirque), 358ff.; T. Wiedemann, Emperorsand Gladiators (London and New York, 1992);
A. Futrell, Blood in the Arena. The Spectacleof Roman Power (Austin, 1997), esp. 44-51; R. C.
Beacham, SpectacleEntertainmentsof Early ImperialRome (New Haven and London, 1999).
14
Weis JRA 11 (1998), 414-15.
15 The display can be quite accurately reconstructed. Some of the statues were still in situ when
the nymphaeum was discovered, having been held in place by iron crampons. Others were lying
directly beneath the niches in which they stood. Andreae op. cit., (1984-5), 244 ff. and idem op. cit.
(1994), 221.
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A TRADITION
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IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
51
just one among a range of visual quotations made by the sculptures at
Baiae. While none of the statues displayed in the triclinium niches seem
to be direct copies, several of them quote statuary types which would
have been familiar to the elite audience. The head of one statue of
Dionysus is based on Praxiteles' Apollo Sauroktonos. A portrait of
Claudius' mother, Antonia Minor, amalgamates several Classical statuary types, to present the empress in the guise of Venus Genetrix."6
Bernard Andreae has linked the statuette of Eros which rests in
Antonia's hand with Praxiteles' Eros at Thespiae (which, according to
Pausanias (9.27.3), Claudius returned to Thespiae after Caligula had
brought it to Rome17), while the figure of Antonia recalls fifth-century
korai, such as the Kore Albani.8"The figure of Polyphemus too not only
alluded to its Tiberian predecessor through its display in an artificial
grotto, but its form seems to have quoted a frequently reproduced statue
type, the Heracles Epitrapezios attributed to Lysippus.'9 The reconstruction of the Polyphemus group at Baiae is based largely on later
examples of the composition from Nero's Domus Aurea and on a relief
from Hadrian's villa at Tivoli now in the Louvre, in which the same
figures of Odysseus and his companion with the wine sack appear.20"If
this reconstruction is correct, and the Polyphemus at Baiae was, as in
other examples, a reworking of the Heracles Epitrapezios, the suitability
of such a model to illustrate the Polyphemus feasting off Odysseus'
companions would surely not have been lost on its audience. The
epithet epitrapezios,meaning 'at the table', may refer either to the god
seated at table, participating in the sacrifice being made to him, or to the
numerous statuette versions of Lysippus' model, suitable for placing on
the table.21In either case, the quotation of the Hercules Epitrapezios in
16 Andreae, op. cit., (1984-5), 245f. and op. cit., (1994), 221 f. argues, on the basis of some
fragments, that the display would also have included portraits of Britannicus in the guise of Cupid,
in the niche next to Octavia on the east wall, and portraits of Drusus, Livia and Augustus in the
niches of the west wall, where the portrait of Antonia Minor was displayed.
17 Pausanias goes on to say that Nero brought it back to Rome again, and that it was eventually
destroyed in a fire in Rome, probably in A.D. 80.
s1 Andreae, op. cit. (1984-5), 247-50 & 255-6, idem op. cit., (1994), 223, and Andreas Miicke,
in K. Stemmer (ed.) Standorte.Kontext und FunktionantikerSkulptur (Berlin, 1995), 447-8, D 37.
19 A. Weis JRA 11 (1998), 415, n. 12. On the Heracles Epitrapezios, see E. Bartman, Ancient
Sculptural Copies in miniature(Leiden, 1992), 147 ff., and B. S. Ridgway, Fourth-CenturyStyles in
GreekSculpture(London, 1997), 294 ff. who argues that the statue type is not Greek, but a Roman
creation. In either case, the numerous Roman versions, and the poems of Martial ix 43, 44 and
Statius Silv. 4.6, who both record Novius Vindex, an art connoisseur, as owning Lysippus' Heracles
Epitrapezios, demonstrate that the statue type would have been familiar to a Roman audience.
