Читать книгу A History of Roman Art - Steven L. Tuck - Страница 28

One of the key issues to understanding Roman art is that of context. While we often divide the world between public and private spaces, with offices and shops as the default public spaces and home the private one, the Roman conception is more complex. In the Roman world high status authors spoke of the distinction between otium and negotium. Rather than business taking place in offices and private gatherings at home, the situation in the Roman world is that negotium took place in the home as well, but in certain spaces accessible and adjacent to the atrium. A quote from the Roman architectural writer Vitruvius can help make this point clear. Vitruvius, discussing the Roman house in his book De Architectura (6.5.1), notes,

otium

Latin term for leisure, it includes time spent on reading, writing, and academic activities, including rest. Often associated with the Roman villa as the space for otium.

We must determine the situation of the private rooms for the master of the house, and those which are for general use, and for the guests. Into those which are private no one enters, except invited; such are bed chambers, dining rooms, baths, and others of a similar nature. The common rooms, on the contrary, are those entered by any one, even unasked. Such are the vestibule … the peristyle, and those which are for similar uses.

negotium

Latin term for business (literally “not leisure”), including both public and private business.

atrium

the main or central room of a Roman house, usually directly accessible from the front door.

When we examine the layout and rooms of a Roman house, we need to think in Roman terms of public and private, not modern ones. Rather than the default that house = private space, it is critical to think as a Roman would and to distinguish the common rooms from others. The front door of an elite Roman house would have been open throughout the daylight hours and anyone who wished to enter was allowed in. According to Velleius Paterculus (2.14.3) when the architect working for Livius Drusus, Tribune of the Plebs in 91 BCE, promised to make his new house on the slope of the Palatine Hill above the Forum “completely private and free from being overlooked by anyone,” Livius replied, “No, you should apply your skills to arranging my house so that whatever I do should be visible to everybody.” As a result the decor of the front rooms was designed in much the same way a public building was, with a notion of the expected audience. It became a stage to present a public image of the family to those passing on the street and to those who chose to enter. Much of the family’s public image derives from the public service, either civic or military, of the men in the family. The atrium was decorated with their military trophies and achievements, busts of ancestors who had served the state, and this became the means of projecting status. That led to embellishments such as on this house found at Pompeii.

1.13a Cutaway of Roman atrium house.

Source: The Visual Dictionary. © QA International, 2020. Reproduced with permission of QA International.

1.13b Plan of Roman atrium house.

Source: Tobias Langhammer. Licensed under CC BY‐SA 3.0.

A wreath called a corona civica dominates the space above the front door. A wreath on the front of a house may say nothing to us, but to the Romans it was special. This is the wreath granted to a Roman citizen for saving the life of another citizen in battle. It was placed above the door to his home and marked out everyone in this domestic space through their association with the honoree of the wreath. The first Roman emperor, Augustus, had a wreath like this marking his front door as well. The benches on either side of the front door are a common feature flanking the doors of wealthy houses at Pompeii. We believe that those with business in the house or visiting it could use them to wait for an audience with the homeowner. Visually, they serve, like the wreath, to mark an elite home, distinguishing it from the houses of people without as much public service.

corona civica

the civic crown, a wreath of oak leaves, a tree sacred to Jupiter, awarded to Roman citizens who saved the lives of other citizens in battle

1.14 Facade photo of Roman house, Pompeii.

Photo courtesy Steven L. Tuck.