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You are in: Home » Culture and leisure » Cultural heritage » Archaeological heritage » Casa di Livia
Typology: Monuments

Address

Address: Via di San Gregorio, 30
Zone: Rione Celio (Terme di Caracalla) (Roma centro)

Contacts

Telephone: 06 39967700 Coopculture (tutti i giorni dalle 10.00 alle 15.00)

Opening times

Temporarily closed

 

Information

The House of Livia is part of the Super Sites and can be accessed:

- with the > Full Experience with access to the Colosseum Arena
- with the > Forum Super Pass - Combined visit Roman Forum-Palatine and Imperial Forums

Modalità di partecipazione: Booking recommended

Description

The building known as the 'House of Livia' was built on the Palatine, most probably in the first half of the 1st century BC and underwent substantial renovation (to which we owe the marvellous frescoes visible today) around 30 BC. The rooms have a very simple floor decoration, made with black tesserae motifs on a white tesserae background, while the series of frescoes covering the walls is rich and suggestive.
The TABLINUM, the main room together with the TRICLINIUM, contained the most interesting sequence of paintings, in the light of what has been preserved until today. The frescoes still legible show a low podium surmounted by a series of columns that tripartite the wall and support a false coffered ceiling that breaks through the perspective, creating an illusory three-dimensionality. Imaginary views open up in the space between the columns: in the central section of the right-hand wall it is possible to recognise a copy of a famous painting from antiquity "Io guarded by Argos and Mercury coming to free her", a well-known episode from mythology that was masterfully painted by Nicias. The entrance wall, on the other hand, depicted the myth of Polyphemus and Galatea, which has unfortunately almost disappeared today. To the sides of the central paintings, other false openings open onto views of fantastic architecture and imaginary landscapes, while the false architecture is enriched with decorative motifs such as sphinxes, winged figures and candelabra. In the adjacent room, the simpler but no less striking decoration shows the wall covered with festoons and garlands of fruit, framed by a similar series of columns and architectural elements. A framed frieze runs along the entire upper part of the wall: the sketch-like technique and the use of highlights make the sequence of Egyptian subjects lively and animated. The building is attributed to Livia, the wife of Augustus (but others have suggested Livia, daughter of Tiberius Nero) because the name of the owner is engraved on the lead pipes found: IULIA AUGUSTA.

Within

Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Archaeological heritage

See also

Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Archaeological heritage
Last checked: 2023-05-17 10:06