Panel 6.2 – The eternal message of marble: prestige, symbolism and spolia in the Western Roman provinces


Organiser/Chair:

  • Virginia García-Entero (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain)
  • Diana Gorostidi (Rovira i Virgili University, Spain)
  • Anna Gutiérrez (IRAMAT-CRP2A, France)
  • Olivia Rodríguez (University of Seville, Spain)

External Discussant:

  • Patrizio Pensabene (Sapienza University of Rome)

Speakers:

Panel abstract

Marble was a noble material most used in Antiquity. Since late-Republican times, the use of all sorts of marbles (used here in the large sense of "decorative stones" or marmora) became fashionable in Rome and, in particular since the Imperial Age, it was specially sought of to be used in architecture and the plastic arts. Yet besides its technical advantages, its use also hide economical, ideological or even political associations which strongly defined their demand and use throughout the Roman era and shaped the European conception of this material for evermore. With the closure of the quarries and the reduction of more global markets due to the decline of the Roman Empire, recycling Roman artefacts became a key part of the economic processes related to material procurement for architecture as well as the artistic production. But it is also well known that spolia also carried out a powerful meaning as symbolic relics from the past. Therefore, studies on relocation and trade, retouch and imitation of stone artefacts, predominantly in precious local or exotic marmora, configure a network of multidisciplinary research, from archaeometry to fine arts and philological studies. The Iberian Peninsula's case shows that, next to the imperial marbles, marmora from the Western Provinces such as the Hispanic Almadén de la Plata (Baetica/Lusitania), Estremoz (Lusitania), Santa Tecla (Tarraconensis), or even those apparently out of the primary trade routes -Saint-Béat (Gallia), O Incio and Espejón (Tarraconensis)- played an important role on the autorepresentation of Roman provincial elites as well as the Early Medieval kingdoms. Therefore, local stone spolia, not only fine art manufactures but also architectural building components, could be understood as an icon or status-symbol, in any case as illustrative picture of public assessment. This is a very promising field of research that is currently been approached by several Spanish interdisciplinary teams, whose results will be presented by the speakers in a wider context of the Western Provinces. Thus, this panel aims to be a meeting point for a wide range of cases studies from current research projects, covering archaeological, epigraphic, art historian and historical perspectives to discuss and advance on our understanding of cultural, social and ideological implications of the use and reuse of marble artefacts.

 

Paper abstracts

1. Virginia García-Entero (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain) / Diana Gorostidi (Rovira i Virgili University, Spain) / Anna Gutiérrez (IRAMAT-CRP2A, France) / Olivia Rodríguez (University of Seville, Spain)

Introduction to the panel 'The eternal message of marble: prestige, symbolism and spolia in the Western Roman provinces'

 

2. Diana Gorostidi Pi (Institut Català d'Arqueologia Clàssica)

Stone for an epigraphic landscape: shaping honorary iconography in Tarraco
Tarraco marmor is one of the most widespread stone used for monuments in the ancient capital of Hispania Tarraconensis from 1 Cent AD onwards. Its exploitation is directly linked with the huge urban development under Flavians on the upper-city related to the concilium provinciae Hispaniae Citerioris district, where the so called forum provinciae, the templum Divi Augusti and the circus are settled. A thorough and systematic epigraphic landscape was planned for these places of public magnificence, in which the founding of an honorific gallery of statues for the provincial priests was key. The pedestals were made in the bright and beauty local limestone, always with the same measurements, in a specific shape with similar formulary and palaeography. This kind of pedestal was soon identified with the production of public honorary monuments erected by the concilium Provinciae and its massive production allowed a broad dissemination by customers from other cities around the conventus Tarraconensis, but even in other quite distant towns in the neighbouring Caesaraugustanus and Carthaginiensis. In this paper, we are dealing with the development of this local and specific officina lapidaria for imperial purposes and the propagation and imitation of the explicit Tarraco’s pedestal as a symbol of prestige for the honorific monuments in Flavian municipalities.

