Interior Walls
Inside of Side with Augustus
original south side
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 along back of sacrificial altar to left end of original south side wall. As shown on coins, the doorway was occasionally closed by sliding, wooden doors. 14mm lens, photo July 2008 |
Close-up of photo at left. photo July 2008
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Angle view of corner in photos at left. Corinthian capital is bent at center to fit inside corner. These portions of the festoon panels are well-preserved - zoom in. photo Oct. 2008
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One of the best preserved sections of any festoon panel - same as in photos above. photo July 2008
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Exceptional quality of elaborate, detailed, original carving; detail of panel in photo at left. photo Oct. 2008 |
Exceptional quality of elaborate, detailed, original carving; detail of panel in photos at left. photo July 2008 |
"Fig. 23 Innerfrieze, plates 14, 15, 16." This print, published in 1902, shows that this was one of the earliest recovered sections of the festoon panels, unusually well preserved. Scanned from Eugen Petersen, "Ara Pacis Augustae, von Eugen Petersen, mit Zeichnungen von George Niemann", Sonderschriften des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes in Wien, 1902; vol. 1, fig.23. Reproduced with appreciation. |
"Plate 9 - Preserved parts of the south side: interior", print by "prof. Enrico Paoloni". This planar elevation cross-section shows the inside of the original south side wall as reconstructed in 1938, identifying original portions of the monument. Scanned from Giuseppe Moretti, Ara Pacis Augustae; Rome, 2005 (1st ed. 1948), vol.2, pl.9. Courtesy of the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Rome. Reproduced with appreciation. |
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