BMCR 2024.09.33

Lectures on Trajan’s column and its architect Apollodorus of Damascus

, Lectures on Trajan's column and its architect Apollodorus of Damascus. Rome: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 2022. Pp. 796, 5 pp. plates. ISBN 9788891310057.

Review by

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]

 

In 2015, a monumental book—La colonne Trajane: édition illustrée avec les photographies éxécutées en 1862 pour Napoléon III—was added to the overwhelmingly rich bibliography concerning one of Rome’s most famous ancient monuments: in this substantial, lavishly illustrated monograph, Alexandre S. Stefan and Hélène Chew reproduced the 19th-century casts of the helical frieze of Trajan’s Column, which features more than 2500 figures and the Dacian landscapes of war, with the help of an exceptionally large landscape format.[1]

The most recent book dedicated to the Column appears like an even more monumental response to Stefan’s and Chew’s work: this anthology edited by Cinzia Conti is a linen-bound quarto with nearly 800 pages and numerous illustrations. Five foldable plates at the end of the volume feature color-coded drawings of the Column’s frieze and pedestal. 71 full-page color pictures and hundreds of additional images are spread throughout the volume. Its thickness is, however, only in part due to content but also to two curious editorial decisions. The first peculiarity concerns the sumptuous use of images, especially since most of the color pictures arranged between the chapters are not mentioned in the text. Picture XXXII, that shows a temple at Angkor Thom, Cambodia, does not even refer to the content of the volume. The second curiosity concerns language: besides a Prolegomenon by Filippo Coarelli (in Italian), all chapters are bilingual, with English text in the left and Italian text in the right column of each page. This unusual choice seems like an attempt to make the volume accessible to a larger number of readers; but one wonders who would be able to afford this book for the stiff price of 450 €.[2] Nevertheless, the list of works cited—in contrast to common practice—has not been included in the volume but rather has been published as a pdf file on the website of “L’Erma”.[3]

A glance at the table of contents reveals that the papers collected by Conti—mostly written by Giangiacomo Martines and herself—cover a broad range of subjects.[4] One chapter is dedicated to the impressive 1981-1988 restoration of Trajan’s Column, led by the two main authors of the volume and Fernando Alberi (chapter 2). Some sections focus on technical matters inspired by this restoration such as the quarrying and the transport of the Luna marble blocks used for the construction of Trajan’s Column (chapter 4), the monument’s foundations (chapter 6), the workmanship of stonemasons and sculptors (chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, and 18), and the Column’s original chromatic appearance (chapters 16 and 17). Other parts of the book center on such different topics as the Column’s architectural structure (chapter 5); the inscription on the pedestal (chapter 11); the visibility of the frieze (chapter 15); its iconography and in particular the representation of landscapes, architectures, and war machines (chapters 14, 21, and 24); the portrayal of the emperor on the frieze and beyond (chapters 12 and 13); the medieval and modern afterlife of Trajan’s Column (chapters 1, 19, and 20); and its presumed architect, Apollodorus of Damascus (chapters 22 and 23), who figures prominently in the book’s title. The organization of these chapters is unclear; and although the Lectures on Trajan’s Column and its Architect Apollodorus of Damascus are preceded by six introductory remarks—among them Filippo Coarelli’s discussion of recent scholarship on the ancient surroundings of Trajan’s Column—there is no explanation for the structure of the book, its scope, and its scientific goals. The Afterword contains no final conclusions, but an interview with the Italian architect Andrea Bruno regarding a glass structure designed for the protection of Marcus’ Column.

Some of those chapters present evidence and hypotheses that are novelties even for experts. While there are many studies of the helical frieze and its iconography, the provenance and the transport of the material used for the construction of Trajan’s Column has received less attention. Therefore, Matthias Bruno’s reconstruction of the extraction and the subsequent transport of the marble blocks from the famous Fantascritti quarry near Luna to Rome is a welcome contribution that adds to our understanding of the Column’s significance (chapter 4). Other important chapters are devoted to the 1980s restoration. Conti recounts the history and the major steps in this impressive undertaking (chapter 2): scaffolding was erected around Trajan’s Column, the frieze’s surface was entirely cleaned with water, and the relief was carefully documented in detail.[5] During the cleaning, minute traces of ancient craftmanship were noted: small, incised circles that are visible just under the capital can be related to the design of the flutes (chapters 8), while the surfaces of rocks, trees, chain mail armor, and additional details preserve traces of several different kinds of tools (chapter 9). Experimental trials of four samples, carried out by the stonemason Daniele de Tommasi, help to identify the tools and the techniques of the Roman sculptors (chapter 10).

