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.
TO ZOOM IN ON THE LARGE IMAGES, USE THE BUTTONS AT TOP-LEFT.
Tips for using this website
Inside wall of side with Augustus, left and center portions. 14mm lens, photo July-Oct. 2008
|
Inside wall of side with Augustus, center and right portions. 14mm lens, photo July-Oct. 2008
|
Inside wall of side with Augustus, right end, with some of the most important surviving sections of the lath wall photo July 2008
|
Farthest left of the 3 full ox skulls well preserved. photo July 2008
|
Central of the 3 full ox skulls salvaged from 2 separately surviving original panels; showing that the ox skull was carved over the division between the 2 panels. photo Oct. 2008
|
Farthest right of the 3 full ox skulls. Only a few, small pieces in this photo are original. photo Oct. 200
|
Libation bowl over 2nd festoon from right. photo Oct. 2008
|
Surviving remnants of the original photo Oct. 2008 |
Corner of inside of original south side wall at left, and original west front wall at right. Although a large original slab of the west front wall survives, only a few fragments survive of the south side wall at left. photo Oct. 2008
|