Again, in order to underscore this point, I want to turn now to the great gate, or
the Porta Maggiore, in Rome, also built by Claudius, between 41 and 54 AD.
You already know its location, near the tomb of
Eurysaces, near the underground basilica, that we also discussed today.
And, I had mentioned to you already that the purpose of
this gate was to, serve as a crossing point for two aqueducts, aqueducts that
had been begun earlier, were worked on by Caligula, and then completed by Claudius.
And there were two of them, two of them that crossed at this very point and
they needed something to mask that crossing and
so they built this great gate, the Porta Maggiore.
If you look at this general view of the Porta Maggiore
you will see much of what I have already described.
It has two open archways.
The uppermost part, which is the attic, which has an inscription.
It's a three-tiered attic as you can see.
And you, if you look carefully you will see it has an
extensive inscription, making reference to Claudius and to the aqueducts and so on.
Down below we see a series of
smaller arcuations surrounded by columns on either side
supporting pediments above.
If you look closely you can see that the pediments are finished.
Pediments are finished. The lentils are finished.
The capitols are finished.
But the blocks of the columns and the blocks of
the rest of the structure are left in a rusticated state.
They are not finished.
And we see that very stark difference between the
rusticated masonry and the finished masonry, the smooth masonry,
the, the dressed masonry and the rough masonry in this structure.
This arch by, this gate by the way, is made out of travertine.
Travertine, cut stone construction.
Here is another view that I think shows you better the way in which this gate
masks the crossing of those two aqueducts you can see two, channels there.
That one, one would have had pipes running through
it one way and the other would have had pipes running
through it the other way, and that's how they crossed in antiquity.
And I'll show you a model that may make that even clearer in a moment.
You can also see the location of the Tomb of
the baker Eurysaces right next to the so-called Porta Maggiore.
Here's the model that I showed you when we looked at the tomb of Eurysaces.
The way in which the Prenestina and the Labicana
come into Rome and converge at the facade of that tomb.
Here you see the great gate, or Porta Maggiore behind it.
And this is the best, the best illustration I can give of the way in
which those two, the pipes of the two
aqueducts crossed behind the attic of the gate,
which is one of the reasons it had to be as tall as it did, and
one of the reasons it had to have tiers was in order, because it was separated
behind, you can see that very well here, as well as the rusticated, the contrast
between the rusticated masonry and the finished masonry of this great gate.
This combination of the two is is, is a
very mannered thing to do, and it's interesting that later
Renaissance architects in Italy and for those of you who
are afficianados of the, of the Renaissance, you may know
the work of an architect by the name of Giulio Romano,
who created the great, the famous Palazzo del te in Mantua.
And I show you a detail of the Palazzo del
te just to make the point, the more general point, you
don't have to worry about Giulio but just to make the
general point that these Renaissance architects like Giulio Romano looked back.
To building like the Porta Maggiore in Rome, when they also conceived
the buildings in which they contrasted rusticated masonry with
smooth masonry, as you can also see so well.
And here, two last details of the Porta Maggiore and
I think these show you almost more than anything else
I have thus far this incredible contrast between the finished
and the unfinished masonary between the smooth and the rough.
And here you see,
you can see a detail of the pediment of the smoothness of
that, of the lintel down below, of the capitol, which is completely finished.
And then even of the upper most part of the collumn.
And this is a particularly interesting detail.
I think because it gives me the sense as I look at it.
That the what, what the archit-, patron and architects are trying to
do is give us a sense that the column actually lives inside
the rusticated drums.
I get the sense as I look at this that this finished column is ju-,
is very anxious to bust out of the
rusticated masonry, and, in which it's confined.
It's very anxious to, to to emerge from that rusticated masonry.
And I, I can't help but think of the Renaissance again, and especially of
Michelangelo, for any of you who've seen his slaves and the academia in Florence.
The slaves that seemed to, he took these big blocks of Carrara marble and he tried,
he, he represents the slaves as if they
are still immersed in that marble, but trying
to break free from that marble, as if
these, these images of human beings were somehow
located inside that marble and just waiting for
the genius Michelangelo to free them from that marble.
It's the same sense that I get
here when I look at this, and it makes me think again that a very intelligent a very
refined mind is behind sorting out this kind of
thing and, and conceiving of something of this nature.
And given the the education and the bent of
Claudius, he is just the kind of man who might
have done that, and I think we need to
see the architecture of Claudius, this rusticated architecture of Claudius,
this rusticated architecture of Claudius, which is
contrasted to the smooth and finished architecture at
the same time as something that really is
reflective of the peculiar personality of this man.
I think it's also important to say, though, that
this kind of architecture at this time is very old-fashioned.
The whole idea of using cut stone travertine construction
after what we've seen is going on in concrete construction
is a very old-fashioned thing to do.
It again shows us a man who is looking to the past,
who's looking to the history of Rome, to the history of the Etruscans.
Perhaps rather than to the present at.
But, but on, on the positive side, one could
also say that what he is doing here, he is
using stone construction, but he is using it in
a very different way and indeed an almost anti-classical way.
To the way in which Augustus used it.
Think of Augustus' Ara Pacis, think of Augustus' Temple of
Mars Ultor in the forum of Augustus in Rome.
Both of those marble buildings in that case,
Luna or Carrara marble based on ancient Greek prototypes.
This is also, stone architecture, and in that
sense again, old fashioned but it's travertine not marble.
But it is anti-classical in, in its use
of this rusticated as well as smooth masonry.
So I do want you to ponder this architecture of, of
Claudius, and, and think for yourselves about whether you think again it,
it is, it is due, the form that it takes is
due, to the very interesting and unusual personality of this one man.