Conti’s attempt to identify the stonemasons of the Column’s frieze—the longest chapter of the book—is, instead, rather problematic (chapter 18): the first pages of this essay are dedicated to the tentative distinction of seven master stonemasons by means of stylistic observations on trees (pp. 387-382), chain mail (pp. 382-384), and ears (pp. 385-387), and of compositional schemes (pp. 390-392). Subsequently, Conti outlines the characteristics of each master stonemason (pp. 394-471). This long section fails, however, to apply the approach outlined at the beginning of the chapter systematically. Rather, the attribution of a motif, a figure, or an entire scene is mostly based on one single feature and not on a thorough analysis of all the evidence. This must at least in part be due to the lacunary preservation of the original surface. However, Conti might have made a greater effort to recognize the limits of her approach. Consequently, the color-coded mapping of figures, architectures, and landscape features attributed to the seven master stonemasons (Plate IV) should be treated with caution. Conti’s hypotheses on the models of the masons are questionable, too, e.g. her suggestion that some working legionaries might be “copied from the Frieze of Telephos” (p. 410), or her claim that other figures were patterned after the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus (p. 441).[6] Additional arguable points shape the author’s conclusions regarding the stonemasons’ personalities: for instance, the attribution of harbor scenes and detailed ships to “Maestro P” caused her to the remark that “he loved travelling by sea” (p. 460).

Additional problems are manifest in some chapters written by the two main authors: in their essays on iconographical matters, their uncritical and highly selective handling of scholarly literature is rather evident. For instance, Conti’s chapter on Trajan’s portraits in the frieze omits several important titles (chapter 12).[7] Elsewhere, Conti and Martines discuss the representations of architecture and landscape without taking notice of the most relevant works on this topic, on the one hand, while they accept seemingly random identifications of buildings and places, on the other hand (chapter 24).[8] An entire essay is founded on the misreading of an ancient source: Conti tries to find “Trajan’s Smile”, allegedly mentioned in Pliny’s Panegyric (4.7) with the terms dignitas oris, in some imperial portraits (chapter 13); but as Betty Radice proposed in the Loeb edition, the quoted words rather refer to Trajan’s dignified expression or “noble countenance”.[9] A final remark refers to the attribution of Trajan’s Column to Apollodorus of Damascus, which occurs in the title and throughout all chapters written by Conti and Martines. Nonetheless, they provide no conclusive evidence of Apollodorus’ authorship.[10] Rather, the book contributes to modern mythmaking: one essay aspires to gather Apollodorus’ architectural oeuvre (chapter 22), including Trajan’s Column, the Portus Traiani, and the Pantheon without foundation, but omitting one of his few indisputable projects, Trajan’s Forum (Cass. Dio 69.4.1). The subsequent section (chapter 23) turns extremely scarce and tendentious evidence about the architect’s rivalry with Hadrian into a dramatic encounter between “two geniuses of Roman architecture” (p. 645).

Therefore, Cinzia Conti’s Lectures on Trajan’s Column and its Architect Apollodorus of Damascus cannot fulfill the expectations nurtured by its monumental appearance. Without doubt, the 1981-1988 restoration of Trajan’s Column was an impressive undertaking that provided new insights into the making of this outstanding monument—a topic that has too often been overlooked in favor of the frieze’s historical and art-historical value. Some papers in the volume do contain such observations and enrich our understanding of Trajan’s Column. Additional chapters are, instead, not in tune with current scholarship. This is especially true for the essays on the frieze’s iconography and historical content. For anyone interested in these matters, Stefan’s and Chew’s volume offers a better and more reliable starting point.

 

Authors and Titles

Preface, Alfonsina Russo

Fondazione Roma alongside Beauty, Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele

