Stephanie Becht’s monograph deals with a rather neglected topic in the studies of bronze Roman artifacts and bronze artifacts in general: frames, profiles, and moldings. The geographical focus of the book is on Italy and the northern provinces of the Empire, which—as the author points out—partially overlaps with the Antike Großbronzen am UNESCO-Welterbe Limes Project.[1] The book is divided into thirteen chapters and also includes a summary (in German, English and Italian) and two indices (Museums and Sites).
After the Introduction and Preface (Chapter 1), Becht discusses the history of research (Chapter 2) from a diachronic perspective, focusing on the main contexts that have yielded this type of finds, starting from 19th century-studies up to the most recent bibliography. Chapter 3 is dedicated to the analysis of the literary and epigraphic sources concerning bronze architectural elements, altars, and statue bases. Ancient written documents are quite scarce compared to the frequency with which bronze elements and decorations likely appeared in the Roman world, especially in public buildings and monuments. This is shown in Chapter 4, where Becht gives an overview of the distribution of the realia—bronze frames, profiles, and moldings—in Italy and the northern Limes, the German provinces, Raetia, and Noricum, as well as outside the area strictly covered by the stated research scope (southern, southeastern and northern provinces, the Iberian peninsula, Gallia, Britannia, and the Alpine provinces). Two distribution maps (Figs. 4.1 and 4.2) highlight the concentration of finds at a few specific sites. The western provinces of the Empire have yielded the majority of specimens, and northern Italy is apparently the area where this type of material is most abundant, even compared to the rest of the peninsula. A paragraph (4.3) tentatively reflects on the contextualization of the finds, showing that—as expected—the majority of them come from sacred and civic contexts (temples, fora, theaters and amphitheaters, city gates).
Production is discussed in Chapter 5: a few manufacturing centers have been identified in northern Italy, specifically at Industria (Monteu da Po, near Turin) in Verona and in Brescia for minor repairs. However, itinerant workshops are posited, though difficult to prove. Bronze architectural ornaments and decorative motifs are compared with their Greek antecedents in relation to the buildings documented in written sources (e.g. the Temple of Athena Chalkioikos in Sparta), as well as in relation to the archaeological record including stone monuments, highlighting stylistic differences. (Chapter 6). Questions of chronology are addressed in Chapter 7: since inscribed pieces are quite rare and their find contexts are often not conclusive, dating is frequently based on stylistic considerations, which can be problematic and only partially reliable for this kind of material. Most of the evidence dates from the early Imperial period to the 2nd century AD with a floruit in the Julio-Claudian era.
Chapter 8 focuses on typology: the discussion is preceded by some reflections on terminology in order to establish a semantic common ground mainly based on terms used for architectural decoration (Figs. 8.1. and 8.2). The Chapter includes systematic references to the artifacts presented in the Catalogue (see infra) and a table (Fig. 8.1) summarizing the different types and subtypes. In Chapter 9, Becht examines the functional contexts of frames, profiles, and moldings. In general, these objects can be associated with various elements and supports, such as doors, portals and walls, pilasters, altars, bases, inscriptions, imagines clipeatae, etc. The author attempts to identify relationships between the types and their original locations and functions, a topic that is difficult to address due to the lack of archaeological contexts and the often fragmentary state of preservation of the examples. From this point of view, some case studies are examined which offer significant material: Verona, Sulmona, Iulium Carnicum (modern Zuglio in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region), etc.
Chapter 10 focuses on technical aspects and steps in the production process (manufacture, repair, decoration, cold working, inlaying, gilding, silvering, tinning, mounting and assembly, etc.). In general, the production quality is very high: the casting is in most cases very good, the ornamental profiles are meticulously refined and casting defects were covered with patches. Production was not standardized and craftsmen created original solutions. The final assembly of the various components did not usually take place in the workshops, but on site, as evidenced by certain specific markers. The author takes into account the various solutions adopted to cover wooden, stone, or masonry structures with bronze sheets in order to preserve the final aesthetic appearance by preventing the visibility of rivets and nails, the procedures for soldering the moldings, etc. One paragraph (10.2.2) is devoted to the inscribed base of Emerita from Augusta Raurica (Augst) and its reconstruction.
The Catalogue is based on formal criteria, and divides moldings into three types (Type 1: flat with smooth back; Type 2: highly profiled; Type 3: curved) further articulated in six subtypes. Separate sections are devoted to special plastic forms, columns and pilasters, doors, altars, statue bases and inscriptions. In each type and category of finds, the bronzes are presented in a geographical order. The author personally examined about half of the known pieces in the area covered by her study (228 out of 476). For the remaining artifacts, information and illustrations come directly from the respective museums or have been taken from the literature (p. 121).
Becht’s volume undoubtedly provides a valuable contribution to our knowledge of a subject that has been decidedly neglected in the field of bronze studies and has the merit of collecting many disiecta membra in a wide area of the Empire. The study now carried out by Pauline Rolland covering the Greek and Roman periods will make a further contribution to this topic.[2] The typology proposed by Becht, with its purely morphological approach, has the merit of freeing the objects from a reference to complete shapes and compositions, which could have being arbitrary, since it is very often impossible to trace the original function and location of these elements. The Catalogue, which is systematic and includes an analytical bibliography for each specimen, is a useful working tool. Nevertheless, the reader will notice the lack of adequate graphic and photographic documentation, especially for some previously unpublished bronzes, which would have made this volume truly fundamental. Only about seventy pieces are illustrated in the Chapters and in the Catalogue by photographs, mostly in colour (both general views and/or details), and only 25 objects are documented by drawings. Above all, a much greater number of profile outlines would have been necessary for morphological comparisons, and also, hopefully, in order to trace the function of many elements on the basis of parallels with other examples.
The research is ambitious, and the area covered in the book is wide, but a more extensive direct analysis would have been welcome not only in order to provide a better documentation. A systematic analysis also including the search for further unpublished pieces in addition to those collected in the volume, would have made it possible to reconsider the occurrence of this category of finds and to make the distribution charts more reliable. Focusing on Italy, while the northern part is remarkable for the abundance of finds, the evidence from certain areas and sites of the peninsula, such as Rome and Ostia, is likely underestimated (Fig. 4.1). Only one specimen from Pompeii is mentioned in the Catalogue, which is far from being representative of the documentation retrieved from the site.
As Becht points out, there is still a need to extend the research to other areas of the Empire, as well as to analyze the evidence of fixing devices and attachments to buildings and supports that could indicate the presence of lost bronze elements. Finally, I would add that a systematic investigation in museums and storerooms in search for unpublished material, including some of the areas covered in this study, would be highly beneficial.
Bibliography
- Piccioni, Römische Großbronzen am Limes. Fragmente im raetischen Raum, BAR International series 3133, Oxford 2023
- Rolland, Bronze architectural appliqués in the Greek and Roman worlds: new insights into a little-known typology of objects, in V. Meirano (ed.), Bronzes in Context. Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress on Ancient Bronzes, Athens 14-19 October 2024, forthcoming.
Notes
[1] http://grossbronzenamlimes.de; see e.g. Piccioni 2023
[2] An anticipation is provided in Rolland, forthcoming