 

3. Hernán González Bordas (Université Bordeaux Montaigne)

Cuantificar el prestigio: hacia una sistematización de las categorías de prestigio en las inscripciones latinas
En el marco del proyecto liderado por Anna Gutiérrez García-M Graver dans le marbre ROMAE, que combina el estudio epigráfico, arqueológico y arqueométrico, y cuyo objetivo principal es determinar el origen de los objetos marmóreos cuyo uso y ostentación implican un cierto grado de prestigio, se ha procedido a estudiar una serie de corpora de inscripciones marmóreas de Francia y España.
Con el objetivo de establecer el grado de prestigio de cada inscripción, desde una perspectiva textual y formal, por oposición a la del material lapídeo, se ha creado una ficha modelo en la que se vacían los datos de cada una de las inscripciones de estos corpora. Estas fichas contienen categorías que cubren:

  1. El tamaño y el tipo de soporte
  2. la calidad del acabado del monumento epigráfico así como la calidad de la incisión y la decoración de la misma.
  3. el espacio de exposición de la inscripción y su función
  4. la clase social (o política) de los dedicantes
  5. la adscripción religiosa de los dedicantes y si hay una función votiva

El problema radica en la dificultad de cuantificar unas características que son por definición cualitativas. Gran cantidad de estos datos se presenta de forma diferente en cada inscripción ya sea en el monumento en sí como en el texto. En nuestra intervención presentaremos los casos de inscripciones u objetos que por sus características han sido más difíciles de adaptar a tal ficha y por qué razones nos hemos decantado por una u otra opción.

 

4. Virginia García-Entero (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia)

Espejon Limestone and Conglomerate. The marmor of Clunia at the service of the Hispanic-Roman elite
Espejón limestone and conglomerate is the main ornamental stone in the Iberia Peninsular inland in Roman Times. This marmor was highly valued due to its macroscopic appearance and lithological characteristics. As such, it was widely employed in Hispania from Augustan era on, in the framework of new public ornamental programs of cities immersed in marbling processes as well as to meet the needs of an Hispano-Roman elite that, from very early, emulates the ways ofself-representation of imperial power, among which the massive use of marmora for epigraphic and decorative purposes had a prominent role. The employ of Espejón’s limestone and conglomerate remained in full use throughout the Late Roman period, as part of interior decoration of key rural complexes such as Carranque (Toledo) and La Olmeda (Palencia), but also in visigothic and medieval times as shown by the reuse of this marmor in Carranque or San Miguel de Escalada (León).

 

5. Oliva Rodríguez Gutiérrez (University of Seville)

The prestige of marmor in the architecture of Roman Baetica: local stones vs. imported marbles
Specially in the last two decades a deep research about construction materials in Roman Baetica has been done. Among them marbles and other ornamental stones have been of special interest to the scholars because of their use as support of significant archaeological items in architecture, sculpture and epigraphy. They usually content chronological, functional of contextual information that allow the historians to design an always more complete panorama of the use of marble and its development in Roman provinces.
The more classical archaeological research has been completed in the last years with the fundamental aid of the archaeometrical analysis. They offer new precious information about many different aspects as components, mechanical features or physicochemical properties and haven been applied not only on the archaeological artefacts but also on samples from quarries. The exchange of this information about materials in origin and destination points has let us recognize relevant Baetic marble varieties used in Roman times, mixed in cities and buildings with the most valuable Mediterranean stones. A reflexion about the selective use of both groups –local and imported- and even this terminology and consideration of the different varieties documented in Roman Baetica is now convinience.

 

6. Vilma Ruppiene (Julius-Maximilians Universität Würzburg)

Marmora in the late antique imperial palace in roman Treveres: Import from the mediterranean provinces and supplement from the regional sources
Numerous relicts of wall and floor incrustations were discovered in the area of the so called Constantin-Basilica – the prestigious reception hall of the late antique imperial palace in Trier. They bear witness to the splendid decoration of the hall with sophisticated geometric and figural patterns performed in stone.
The aim of this study was to gain knowledge about the former luxurious interior design of the hall. Further, to pinpoint the provenance of marmora discovered in the Constantin-Basilica in order to illustrate the whole spectrum of stones used for decorative purposes. The precise knowledge of stone types was firstly to reveal how far the trade with Mediterranean marmora was developed in Roman Treveres of the 4th century AD. Secondly, to demonstrate the diversity of regional stones used for decorative purposes and to verify their importance and the extent of use.
To pinpoint the provenance of the stones petrographic and geochemical analyses were applied. The investigation revealed that both Mediterranean and regional marmora were used in the imperial hall in large extent, though, regional rock types being more abundant. Around 20 types were imported from various sources in Greece and Greek islands, from Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Italy and France. The higher proportion (ca. 2/3) of the used stones originates from various regional sources: black, grey and red limestones from Belgium, marble and diorite from Odenwald and diabase from Trier.