20 Andreae, op. cit., (1984-5), 241-2, idem, op. cit., (1994), 225-6, Andreae and Parisi Presicce
(eds.), op. cit., (1996), 366 Cat. 5.18 cf. 245 Cat. 4.8, and 370 Cat. 5.19.
21 K. Coleman (ed.), Statius Silvae IV (Oxford, 1998), 174, Bartman, op. cit., 151-2, and
Ridgway, op. cit., 297.
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52
A TRADITION
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GROTTO
the figure of Polyphemus, initiated a play in which the Cyclops appeared
as Hercules 'at the table', and joined in the imperial banquet.22
In incorporating the quotation of a specific imperial precedent amidst
a whole range of quotations from Greek culture, the display at Baiae
establishes imperial practice as elite culture. While the statues displayed
in the niches encouraged conversation and the display of paideia in the
recognition of their Greek prototypes, the Polyphemus group too was a
quotation waiting to be recognized and admired, but a quotation not just
of a Greek sculptural prototype, but also of a Roman imperial display. In
the nymphaeum at Baiae, imperial tradition and the Greek culture which
was such a defining element of the Roman villa merge, so that allusions
to Greek and Roman prototypes stand side by side.
Only twenty years after the grotto at Baiae, sometime between 64
and 68 A.D., we find another example of the myth of Polyphemus
represented in an imperial grotto. It replicates almost exactly the
version at Baiae, but this time the representation is not a statue
group, but a mosaic, set high in the vault of an entirely artificial
grotto in Nero's Golden House, built in the heart of Rome.23 (Figs. 4
& 5.) The architects of the grotto covered the barrel vault with
stalactites of pumice stone painted a reddish brown to give this
man-made construction the appearance of a natural cave. The
fragmentary octagonal mosaic medallion shows Odysseus, on the
left, offering the cup of wine to the seated Cyclops. Traces of
underpaint reveal that the Cyclops originally held the arm of Odysseus' dead companion in his left hand, as in other examples of the
same composition.24 The central medallion was surrounded by four
other circular mosaics, which no longer survive, but they presumably
showed other mythological scenes, possibly even other episodes from
the Homeric cycle.
What is striking about the mosaic, and what has been little remarked
upon, is that it does not simply illustratethe familiar story of the blinding
of Polyphemus. It specifically represents a bronze statue group of the
22
Cf. Weis JRA 11 (1998), 415.
23 F. Sanguinetti, 'I1mosaico del ninfeo ed altre recenti scoperte nella Domus Aurea', Boll. Centro
Studi Storia Archit. 12 (1958), 35-45, G. Zander, 'La Domus Aurea: Nuovi Problemi Architettonici', Boll. CentroStudi StoriaArchit. 12 (1958), 47-64, H. Lavagne, 'Le nymph&eau Polypheme de
la Domus Aurea' MEFRA 82 (1970), 673-721, B. Fellman, 'Die antiken Darstellungen der
Studien 5 (1972), br 48, F. Sear, Roman Wall and
Polephemabenteuer', MiinchenerArchdiologische
Vault Mosaics, Heidelberg, 1977), Cat. 61, 90-2, Lavagne, op. cit., (1988), 579-88, Andreae and
Parisi Presicce (eds.) (1996), 370 Cat. 5.19, K. M. Dunbabin, Mosaics of the Greekand Roman
World(Cambridge, 1998), 241, I. Iacopi, Domus Aurea (Milan, 1999), 13.
