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.