 

7. Mariella Cipriani (University of Rome 'Tor Vergata')

"Mythologische Prachtreliefs": decorative elements in luxury Roman housing
The production of “Mythologische Prachtreliefs”, large mythological marble reliefs, starts in the early Empire. This is a class of valuable and collectible materials, intended to decorate the walls of important state rooms, like the oeci, in luxurious suburban villae of the Roman aristocracy. The marble reliefs were placed in the middle zone of the wall, in a way that allowed the viewer to enjoy mythological narratives and attested the status-symbol of the owner. The preciousness of marble, as a raw material, is undoubtedly an expression of wealth and social status. However, it may not have been the only reason to justify the choice of material. Indeed in antiquity the preference of precious materials, such as marble, in reliefs of mythological content, could have been more due to their durable nature, in order to immortalize the message of the subjects represented and to emphasize their importance. It could be assumed that the use of marble would have contributed to the actualization of the Greek myths semantic, stressing the symbolic significance of characters, scenes and allusions to the contemporaneity, making the content message perpetually valid. An example of this is the well-known relief with the Sleeping Endymion of the Capitoline Museum in Rome, found on the Aventine, where it was reused as a decorative element in the Traian Decius Baths.

 

8. Simon Barker (Norwegian Institute in Rome)

Roman sculptural recycling in the Western Provinces
Throughout the course of late antiquity, particularly from the 3rd century AD onwards, cities and local communities all over the Mediterranean increasingly turned to material produced in earlier times for new buildings and sculptural monuments. The re-use of materials was not something new; however, recycling became a defining feature of late antiquity, so different in scale and intensity that it had become something specific to the period. Charting the rise and evolution of re-use provides an invaluable insight into the broader transformations that helped to define late antique cityscapes. To-date, however, analysis of recycling as a Late Antique phenomenon has been uneven and important questions about regional differences and empire-wide trends remain: do patterns of recycling in the Western Provinces match those elsewhere in the empire? Were objects put to consistent re-use across time and/or region? These questions can only be answered by considering the practice of recycling in different regions of the empire, marking out wider trends and motives, so that we can understand how recycling developed in different parts of the Empire and over time. This paper will examine various types of sculptural re-use (sarcophagi, statues, portraits) during late antiquity, in order to begin to provide an understanding of recycling practices in the Western Empire during this period.

 

9. Anna Gutiérrez Garcia-M. (IRAMAT-CRP2A, Université Bordeaux Montaigne) / Silvia González Soutelo (University of Vigo)

Producing, recycling and reusing Roman marble objects in Gallaecia (NW of Spain)
Within the framework of a multidisciplinary study aiming to understand the use of marble in the northwest of Roman Spain, a relatively large number of marble objects (sculpture, architectural elements and revetments) have been located in the current territory of Galicia. Most of them are currently in several museums, other institutions or reemployed in later buildings (especially churches), thus making it difficult to grasp their original context of use. Moreover, the stylistic study of these objects is at times controversial as retouches or re-carvings (often linked with its use in Early Christian contexts) of Roman and late-Roman elements seem to have been in order during the centuries following to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Nevertheless, their presence is noteworthy since Galicia is a mostly granitic territory and, therefore, the vast majority of stone objects and architectural elements were made from granite.
In this paper, we aim to address the reasons behind the choice of marble as raw material both for the production or the import of certain Roman and late-Roman productions, since recent archaeometrical analysis showed that both local and exotic marbles flown into Roman Galicia, as well as of the subsequent reuse of these materials in the early medieval period. We will, therefore, explore the economic, logistic and symbolic aspects of their use while taking also into account, in the case of the spolia, the context in which they were salvaged and recycled.

 

10. Antonio Peña Jurado (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

The use of spolia in the islamic architecture of Córdoba: the testimony of the Great Mosque
After the conquest of the city in 711, the Muslims reused pre-existing buildings of the late Antiquity: the visigothic governor’s palace became the center of power and the bishop’s complex was transformed into a mosque. The coming to power of Abd al-Rahman I in the middle of the 8th century generated a great change in architecture. New buildings reused architectural elements from the pre-Islamic era and, among them the Great Mosque stands out. The oratory was built at the end of the 8th Cent. and in its enlargement at the mid-9th. Its columns and the impost blocks practically all were taken from constructions of roman and late antique times. The monumentality achieved by the city in both periods and the fast construction of the oratory suggest that the bulk of the reused material came from the own Córdoba. However, at least a number of pieces integrated into the 9th century enlargement were brought from Merida. In spite of the apparent “disorder”, a detailed analysis suggests that spolia were distributed according to parity and symmetry criteria, typical of the late antique architecture. The most important elements were the shafts, distributed according to their color. With the Caliphate at the beginning of the 10th Cent, in the new enlargements of the Mosque spolia didn’t were used anymore, but a new architectural language based on architectonic elements carved out ex profeso. The state demanded new forms of expression, turned into elements of political legitimation.