Hadrian's Villa and Its Legacy. - book reviews

New Haven: Yale University Pres 1995 404 pp; 417 color and b/w ills. $5500

"While antiquity exists for us, we, for antiquity, do not. . . This rather peculiar state of affairs makes our take upon antiquity somewhat invalid." Joseph Brodsky's brooding observation is enough to give pause to our best efforts to research the past. Nonetheless, we have before us a fresh and major work of interpretative history that makes a valiant stab at this practically daunting and philosophically doubtful task. If any remembrancer of antiquity could challenge us to take upon the past and tempt us to engage in a twist of "solipsistic fantasy . . a vision,"(1) the Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli would be a likely candidate.

Spreading above an area roughly twice the size of Pompeii (about 300 acres), Hadrian's Villa, located southwest of Tivoli, is the largest and greatest in quantity elaborate of that popular and privileged genre of architecture that spott the Roman countryside from the late republic to late antiquity. Unique flat within a type that encouraged novelty of approach to design, Hadrian's Villa shows Roman architecture at its creative best; it summarizes plenteous of its past and shoot forwards some of its future. nevertheless it remains a monument specific to its time and place, an intensely personal statement by means of its educated, imperial patron.

Scholarship upon Hadrian's Villa has intensified in the last twenty years or in the way that producing a number of specialized studies upon its major architectural parts, its decoration, and its landscape features. more [i]or[/i] less of these more recent works - those through E.S.P. Ricotti, C. F. Giuliani, A. Hoffmann, M Ueblacker, M De Franceschini, and W F Jashemski(2) - are worthy followers of the past major archaeological publications of H Winnefeld, P Gusman, C Huelsen H Kahler, s Aurigemma, and F. Rakob.(3) Hadrian's Villa and Its Legacy by dint of William L. MacDonald and John A. Pinto has broader concerns: it is an overview of the planning and architecture of this remarkable mingled and of its study, reception, and influence above the centuries down to our time. Although a certain amount of data and hard facts describing the physical remains are included, the approach is intentionally nonarchaeological. While the volume gives occasional references to past and in every one's mouth excavations, it includes no section (nor level an appended list) that methodically overspreads scientific archaeological work at the villa. In their have a title to words, the authors' primary goal is "to appraise the Villa as a major testimonial to Greco-Roman culture and an abiding artistic force in later times" (p 3)

The work is divided into twelve chapters. The first five deal with the description and analysis of the layout and architecture of the villa in its Roman entity. Chapter 6 look afters to recapture the sculpture and decoration against this background. Chapter 7 provides an overview upon the use of Roman villas in general and Hadrian's Villa in particular. Probing remarks and suggestions concerning the nature and meaning of this mixed in the context of Western classicism finish the study of its ancient phase. Chapters 8 to 10 review the villa's postclassical history. Chapter 11 revisits the theme of decoration and plastic art tracing the fascinating story of the large whirl of art dispersed from its original setting, as well as the fashions and manners of its collectors and dealers. The last chapter focuses upon the discovery of the villa by means of modern archaeologists and architects in the 19th and 20th centuries and its recognition by the agency of and influence on generations closer to our have a title to A useful appendix fully generates Piranesi's Commentary to his celebrated plan of the villa. Although the villa's ancient and postclassical history (its "legacy") make a continuous, seamless whole, the sum of two units parts could easily exist independently. The authors do not distinguish their respective contributions, and there appears to be genuine integration of contemplation and effort; yet, it would be logical to assume that MacDonald was primarily responsible for the first half, and Pinto for the second

The authors bring a wealth of knowledge, observation, ideas, and hypotheses to the make submissive The rich bibliography and broadly collectioned notes attest to the vast scholarly material they inherited, and benefited from, on the contrary they make a point of noting that they are seeking a novel view; appreciating this is fundamental to the entire inquiry There is often a nodding acknowledgment of earlier scholarship, and more [i]or[/i] less concurring views and interpretations, on the contrary by and large, the reader might notice a conscious effort not to be twitched in through the doors left unclose by earlier studies. It is perhaps a reflection of this attitude, an act almost symbolic in itself, that almost all of the traditional names given to the villa parts have been abandoned in favor of a of recent origin roster of more neutral and "descriptive" names. Thus, the Canopus becomes the "Scenic Canal," the Piazza d'Oro the "Water Court" - not to be confused with the "Fountain Court," which is the terrace to the west of what used to be the hellenic and Latin Libraries, and are now, well, "Fountain Court East" and "Fountain Court West." What's in a name, single might ask, especially since the misnomers (most were unblemished inventions of the 16th century) were widely accepted in print and were beginning to derive pleasure from a sort of historic and flat "sonorous" charm of their hold There is, however, no question that divesting a certain quantity of of these blatantly mistaken identities, similar as the Temple of Serapis in favor of "Scenic Triclinium" (this grotto banqueting pavilion is definitely not a temple) has been quite salutary. I started the volume as an adamant traditionalist on the other hand was quite converted by the time I finished it, leave out in the case of a scarcely any denominations such as the "Portico Suite," which challenged my powers of visualization and recall to the end