Interior Walls
Inside of Ceremonial Front
original west front
Rigorous design with exquisite carving: Like the exterior walls, the interior walls are structured within the powerful geometry of corner pilasters, base, cornice, and intermediate, horizontal stringcourse. In the interior, however, the pilaster are flat, the base plain, and the stringcourse a gentle lotus and palmette design.
The lower portion of the interior walls are thought to be an imitation in stone of wooden walls sometimes set up to delimit altar precincts (see drawing on page 3). Some scholars have suggested that there was just such a wooden precinct wall initially set up for the Ara Pacis.
The upper portion also follows a repeating pattern, but with the parts subtly varied, and with rich, symbolic imagery. Most noticeable are the elaborate, hanging festoons of wild and cultivated vegetation of all season: ivy, poppies, oak, apples, corn, figs, pomegranates, berries, and more. The design of these festoons has long been recognized as the richest and their carving the finest of the entire monument.
The festoons hang from the horns of ox skulls (bucrania), attached by ribbons, the ends of which flutter outward as if in a breeze. Above each of the festoons is a libation bowl (paterae), from which sacrificial liberations were poured.
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Looking down passageway beside sacrificial altar, to wall at left of ceremonial front doorway. 14mm lens, photo July 2008
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Same wall as in photo at left. photo Oct. 2008
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This image shows the wall in the photos at left, as reconstructed in 1938, identifying the original portions. Scanned from Giuseppe Moretti, L'Ara Pacis Augustae; Rome, 2005 (1st ed. 1948), vol.2, fig. 136. Courtesy of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Rome. Reproduced with appreciation.
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Modern Corinthian capital folded in center to fit inside corner. Some original pieces fitted in at left. Large, original panel at right. photo July-Oct. 2008
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Palmette design adjusted at ends of stringcourses. photo Oct. 2008 |
Libation bowl, the center sometimes thought to symbolize a navel. photo Oct. 2008
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One of the finest examples of a largely surviving festoon panel. Also rare surviving remnants of the horizontal band of upright palmettes alternating with lotus buds. photo July-Oct. 2008
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Detail of rare, original festoon in photo at left. All these festoons would have been brightly painted in imitation of their natural colors. photo July-Oct. 2008
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Exceptional quality of elaborate, detailed original carving; detail of panel in photo at far-left. photo Oct. 2008
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Looking down passageway beside sacrificial altar to wall at right of ceremonial front doorway. 14mm lens, photo July 2008
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Same wall as in photo at left. Only a few fragments of this wall are original. photo July 2008
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This image shows the wall in the photos at left, as reconstructed in 1938, identifying the original portions. Scanned from Giuseppe Moretti, L'Ara Pacis Augustae; Rome, 2005 (1st ed. 1948), vol.2, fig. 137. Courtesy of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Rome. Reproduced with appreciation. |