24 Lavagne, op. cit., (1970), 693 f., Sear, op. cit., 90, & Dunbabin, op. cit., 241.
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53
myth.25 Unlike a later version from the early fourth-century aristocratic
villa at Piazza Armerina in Sicily,26 the Domus Aurea mosaic displays no
differentiation in colour between the bare skin of Odysseus, and the
drapery of his clothing. Instead, the artist has used a much more limited
palette of greens, yellowy browns and black, to create the impression of
patinated bronze. The mosaic draws on precisely the same range of
colours used in Roman wall paintings to depict bronze statues.27 For
some scholars, this has formed part of the debate over whether the
Sperlonga sculptures are original creations by Rhodian artists working
for Roman patrons, or simply copies of Hellenistic bronze originals of the
second century B.C.28 In representing the Polyphemus myth as a bronze
sculpture group, the mosaic may attest to an original bronze which
formed the model for the sculptures at Baiae, and thus, more obliquely,
provide evidence of an original bronze model for the Sperlonga Polyphemus group, and ultimately, the Laocoon. But what is particularly
interesting about the Domus Aurea mosaic, within the context of an
emergent tradition of displaying Polyphemus statue groups in imperial
grottoes, is that the artist, or commissioner of the work was expressly
concerned not with representing the myth, but specifically a statue group
of the myth. The mosaic does not simply draw on the traditional
iconographic repertory for the decoration of grottoes. It openly refers
to the statue groups of Polyphemus and Odysseus which had featured so
prominently in earlier imperial dining grottoes.
As spaces, the grottoes at Sperlonga, Baiae and Nero's Domus Aurea
are all quite different. The natural theatre of Sperlonga is transformed
into a more intimate dining-room at Baiae, which is, in turn, enlarged
25 Lavagne, op. cit., (1970), 694, Andreae and Parisi Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 370, Dunbabin,
op. cit., 241.
26 The mosaic decorated the floor of the anteroom to main apartment A. The composition is
almost identical, except that the Cyclops now holds the corpse of a dead animal in his left hand,
rather than the dead companion of earlier versions. A. Carandini, A. Ricci and M. de Vos,
Filosofiana. The Villa of Piazza Armerina. The image of a Roman aristocratat the time of Constantine
(Palermo, 1982), 238-9 and Andreae and Parisi Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 248 Cat. 4.12.
27 E.g. the representation of the Palladion in the near contemporary (third quarter of the first
century A.D.) painting of the Sack of Troy from the House of Menander in Pompeii (I, 10, 4),
illustrated in R. Ling, Roman Painting (Cambridge, 1991), Plate XCI; or the statue of Fortuna in
the late first-century B.C. mythological panel of Polyphemus and Galatea from a villa at Boscotrecase, illustrated in Ling, op. cit., ill. 115. On the representation of bronze statues in Roman wallpaintings, see E. Moorman, La Pittura Parietale romana comefonte di Conscenza per la Scultura
Antica (Assen and Maastricht, 1988), 72f.
28 Lavagne, op. cit., (1970), 708, Andreae and Parisi Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 370: 'Questo
mosaicodi volta, tra i primissimiesempidel genere,e di incalcolabileimportanzaper una valutazione dei
grandi gruppi ellenistici.Riproducein coloremetallicobronzeoun grupoanalogo, anche se non identico,a
noi noto da una copia marmoreadi dimensioniuguali al presuntooriginale,provenientedal ninfeo del
Palazzo dell'imperatoreClaudio a Baia ...'
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54
A TRADITION
; /.
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
?'
,,i,
GROTTO
..
/I
s
'2rc~?.
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Fig. 4: Nymphaeum
•.
r I
in the Domus Aurea, without Trajanic alterations (64-68 A.D.)
(after Zander)
and monumentalized in the Domus Aurea.29 But what links these
imperial grottoes and nymphaea is their shared interest in exhibition
and display. The creators of the artificial cave in the Domus Aurea are
just as concerned to show off their Polyphemus group as the architects
of the grotto at Sperlonga who transformed the sculptural display into a
29 A. Viscogliosi, 'Antra Cyclopis:osservazioni su una tipologia di coenatio',in Andreae and Parisi
Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 252-69 explores the development of this specific type of dining room, and
identifies it as an imperial prerogative, 252: '. .. sembra che questo tipo di coenatio fosse una
prerogativaimperiale.. .' It should be noted however, that while the grotto at Sperlonga, and the
nymphaeum at Baiae, both had triclinia attached, it is less clear whether the nymphaeum in the
Domus Aurea was used as a dining room. It has been suggested that the room which joins directly
onto the nymphaeum in the Domus Aurea may have been a triclinium (Lavagne, op. cit., (1988),
580f.), although there are no traces of triclinial couches, as there are at Baiae.
