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January 14, 2008
The second best photo I took this weekend?
I think this is the second best I took this weekend....I like the entablature (the beam carried on the posts of classical columns) centered in the foreground, another entablature headed off at a mild angle to the left and the landscape low in the background. I to9ok it from a landing on a staircase headed down into the Forum from the Capitoline.
The nearer entablature is all that's left above the foundation level of the Temple of the Deified Vespasian and Titus. Domitian was a bad emperor, but he wasn't so bad that the didn't finish the temple Titus started for their father. The pictorial entablature shows some tools for animal sacrifice.
The further entablature is an example of late classical paganism and architectural recycling - the Roman Senate rebuilt the Temple of Saturn after a fire in 360 CE; long after Christianity was dominant in most other elite circles the aristocracy of the City of Rome was still holding on to their paganism. The building is, other than the Ionic capitals, recycled building parts or spolia. We often casually associate spolia with early Christian architecture, but that's a mistaken assumption based on uneven survival. The classical world was always economical in reuse -- green architecture, if you like.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at January 14, 2008 11:43 AM