©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia
Part 4 - Wall revetments
There is no general plan with the location of the various revetments.
Their hierarchy was the same one of the floors.
The luxury buildings reserved for the emperor,with opus sectile pavements , had marble revetment on the walls.
In the secondary quarters there were frescoes, while in the servile ones there was only plaster, and not always.
The only complete study is the PhD thesis by Caterina Ognibeni [2007] archaeologist of the University of Trento (Italy), which lists frescoes, marble panels, stucco revetments with drawings and photographs.
4a - Frescoes
The few preserved frescoes were randomly studied, documented and restored.
In the 60’s and 70’s many frescoes were detached and mounted on panels, for example those of the Serapeum of the Canopus and others of the West Substructures of the Canopus [FIG. 7], which were left in the Great Baths for decades and a few years ago were moved to some other storage area.
Fig. 7 - Affresco al Canopo
In addition to the aforementioned work by Caterina Ognibeni, there are some articles on frescoes in single buildings: Betori [2006], De Henau-Dupas 1983, Molle [2004], Neuerburg [1965], Sear [1977], Wirth [1929].
4b - Marble revetments
There is an attempt to classify the wall revetments in marble [Bruto Vannicola 1990], but a systematic study has never been done.
In many buildings, the holes of the nails holding in place the marble slabs could allow to reconstruct their scheme and design.
The only recent study is by Cinque and Lazzeri [2012] on some parietal crustae found in the Building with Three Exedras.
Other magnificent marble inlays were once on display in the former “Didactic Museum” of the Villa [closed since decades] along with a complete collection of the various types of precious marble found in the Villa.
4c - Stuccoes, Mosaics and Tartars
The stuccoes of the Great Baths [FIG. 8] have been drawn since the Renaissance by Giuliano da Sangallo and other unknown artists [De Franceschini 2016].
Fig. 8 - Stuccoes in the Great Baths
The drawings published by Cameron [1775] and Ponce [1789] are unreliable, as shown in the study of Joyce [1989, 1990].
The stuccoes were also illustrated by Penna [1836], Gusman [1904], Wadsworth [1924] and Mielsch [1975].
Lavagne (1973a and 1973b) studied the exceptional mosaic ceiling of the age of Sulla of the Cryptoporticus with Mosaic Vault, which was closed to the public twenty years ago. A new article of Marina De Franceschini about this ceiling is forthcoming.
Many stuccoes are unpublished and have never been studied and catalogued, nor restored.
The same goes for the Tartars, which were fake stalactites made from "travertine foam".
In 2002 the University of Trento with prof. Mariette de Vos and Reda Attoui began the study and survey of the stucco ceilings in one of the Casali of the Palestra, (Gymnasium) published by Caterina Ognibeni [2005] and then by de Vos and Attoui [2010].
A complete and systematic study on this subject is still missing.
©MarinaDeFranceschini - Progetto Accademia