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A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL GROTTO
7
1411'
too'
55
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sa
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14
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Fig. 5: Mosaic showing Odysseus offering a cup of wine to Polyphemus, Domus Aurea
(64-68 A.D.) Photo: DAI
theatre of images, or the creators of the grotto-triclinium at Baiae, who
placed their Polyphemus centre-stage. (Fig. 4.) Despite being set into
the vaulted ceiling of the grotto, the mosaic and its placement have been
carefully designed to ensure visibility. The size of the figures - over a
metre for Odysseus, nearly two for the Cyclops - makes them clearly
visible from below, while the pumice stalactites which cover the vault,
have been filed back carefully around the edge of the mosaic medallion,
and at the arched entrance to the vault, so as not to obscure the view.30
The placement of the mosaic in the curved vault of the cave makes a
virtuoso play on earlierdisplays of sculptures of the myth, whether in the
entirely natural cave-like recess at Sperlonga, or the more refined semicircular apse of the triclinium at Baiae.
What the Domus Aurea mosaic suggests is that, at least by the time of
30
Lavagne,op. cit., (1970), 689, Dunbabin,op. cit., 241.
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56
A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
Nero, the display of a Polyphemus group had less to do with the specific
symbolic associations of the myth, and more to do with the delineation of
imperial space. In choosing to illustratenot the myth of Odysseus and the
Cyclops, but a statue group of that myth, the mosaic in the Domus Aurea
demonstrates the extent to which the statues themselves had assumed
their own associations of imperial power. The statuary group had
become essential in defining the character of the place, in marking it
out as imperial. While the grottoes at Sperlonga, Baiae and the Domus
Aurea are all very different, it is the Odyssean sculptures which unite
them. Each grotto, in its prominent display of a statue group of Odysseus
and the Cyclops (whether in marble or mosaic), asserts its claim to an
imperial tradition. Significantly, no example survives of a Polyphemus
group in the imperial period being displayed anywhere other than in a
nymphaeum or grotto attached to an imperial villa.31
It has long been recognized that the Roman concept of decorumplayed
an important role in determining the choice of particularworks of art for
display. Decorumnot only dictated that certain gods were better depicted
in certain styles, but also that certain types of statue were particularly
suited for display in certain spaces.32 But this close relationship between
architecturalsetting and sculptural display could also work in reverse, so
that the sculptural decoration helped to define and give meaning to the
space in which it was displayed.33 This evocative function which
sculpture enjoyed in Roman culture is reflected in an extensive body of
31 Viscogliosi, op. cit., 252. Two examples of statue groups of the blinding of Polyphemus
survive from the Republican period, both in terracotta. One found near Colle Cesarano illustrated
the episode of Odysseus offering the wine, the other near Tortoreto seems to have showed both the
offering of the wine, and the actual blinding of the Cyclops. See G. Alvino, 'I1IX libro dell' Odissea:
l'offerta della coppa di vino, il gruppo fittile da Collec Cesarano e il gruppo scultoreo di Efeso', in
Andreae and Parisi Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 200-9; M. R. Sanzi Di Mino, 'L'uomo ricco d'astuzie
raccontami, o musa' (Odissea 1, 1), il complesso di statue fittili del ninfeo di Tortoreto', ibid. 21019, and Andreae and Parisi Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 239 Cat. 4.3, and 244 Cat. 4.5. Unlike the
example from the Domus Aurea, the early fourth-century mosaic from the aristocratic villa at
Piazza Armerina does not represent Odysseus offering the wine to Polyphemus as a statue group.
