ID AND LOCATION
| Stanford #
| 277ab(*) |
| AG1980 #
| 277a-b |
| PM1960 #
| 277 a b |
| Slab #
| unknown |
| Adjoins
| none |
CONDITION
| Located
| false |
| Incised
| true |
| Surviving
| true |
| Subfragments
| 2 |
| Plaster Parts
| 0 |
| Back Surface
| smooth |
| Slab Edges
| 2 |
| Clamp Holes
| 1 |
| Tassello
| no |
TECHNICAL INFO
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| ANALYSIS
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| Description The fragments have slab edges along top and right sides. There is a clamp hole along the top edge. Some red paint survives in the incisions. The architecture depicted represents a ramp with stairs that makes its way vertically from the top of fr. a, then on fragment b makes a sharp right turn and ends abruptly. To the left of the ramp lies an open space framed by a C-shaped row of elongated rooms. No doors seem to connect these rooms to the open space. Adjacent to the right side of the ramp are two, perhaps three more rooms. At top right, the lower left corner of a colonnaded courtyard is visible. In the bottom right corner, a rectangular feature encloses a smaller structure.
Identification The small, temple-like feature within its walled precinct in the bottom right corner may represent a small neighbourhood shrine. The remainder of the architecture seems to be mainly commercial (tabernae), except for the small colonnaded space which may have had one or more uses, including commercial, industrial, and relaxation. Noteworthy are the varying alignments of the structures here: these reflect the steepness of the hillside and the difficulty of building on different levels in this corner of the city, as suggested by the ramp.
Significance This piece is a typical example of unidentified fragments of the Plan. No monumental buildings are represented, and the fragment instead provides a view of the lesser known structures that made up the urban fabric of Rome: the residential and commercial buildings. This fragment also illustrates the layout of architecture on a steep and crowded hillside. |
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| HISTORY OF FRAGMENT |
| Like the majority of FUR fragments, this piece was discovered in 1562 in a garden behind the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. From here, it was transferred to the Palazzo Farnese and stored there. It was not among the fragments that were reproduced in the Renaissance drawings that are now kept in the Vatican, but Giovanni Pietro Bellori included it in his 1673 publication. In 1742, the fragment was moved to the Capitoline Museums and exhibited with some of the other known fragments in wooden frames along the main staircase. Since then, it has been stored with the other FUR fragments in various places: the storerooms of the Capitoline Museums (1903-1924), the Antiquarium Comunale (1924-1939), the Capitoline Museums again (1939-1955), the Palazzo Braschi (1955-1998), and since 1998 in the Museo della Civiltà Romana in EUR under the auspices of the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali del Comune di Roma. (This fragments history corresponds to Iter E as summarized in PM 1960, p. 56.)
Text by Tina Najbjerg and Jennifer Trimble
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| KEYWORDS
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| ramp, steps, shrine, tabernae, colonnaded courtyard |
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