Four Reliefs of Ritual Instruments

roman school

These two pairs of reliefs, set in the walls on the short sides of the Portico, are flanking two large historical-themed bas-reliefs. They depict sacrificial instruments framed in acanthus leaves. A recent study confirmed by the analyses carried out during conservation established that they are made of stucco, which dates the production of these panels to the nineteenth century redecoration of the Portico, emptied out by the sale of the ancient works of art to Napoleon.

A frieze with a similar subject but larger in size, mentioned in this location by Visconti in 1796, is today preserved at the Louvre. 

Object details

Commentary

The four reliefs set in the wall on the short sides of the Portico depict sacrificial instruments. The rectangular slabs are framed by a protruding cornice adorned with a torus of acanthus leaves.

On the northern side, the left-hand relief depicts a libation pitcher, an object we might interpret as an aspergillum or a patera with a handle and a rosette in its centre, and two overlapping lit torches; the panel on the right shows a laurel garland, an axe, a palm leaf and a knife with a triangular blade (a secespita). The reliefs on the opposite wall present a similar composition, arranged on a narrower surface that has resulted in the torches and the laurel garland being cut.

A recent study by Ciofetta recalls a drawing by Charles Percier produced during his time at the French Academy in Rome between 1786 and 1791, now preserved at the Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France in Paris (ms. 1008, f. 24, no. 51; Ciofetta 2022, pp. 308–311, in particular, for Percier’s drawing, p. 308). This illustration showed one of the short sides of the portico as it was in the late-eighteenth century, plausibly the northern wall, though the scholar identified a number of inconsistencies between the depicted works and the description of the wall offered by Visconti in 1796, who placed the bas-relief with the griffin and Leda on the southern side (Lamberti, Visconti 1796, I, pp. 8–10). A common element present in both documents is a long bas-relief with sacrificial instruments framed in a cornice of leaves and placed above the relief depicting the Labours of Hercules just above the door. Visconti described it in 1796: ‘Between the fragment of Hercules and the Rooster is a bas-relief, a work from the third century, as it appears, which was likely originally the decoration of a temple and in which several ritual objects have been depicted, pertaining to pagan sacrifices. Sealed off on either end by two Bucrania, and mingled with some vases, we can make out an Apex, or a priestly Galero, a Lituus, an Acerra, an Aspergillum, a Secespita, or knife, a Club and an Axe. We may observe a very similar bas-relief inside the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Velabrum, as well as another two, perfectly preserved, at the Musei Capitolini’ (Lamberti, Visconti 1796, I, p. 9, no. 15). This relief might be the same one mentioned among the ‘Fondi di Palazzo’ in the inventory of 1762: ‘An ancient temple ornament, a marble bas-relief with all the instruments for sacrifice, 14 palms long and about 2.5 palms tall, which was found in Grotta Cellona in the Torrenova estate’ (AAV, Arch. Borghese 1007, Inventario 1762, c. 130). Also mentioned alongside another in the inventory of 1765: ‘A frieze with a bas-relief of sacrificial instruments, 14 palms in length and 2 in height’ (Archivio Galleria Borghese A IV/1, Inventario 1765, c. 205). This was most certainly the marble frieze, about three metres long, found in the Torrenova estate and brought to France in 1807, now preserved at the Louvre (Moreno, Viacava 2003, p. 68; Fabréga-Dubert 2009, I, p. 130, no. 259). In 1796, Visconti also mentioned a second relief made of stucco and set in the opposite wall during the eighteenth-century redecoration: ‘To match this, above the right-hand door, a stucco bas-relief has been set, bearing stucco utensils corresponding to those described’ (Lamberti, Visconti 1796, I, p. 9, no. 15).

Ciofetta believes the four reliefs now observable in the portico were produced expressly for the new decoration of the space left completely bare by the despoiling of the Casino when everything was sold to Napoleon in 1807. This hypothesis has been confirmed by recent conservational studies that ascertained that all four panels are made of stucco. This would discredit Moreno’s thesis according to which two of the reliefs were made of marble and resulting from the cut of a longer, original frieze, while the other two were stucco (Moreno, Viacava 2003, pp. 67–69, no. 14).

Giulia Ciccarello