32 Cicero's letters to Atticus are our main source for the notion of decorumin Roman
sculptural
displays, esp. 1.6.2, 1.9.2 and 1.10.3 where Cicero asks his friend to send sculptures which are
suitable for his Academy and Gymnasium. Quintilian Inst. XII 10.7-9 also discusses decorum.J. J.
Pollitt, The Ancient View of Greek Art (New Haven and London, 1974), 68-70, E. Dwyer,
'Decorum and the History of Style in Pompeian Sculpture', in R. I. Curtis (ed.), Studia Pompeiana
et Classica in honor of WilhelminaF. Jashemski, (New York, 1988), Vol. 1, 105-111, E. Bartman,
'Sculptural Collecting and Display in the Private Realm' in E. K. Gazda (ed.), Roman Art in the
Private Sphere. New Perspectiveson the Architectureand Decor of the Domus, Villa and Insula (Ann
Arbor, 1991), 71-88, esp. 74f., M. Marvin, 'Copying in Roman Sculpture: The Replica Series' in
E. d'Ambra (ed.), Roman Art in Context. An Anthology (New Jersey, 1998) (first published in
Retaining the Original.Multiple Originals, Copies and Reproductions),161-88, esp. 161-6.
33 M. Marvin, op. cit., 167: 'What emerges strongly in these letters is Cicero's sense of the power
of sculpture to affect the meaning of the architecture around it.'
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A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
57
paintings and relief sculptures, which use the representation of statues
and monuments to define a particularkind of space. Already in the wall
paintings which decorated Roman villas, statues were an inextricable part
of an iconography which aimed at evoking public space.34 In the
aristocratic villa found under the Villa Farnesina in Rome, for example,
dated somewhere between 20 and 10 B.C., the wall of cubiculum E is
decorated with a colonnade complete with statues of the goddesses
Selene and Diana.3" Sculptural displays were such an integral part of
the public porticoes which these wall-paintings intended to evoke, that
their inclusion was essential in order for the quotation to work successfully.36But even more telling is the parallelafforded by a genre of imperial
state reliefs which use the depiction of art and monuments not just to
define an imperial space, but to conjure up a whole range of imperial roles
and precedents. In one of the reliefs from the garden facade of the Villa
Medici associated with the Ars Pietatis Augustae, completed in 43 A.D.,
we see a sacrifice taking place in front of Augustus' temple of Mars
Ultor.37 The Claudian quotation of a well known Augustan temple not
only sets the sacrifice within a specific (and highly emotive) imperial
space, that of the first emperor's Forum, but also signals, in the public act
of sacrifice, a clearly defined imperial role. This peculiarly Roman and
imperial motif continues right up to the early fourth century, where even
in the schematic oratiorelief on the Arch of Constantine, the depiction of
statues of the second-century emperors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius at
either end of the Rostrum not only sites Constantine's speech in the
Roman Forum, but helps to define its place amidst a long tradition of
imperial orations.3 The relief reveals how representations of statues, like
that in the Domus Aurea, could conjure up a whole range of associations
34 A. Wallace-Hadrill, Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum(Princeton, 1994), 17-37,
esp. 25: 'From the point of view of the social function of decoration, what matters are not the visual
games played, but the associations evoked by the decoration: its power not of illusionbut of allusion.'
35 Maria Rita Sanzi di Mino, 'La Villa della Farnesina' in A. La Regina (ed.), Museo Nazionale
Romano. Palazzo Massimo alle Terme(Milan, 1998), 230.
