A vocabulary of the Antique. An archaeological reconstruction and the reception of the Volta Dorata of the Domus Aurea of Nero

The aim of my research is to provide a critical analysis and comparison of thegraphic documents (prints, watercolors, drawings) that depict and show thedecoration of the Volta Dorata in the Domus Aurea of Nero. Precisely, myresearch is addressed towards two aspects that are strictly related to each other:the first is to reconstruct the original appearance of the Volta Dorata throughthe comparison of the graphic documentation; the second is to assess how suchdocumentation can help us in understanding how and why artists from theRenaissance age copied this vault.Thanks to the evidence that comes from the graphic documents, in the FirstChapter, it has been possible to define how, since the discovery of theunderground grottoes in the 70s of the 15th century, antiquarians and artistswere able to hypothesize that those paintings might have belonged to theDomus Aurea of Nero. However, since the 17th century, such insight has beenreplaced by other interpretations, e.g. Titus’ and Trajan’s Baths. Only in the 19thcentury, because of the study of De Romanis (1822), Piale and, afterward,Lanciani were able to recover the first identification.The Second Chapter consists of the catalogue of the graphic witnesses and thedocuments are analyzed, focusing the attention on the archaeological aspectsand artistic features (i.e. stylistic, material, techniques, and attribution issues).Thanks to the evidence from the catalogue, in the Third Chapter, after apreliminary discussion of room 80 in the Domus Aurea, it has been possible toshow which were the colors and the type of decorations of the Volta Dorata but,mostly, to compare the different figural scenes. Thanks to such analysis, apotential iconological message of the decorative system has been detected andput in relation with the literary themes that can be seen in some figural scenesof the Domus Aurea’s ceilings.In the Fourth Chapter, the data that come from the catalog are discussed inorder to assess the working methodology of artists from the 16th to 19thcentury. Precisely, it has been investigated how their interest and practice ofcopying caused a modification of the scene depicted. Then, considering the16th century, through some cases of the modern ceilings of Peruzzi,Pinturicchio and Raphael’s workshop, it has been possible to detect thereception and the assimilation of the artistic language that Renaissance artistsfound in the Volta Dorata.