Public Approach Front
original east front
Pax / Italia / Tellus / Venus
Scholar's Interpretations? Although portions of this relief are later restorations, these changes seem not to have transformed the figures and their composition in major ways. Without doubt, this is the best preserved of the 4 figurative relief panels on the 2 frontal facades. Nevertheless, this multifaceted relief has stimulated an exceptional range of scholarly interpretations, focusing primarily on the identity of the central figure.
Most often the panel has been interpreted as Pax, Italia, Tellus, or Venus, recently Ceres. In recent years, some scholars have accepted a synthetic view, suggesting that the relief may have been deliberately designed to encompass all of these meanings, perhaps with an intensional degree of ambiguity to reference the full Augustan programme, and to speak to the entire Roman populous. While this may well be true, the nature of Roman art suggests that there would have been a primary identification of the major figure.
The size of the central goddess, and her position facing inward toward the doorway, echo that of Roma on the opposite panel. However, other comparisons between the 2 panels are difficult if not impossible because only 2 small fragments of the Roma panel survive. The number and variety of figures, animals, reptiles, and birds on this panel exceeds that on any of the other frontal relief panels.
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Earliest known image of the Pax / Italia / Tellus / Venus relief, which had been rediscovered and unearthed in 1568. trans: "Plate XIV. In the Royal Medici Museum, length 8 ft. 8 inch., height 5 ft. 5 inch. Under the auspices of D. Joannes Baptista Comes Casottius Priest of the Meadow. Vincenzo Franceschini engraver, Published in Anton Francesco Gori, Inscriptiones antiquae in Etruriae urbibus exstantes, Florence 1727, plates XIV. |
Pax / Italia / Tellus / Venus relief, photo July 2008
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Demonstration of an innovative, technically complex color projection to suggest the original colors of the front facades. photo May 2010
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The extremely high-relief, near-3-dimensional carving, is clearest when seen from the side. photo July 2008 |
Pax / Italia / Tellus / Venus relief seen from the left. photo July-Oct. 2008
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Demonstration of an innovative, technically complex color projection to suggest the original colors of the front facades. photo May 2010 |
The extremely high-relief, near-3-dimensional carving, is clearest when seen from the side. photo July 2008 |
Pax / Italia / Tellus / Venus relief seen from thje right. photo July-Oct. 2008
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Demonstration of an innovative, technically complex color projection to suggest the original colors of the front facades. photo May 2010 |
The figures are carved as if in the round so that the goddess' fingers and knee emerge as if through a veil. photo July 2008
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The goddess sits on a rocky outcropping, gently encircling a child with each arm. Below are an ox resting and a sheep grazing. photo July 2008 |
The goddess' body is covered by a loose fitting mantle; her fingers project directly from the background. photo July-Oct. 2008
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A nymph representing the beneficial winds of earth, sits on a flying goose or swan. Below are grasses, an upturned jug pouring forth water, and a small heron perched on its handle. Like the figure opposite, "air" wears a garland and her head and body are framed by her billowing upper mantle, clutched in one hand. photo July 2008 |
Below a flying goose or swan is an upturned jug pouring forth water with a small heron perched on its handle, among grasses. photo July-Oct. 2008
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A nymph representing the beneficial winds of the sea, sits on a sea snake, flying above rushing waves. Like the figure opposite, she wears a garland and her head and body are framed by her billowing upper mantle, clutched in one hand. photo July 2008
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