36 Moorman, op. cit., identifies many of the three-dimensional models for these painted statues.
37 On this relief, see M. Cagiano de Azevedo, Le antichita di Villa Medici (Rome, 1951), 37 cat.
3; A. Bonanno, Roman Relief Portraitureto Septimius Severus (Oxford, 1976), 35-40; M. Torelli,
Typology and Structureof Roman Historical Reliefs (Ann Arbor, 1982), 63-88; L. Cordischi, 'Sul
problema dell'Ara Pietatis Augusti e dei rilievi ad essa attribuiti', ArchCl 37 (1985), 238-65;
D. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture (New Haven and London, 1992), 141-5.
38 Kleiner, op. cit., 450, argues that while there may well have been portrait statues displayed on
the Rostra at the time of Constantine, the representation of portraits of Hadrian and Marcus
Aurelius 'is a deliberate fiction on the part of Constantine and his master designer'. On the
Constantinian oratio relief on the Arch of Constantine, see B. Berenson, TheArch of Constantineor
the Declineof Form (New York, 1954), 37 f., ill. 40; A. Giuliano, L'arcodi Costantino(Milan, 1955),
ill. 40, 42, 43; N. Spivey, 'Stumbling towards Byzantium. The decline and fall of late Antique
sculpture', Apollo (1995), 22.
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58
A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
beyond simply a physical space, but it also suggests that the display of
statues themselves could lend specific meaning to a particular space.
Nero's ingenious quotation of the required statuary group in the
vaulted ceiling of a man-made grotto stakes a claim to, as much as it
plays upon, an imperial tradition. But it is by no means the last example
of this imperial practice. Some twenty years later, at the end of the first
century, a Polyphemus group was displayed along with a Scylla in a
grotto belonging to the emperor Domitian's villa at Castelgandolfo, to
the north of Rome.39 The natural cave, which overlooks not the sea, but
a lake, was deliberately altered to imitate the plan of the first imperial
Odyssean grotto at Sperlonga.40Here, as in the mosaic statuary group
from the Domus Aurea, the grotto at Castelgandolfo competes with the
very tradition it quotes, so that the natural sea-side cave of Sperlonga is
playfully recreated on the shores of a lake.
Perhaps the most striking evidence we have of the extent to which
Odyssean sculptures had become an essential element in the definition
of imperial space, is in the last example we have of the display of such
sculptures in an imperial villa complex. Fragments of two Scylla groups,
and the heads of two of Odysseus' companions, known from the earlier
Polyphemus group at Sperlonga, have been found at Hadrian's villa at
Tivoli. The Scylla groups were displayed on plinths set in the water at
each end of the famous canal or Canopus, while the Polyphemus group
was probably installed sometime between 126 and 128 A.D. in the
grotto-triclinium which overlooked the Canopus, until it became
transformed into a memorial to the emperor's favourite, Antinoos,
after his death in 130.41 (Fig. 6.) Interestingly the Scylla motif, present
39 On Domitian's grotto at Castelgandolfo, see G. Lugli, 'Lo scavo fatto nel 1841 nel ninfeo detto
bergantino sulla riva del Lago Albano', Bull Comm XLI (1913), 89-148; idem, 'La villa di
Domiziano sui colli Albani' Parte III, Bull Comm XLVII (1919), esp. 172ff.; idem, 'La villa di
Domiziano sui Colli Albani' Parte IV, Bull CommXLVIII (1920), 3-72 esp. 28 ff.; idem,'Una pianta
e due ninfei di eta imperiale Romana' in Arte in Europa.Scritti di Storia dell'Artein onoredi Edoardo
Arslan 1 (1966), 47-50; F. Magi, 'I1Polifemo di Castelgandolfo', RendPontAcc41 (1968), 69-84;
K. de Fine Licht, 'Antrum Albanum', ARID Supp. VII (1974), 37-66; Lavagne, op. cit., (1988),
589-94; R. Neudecker, Die SkulpturenAusstattungRimischer Villen in Italien (Mainz am Rhein,
1988), 139-44; P. Liverani, L'Antiquariumdi Villa Barberinia Castel Gandolfo(Rome, 1989), 71 ff.
and idem, 'L'antro del ciclope a Castel Gandolfo Ninfeo Bergantino' in Andreae and Parisi Presicce
(eds.), op. cit., 332-41; Andreae and Parisi Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 371 Cat. 5.20 & 5.21.
