ThroughEternityTours

ALT FLOOR MOSAIC OF THE LEFT-HAND TRANSEPT APSE OF THE SS. APOSTOLI, C. 560 CE. CLOISTER OF THE ATTACHED FRANCISCAN CONVENT The original basilica of the SS. Apostoli was built under two popes, Pelagius I (556-561) and John III (561-574), to house the relics of two apostles, Philip and James the Less, but was rededicated to all the apostles by 560 in imitation of the basilica of the same name in Constantinople, which functioned as an imperial mausoleum. The sponsor was probably the Byzantine general Narses, in celebration of his expulsion of the Ostrogoths from Italy. Excavations in 2020 under the ambulatory of the cloister attached to the church discovered this C6 paving, the original floor of the Pelagian basilica, extremely similar to ancient church pavements in S. Clemente and S. Crisogono.

ALT ROOM IN OPUS SECTILE, 325-350 CE. HOUSE OF CUPID AND PSYCHE, OSTIA ANTICA This large aristocratic domus represents the final phase of Ostia's wealth. The city had been in decline for over a century, when the harbour silted up and trade shifted to the northern Tiber river-mouth and the more up-to-date facilities at Portus. This house, in fact, is built atop a level of abandoned commercial structures. But in the C4, the city revived and became the site of luxurious residences like this one. This beautiful room still conserves its original floor and wall decoration in opus sectile. Its form and function are mysterious. Why is the statue group of Cupid and Psyche not centred in the room? It's too small for a triclinium yet doesn't seem to be a shrine. Perhaps it was just built to display the taste of its owner, for sheer beauty and no other reason. I'd like to think so.

ALT SARCOPHAGUS WITH EROTES, C. 160 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN Not for the first time, it is striking here how Erotes are used in Roman art as labourers. Eros, god of love, with his bow and arrows, becomes plural, and somewhat loses his connotations of being the agent of love at first sight. Instead, Erotes are pressed into service collecting and pressing grapes for wine, holding up clipei containing portraits, even being sold from cages to wealthy women. In this case, Erotes are put to hard tasks: from left to right, they are forging arms and armour, and lugging the finished products to the right. The imagery is meant to be both comic and charming, reminiscent of children at play. Here I especially like the Eros tending the furnace at far left, and the three Erotes struggling with a helmet at right. This sarcophagus, found reused as repair material for the ponte Rotto, was probably for an adolescent boy, the arms and armour representing his hoped-for military role, the Erotes his youth.