RAI Teche for Trajan’s Column, Andrea Sassano

Acknowledgements

Note on Usage

Prolegomenon, Filippo Coarelli

  1. A Byzantine Prayer, Cinzia Conti
  2. The 1981-1988 Restoration, Cinzia Conti
  3. Trajan’s Column: A Few Facts and Figures, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  4. Fantascritti Quarry and the Marble of Trajan’s Column, Matthias Bruno
  5. Columna Cochlis Traiani: Order and Structure, Giangiacomo Martines
  6. The Solea around the Pedestal of Trajan’s Column: Traces and Evidence of Construction Site Operations, Matthias Bruno
  7. Squaring the Storied Frieze, Cinzia Conti
  8. The Small Circles on the Capitals, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  9. The Workmanship of the Stonecutters and Sculptors, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  10. The Tools, Daniele De Tommasi
  11. The Epigraph on the Podium: Plan and Letters, Cinzia Conti
  12. Trajan’s Portraits, Cinzia Conti
  13. Trajan’s Smile, Cinzia Conti
  14. The Devices below the Walls of Sarmizegetusa Regia, Giangiacomo Martines
  15. View from afar, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  16. Fantasies on the Colour, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  17. That Special Ancient Colour, Cinzia Conti
  18. The “Maestro delle Gesta di Traiano” and his Stonemasons, Cinzia Conti
  19. The Walled up Cella inside the Podium, Michele Campisi
  20. Graffiti and Signatures on Trajan’s Column: A Backstage History, Michele Campisi
  21. The Technical Portrayal: Devices on the Storied Friezes, Giangiacomo Martines
  22. The Engineering Feats of Apollodorus for Trajan: Architectural Milestones, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  23. The Death of Apollodorus, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  24. A Catalogue of the Types of Architecture and Landscape on the Storied Frieze, Cinzia Conti and Giangiacomo Martines
  25. Lighting Trajan’s Column, Francesca and Vittorio Storaro
  26. Photographing Trajan’s Column, Zeno Colantoni
  27. Omen Victoriae, Marcello Gaggiotti
  28. Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, “Io e … la Colonna Traiana” 1972, Laura Plahuta

Afterword: Feasibility Study for a Glass Structure to Protect the Column of Marcus Aurelius as a Workshop for the 1981 Restorers, Andrea Bruno

 

Notes

[1] A. S. Stefan, La colonne Trajane: édition illustrée avec les photographies éxécutées en 1862 pour Napoléon III (Paris: Picard 2015).

[2] This is the price of the hardback edition for individual readers as indicated by “L’Erma” di Bretschneider; it is 800 € for institutions.

[3] See https://www.lerma.it/media/1fb0f7ec.pdf (25.04.2024).

[4] Most papers included in the volume have already been published elsewhere, although sometimes in shorter versions. However, ten chapters (4, 10, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28), the Prolegomenon, and the Afterword are original contributions.

[5] The photographic documentation of the entire frieze has been published in S. Settis, La Colonna Traiana (Turin: Einaudi 1988) and in F. Coarelli, La Colonna Traiana (Rome: Editore Colombo 1999), drawings in G. Martines, Colonna Traiana: corpus dei disegni 1981-2001 (Rome: Quasar 2001).

[6] As is well known, compositional schemes developed in Greek art could be replicated by Roman painters and sculptors without copying (in the strictest sense) a masterpiece. See, e. g., T. Hölscher, Römische Bildsprache als semantisches System (Heidelberg: Winter 1987). In addition, it is rather improbable that the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus served as a model since it was enclosed in the Aya’a necropolis of Sidon up to the late 19th century.

[7] E.g., M. Bergmann, Zu den Porträts des Trajan und Hadrian, in: A. Caballos Rufino—P. León Alonso (eds.), Italica MMCC: Actas de las Jornadas del 2.200 aniversario de la fundación de Itálica (Sevilla, 8-11 noviembre 1994) (Sevilla: Consejería de Cultura 1997) 137-153; D. Boschung, Die Bildnisse des Trajan, in: E. Schallmayer (ed.), Traian in Germanien—Traian im Reich: Bericht des dritten Saalburgkolloquiums (Bad Homburg: Saalburgmuseum 1999) 137-144; B. Woytek, Die Reichsprägung des Kaisers Traianus (98-117) (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2010).

[8] Usually, they draw upon L. Rossi, Trajan’s Column and the Dacian Wars (London: Thames and Hudson 1971) and F. A. Lepper—S. S. Frere, Trajan’s Column: A New Edition of the Cichorius Plates (Gloucester: Sutton 1988). Important omissions include, e g., M. Turcan-Déléani, Les monuments représentés sur la Colonne Trajane: schématisme et réalisme, Mélanges de l’Ecole française de Rome: Antiquité 70, 1958, 149-176; M. Pensa, Alcune osservazione sulla rappresentazione della città nei grandi monumenti onorari di Roma fra II e III secolo, Rivista storica dell’antichità 32, 2002, 167-222; E. Wolfram Thill, Civilization under Construction: Depictions of Architecture on the Column of Trajan, American Journal of Archaeology 114, 2010, 27-43.

[9] Pliny the Younger. Letters, Volume II: Books 8-10. Panegyricus. Translated by Betty Radice. Loeb Classical Library 59 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1969).

[10] Although Conti and Martines claim that “Dio Cassius Cocceianus attributes Trajan’s Forum and the Column to Apollodorus” (p. 65; cf. Cass. Dio 68.16.3; 69.4.1), the Column is in fact not mentioned among the latter’s works.