40 Lugli, op. cit., (1966), de Fine Licht, op. cit., 62-4, Neudecker, op. cit., 140.
41 S. Aurigemma, Villa Adriana (Rome, 1961), 111, 121, ill. 126 & 127-30; J. Raeder, Die
statuarischeAusstattungder VillaHadriana bei Tivoli (Frankfurtand Bern, 1983), 302; Lavagne, op.
cit., (1988), 603-16 esp. 611ff.; B. Andreae and A. Ortega, 'Nuove Ricerche a Villa Adriana',
RendPontAcc62 (1990), 67-103, esp. 79ff., W. L. MacDonald and J. A. Pinto, Hadrian's Villa and
its Legacy (New Haven & London, 1995), 108 f. who use the terms 'Scenic Triclinium and canal',
arguing that the buildings should not be identified as Serapeum and Canopus; Viscogliosi, op. cit.,
266-7, Andreae and Parisi Presicce, op. cit., 372 Cat. 5.22, and 372-4 Cat. 5.23-5.26.
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A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
~:c--~l--~-~--~~v~~~~~
-
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
59
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Fig. 6: Canopus, Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, c.118-134
A.D. Photo: S. Carey
in the very first example of the imperial grotto at Sperlonga, and again at
Domitian's reworking of Sperlonga at Castelgandolfo, has literally
become part of the furniture at Tivoli - a table base found at Hadrian's
villa, now in Naples, masquerades as the Scylla on one side, a centaur on
the other.42
Hadrian's villa at Tivoli has long been famed for its reproduction in
miniature of some of the most famous buildings and monuments of
42
Andreae and Parisi Presicce (eds.), op. cit., 153 Cat. 2.67.
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60
A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
empire. According to Hadrian's biographer, the Academy, the Lyceum,
and Athens' famous Stoa Poikile were all represented.43While modern
scholars still debate the identification or even the existence of many of
these buildings, the sculptures which have been found at the villa
comprehend some of the most famous examples from antiquity, including copies of Praxiteles' Cnidian Aphrodite, and the Tyrannicides by
Kritios and Nesiotes.44 Around the Canopus itself were displayed copies
of Amazons by Pheidias and Polycleitus, and the Caryatids from the
Athenian Erechtheum.45Bernard Andreae has seen in the Scylla groups
a symbolic reference to victory over chaos, and situates them within a
larger architecturaland sculptural programme which symbolizes a world
at peace, free from the burden of war.46But while the Scyllas may well
have enjoyed specific meanings, what is significant, given the continuous imperial tradition of commissioning and displaying Odyssean
sculptures for over a century, is that they have taken their place
amidst an extended imperial repertoire of quotations. The Polyphemus
and Scylla groups now form part of a display which not only replicates
masterpieces of Greek art, as in the Pheidian and Polycleitan Amazons,47 but pays homage to a long tradition of quoting from Greek art
and architecture in imperial monuments. For in reproducing the
Erechtheum Caryatids, Hadrian not only symbolically incorporates a
famous Athenian monument into his miniature empire, but also alludes
to the earlierimperial copies of Caryatids in Augustus' Forum. And just
as competition as much as emulation dictated the successive displays of
43 HistoriaAugusta, Hadrian 26.5: TiburtinamVillammireexaedificavit,ita ut in ea et provinciarum
et locorumceleberrimanomina inscriberet,velut Lyceum,Academian, Prytaneum, Canopum, Poicilen,
Tempevocaret. et, ut nihil praetermitteret,etiam inferosfinxit. 'His villa at Tibur was marvellously
constructed and he actually gave to parts of it the names of provinces and places of the greatest
renown, calling them, for instance, Lyceum, Academia, Prytaneum, Canopus, Poecile and Tempe.
