Villa Adriana Tivoli - EDIFICIO CON TRE ESEDRE

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VILLA ADRIANA by MARINA DE FRANCESCHINI

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BUILDING WITH THREE EXEDRAS

The main entrance of the Imperial Residence

©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia

31 - BUILDING WITH THREE EXEDRAS

Description

The entrance is from the Poecile, with the two corridors TE2 and TE3 which flanked the large central fountain in TE1.

At the center is the large courtyard TE5 paved in opus sectile; on the opposite side is one of the three exedras that give the building its name, TE12, preceded by a semicircular niche and decorated by two fountains; behind it is a semicircular portico TE13 supported by columns.

Building with Three Exedras

On both sides of the courtyard TE5 are the twin porticoes TE6, onto which the other two exedras open, TE7 to the west and TE15 to the east. These exedras were actually small gardens with a square fountain in the center, and on the outside they have semicircular porticoes TE9 and TE17. The square rooms TE8, 10, 14 and 16 acted as a link between the various porticoes.

All the rooms were paved in opus sectile, studied by Chillman in 1920; once some sections restored with beautiful polychrome marble were visible, but they have been covered with pozzolana to protect them from weathering. Recent excavations have found fragments of the wall marble covering, from which it has been possible to reconstruct a small panel with a charioteer and a marble frame with a braid.

On the east side of the building there are other very large and high rooms. TE20 is the most important and monumental one, paved in opus sectile. The walls were completely covered with marble: the holes for the grappas outline large rectangular panels.

In the center of the north and south walls there are large rectangular recesses in which marble bas-reliefs must have been inserted – naturally they are lost.

Traces of bas-reliefs on the walls

In the center of the east side of the room a window opens towards the TE21 niche, from which there is a perspective and axial view towards the Garden Stadium and the Winter Palace.

However, there is no direct passage: it was necessary to follow a tortuous path through the two side rooms TE23 and TE6, reaching rooms TE22 and TE25 and then the porticoes of the Ninfeo Stadio were accessed.

It is a typical expedient of Hadrian's architecture, double disguised entrances which also act as a security filter and create a surprise effect.

Function and meaning

The precious decoration, the opus sectile marble floors, the monumental architecture prove that this building belonged to the imperial noble quarters. Within the complex that we call the Imperial Residence, where the emperor lived, this building was the monumental entrance, a sort of atrium.

In this building all traditional elements of the Roman domus are reproduced, but on an imperial scale: the atrium with fountain TE1, the portico TE5 on which a large room TE20, opened: it was the tablinum, richly decorated.

Noteworthy are the dolphin-shaped capitals and the bases of the columns with very fine carvings that look like embroidery.

The Building with Three Exedras was interpreted by Kähler as a monumental triclinium based on the comparison with the Coenatio Jovis on the Palatine in Rome, which has a similar shape.

However, this hypothesis is unlikely because the triclinia could not be placed inside the exedras, because they were small gardens, and the beds could not be set under the sun.

Salza Prina Ricotti thought that the triclinium beds were inside the semicircular porticoes, an equally improbable idea, also because in the nearby Ninfeo Stadio there was a triclinium NS17.

See n. 4 - The Imperiale Residence of Villa Adriana in the section Discover the Villa

SEE: Marina De Franceschini, Villa Adriana. Mosaici, pavimenti, edifici. Roma 1991, pp. 205-215 ad 498-504.

Chillman 1920; Paribeni 1922; Kähler 1950; Von Mercklin 1962; Salza Prina Ricotti 1987; Salza Prina Ricotti 1988; Giubilei 1990; Rakob 1987; Krause 2000; Rustico 2007; Cinque Lazzeri 2012; Galli 2013; Ravasi 2015.

Virtual World Heritage Laboratory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNx76mUv3o0