In the urban planning or in the disorganized growth of the city, elements of the natural landscape or previous urban arrangements o}en conditioned subsequent developments. So called ‘compensatory’ buildings played a central role in occupying the irregular spaces formed over time. Against this background, it is o}en argued that the tabernae – a widespread feature of the trade routes of Roman cities – could have played a decisive role. By abandoning our vision of a geometric structure of the city based on plans and axonometries in favor of reliable three-dimen- sional navigable and immersive econstructions, this article draws attention to ancient visitors’ perception of space and architecture, and on their movements throughout the Roman city. \us, it is possible to observe how the rows of tabernae, progressively narrowing or widening their depth thanks to the extreme ductility of their characteristic modular elements, could #t into the irregular spaces of the urban fabric. In this way, by absorbing more or less pronounced misalignments, they sometimes favored the observer’s perception of axiality and symmetry

Discourse about the senses, time, narrative, technology, and identity seem to function as key principles in Roman decorative systems. Closer consideration of these concepts can contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the so-called Roman ideal sculpture. In following this line of thought, the case studies discussed in this paper focus on sculptures made of rare and/or precious materials. >e article explores materials’ bearing on sensual perception, on the imagination of time, on the construction of narratives, on visualizations of technical processes, and on the negotiation of multiple identities. >is approach addresses both vertical and horizontal relationships; namely, those between an artwork and its putative model and those within the series of other contemporary works. By treating individual pieces of sculpture as part of a broader Bilderwelt, discourse can concentrate on the inherent properties that materials held over the concept of form, thus indicating a third path that complements the comparative examination of replica series and contextual approaches

Faux marbles decorations in Roman painting have been the topic of several books, articles, and doctoral dissertations. Nonetheless, the distinction between imitation and imagination remains largely undetermined and these patterns have so far resisted all attempts at straightforward classi%cation. Based on a choice of case studies from the Vesuvian sites, this article engages with the representation of marbles in painting. In particular, the case of the most widespread type of faux marbles pattern, imitating the marmor numidicum or giallo antico, may contribute to a clearer understanding of this decorative choice, which relies on a peculiar interplay between reality and fantasy. Concluding thoughts about the use of marble in order to imitate other types of marbles allows to broaden these considerations, pointing to promising avenues of investigation for future research.

Inside Palazzo Tornabuoni-Corsi-Salviati in Florence is preserved a larger than life statue depicting Diana made of ‘bigio antico’ (for the body dressed in himation and chiton) and white marble (for the naked parts of the #gure), still unknown to archaeological literature. Formal considerations and archival data allow to attribute the restoration in white marble to Antonio Novelli (1599-1662), who worked for the commission of Giovanni Corsi (1600- 1661). The part in ‘bigio antico’ is, instead, what remains of a monumental sculpture from the imperial era that reproposes the iconographic scheme of the famous Fortuna-Isis by Palestrina. Considerations of antiquarian nature (shape of the Herculean knot of the belt) allow to deepen the question of the identity of the person represented and o+er the possibility of some reconsiderations on the iconographic model attested by the Florentine statue.

In this article we examine the history of a Roman marble statue, attested at Palazzo Spada in the eighteenth century and currently on display in the very eclectic collection at the Bardi Foundation in Brazil. [e paper discusses which possible prototypes can be considered for the statue and its ancient but allogenic head. Consequently the history of the restorations that determined its current appearance is analyzed. Emphasizing its nature as a sculptural palimpsest on which the hands of some of the most in?uential restorers and dealers of eighteenth-century Rome have worked, we point out why it might have caught the interest of a /ne art collector like Pietro Maria Bardi.

Keywords:

In the famous cycle of the Seasons now in Vienna$s Kunsthistorisches Museum, Jacopo Bassano has drawn inspiration by the innovations of [emish-netherlandish painters as Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer, adding an appropriate biblical scene in the background to the accurate naturalistic description of seasonal activities that almost entirely occupies each paintings. Also known through the prints, these Nordic cycles also circulated in Italy, such as the four paintings by Beuckelaer, now in the National Gallery in London, in which the biblical scenes in the background are added to the symbolic images of the Elements, Temperaments, Seasons and constellations of the Zodiac that determine its cyclical nature, with an intertwining of meanings that seems to have been grasped and re proposed at least in part by Jacopo Bassano. Although willing to follow the Flemish and Dutch innovations, the next generation of Italian painters avoided venturing into the ideologically more secular phase, exemplary represented by Bruegel the Elder of the Flemish Proverbs, completing the long march towards genre painting only at a later time, as seems to be demonstrated by the successors of Bruegel and Jacopo Bassano in their respective workshops, who continued to re-propose the compositions invented by the founders, but abolishing the religious scenes in the background. We time had come, even for Italian artists, to separately produce traditional religious subjects and paintings of profane subjects, which were equally if not more in demand by the market.