And in order not to omit anything, he even made a Hades'. See H. Kdhler, Hadrian und Seine Villa
bei Tivoli (Berlin, 1950), 17 ff., esp. 27-8; Aurigemma, op. cit., esp. 26 and 33 f. for individual
identifications; MacDonald and Pinto, op. cit., 7 on the problems of identifying particularparts of
the villa; J. Elsner, Imperial Rome and Christian Triumph (Oxford, 1998), 175: 'The villa was
perceived as redeploying the treasures of empire in miniature; it reconstituted the empire under the
special conditions of a museum's display, as it were. Hadrian was not merely amassing single
sculptures . . . he was collecting replicas of entire monuments.'
44 Aurigemma, op. cit., 44-6 and fig. 197; MacDonald and Pinto, op. cit., 58-9.
45 Aurigemma, op. cit., 109-10, figs 95-9 & 115-17, Raeder, op. cit., 302, MacDonald and
Pinto, op. cit., 141 f.
46 Andreae and Ortega, op. cit., 83 & 103.
47 The display of these different Amazon types side by side was surely intended to evoke the
famous competition between Pheidias, Polykleitus, Kresilas, Cydon and Phradmon, to create a
statue of an Amazon for the sanctuary of Artemis at Ephesus recorded by Pliny (N.H. 34.53). See
B. S. Ridgway, 'A Story of Five Amazons', AJA 78 (1974), 1-17. For Andreae and Ortega, op. cit.,
81, the Amazon statues recall the healing of their wounds in the sanctuary at Artemis and suggest
that the provinces too will be replenished by Hadrian's Restitutio Urbis.
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A TRADITION
OF ADVENTURES
IN THE IMPERIAL
GROTTO
61
Polyphemus groups in imperial grottoes, so at Tivoli, Hadrian embellishes his dual quotation, so that the Caryatids alternate with Sileni.48
At Baiae, the Polyphemus group also belonged to a display which
boasted a range of visual quotations of well-known Greek prototypes.
But while these references may have constructed imperial power out of
cultural allusion, at Tivoli, the quotations form part of a much more
extensive process of selection and canonisation. In a villa which is
concerned with replicating and displaying the best of empire, the
Polyphemus and Scylla groups are no longer simply a body of
sculptures intimately associated with imperial space and power. They
have taken their place in a wider canon of imperial possessions.
The tradition of displaying Polyphemus and Scylla groups in imperial
grottoes suggests that statues themselves could play an important role in
defining a particular sort of space as imperial. If the original Odyssean
display at Sperlonga was designed to deny the stony nature of its
Homeric groups, and bring them to life, in the later quotations of the
Tiberian example it is precisely the art work's status as sculpture which
is important. As the Domus Aurea mosaic demonstrates, it is specifically
in the display of a statue group of the myth that the grotto defines its
place within an imperial tradition. This imperial practice suggests, in the
Roman notion of decorum, more than a simple matching of statue
subject to context. The story of the blinding of the Cyclops was
undoubtedly a suitable one for both grotto and triclinium. The setting
of the story in a cave gave an added dimension to the display of a statue
group of the myth in the real or artificial caves of the imperial grotto,
while the importance of wine to the plot made it particularly suited to a
triclinial setting. But what the display of the Polyphemus statues at
Baiae, Castelgandolfo, Tivoli, and in particularthe mosaic in the Domus
Aurea, reveal, is that on a certain level it was the statues themselves
which made the space what it was. The grottoes and nymphaea of
Sperlonga, Baiae, the Domus Aurea and Tivoli all have distinct spatial
characteristics. It is in their display of a Polyphemus and/or a Scylla
group, then, that they declare their relationship with the original
imperial grotto at Sperlonga, and distinguish themselves as imperial.
48 Aurigemma, op. cit., figs 100-2.
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