The Dapifers from the Coelian Hill

These three fragments became part of the collection of the Museum in Naples in 1817 when their purchase from the Bourbonic Museum of the Borgia Collection was concluded; it had been begun in 1814 by Joachim Murat who at the time was King of Naples, and was concluded by Ferdinand. They had been discovered in Rome in 1783 during an excavation carried out on the Coelian Hill in a place where there now stands the Hospital of S. Giovanni. They were part of a single cycle of paintings of seven figures inserted into pictures which acted a frames; they were separated by organic candelabra, embellished with figurines and linked with garlands. The figures, whose faces are rather expressionless mainly because of lack of drawn detail, are also lacking in corporeal substance (it seems as if empty clothes have been placed on top of the feet). They were originally set alongside each other in a classicist style which was typical of the early Constantinian period, and this feature places them closer to the painting of Christian subject-matter found in the house under the Church of Saints John and Paul. The general subject in question is that of a procession of servants, of zealous pose and expression, bearing food and drink towards their master who was probably portrayed in another, more eminent, part of the house. Among the three survivors, only two are complete, while of the third character, in front of which we can see a large tray with metal crater and bunch of corn cobs, we are only left with the upper part of the body. The most interesting character is undoubtedly the cup-bearer who is wearing a sophisticated tunic with orbiculi and clavi, and who, standing in front of a podium raising a glass. Another servant is moving forward in a determined way carrying a tray with buns. In short, we could compare these frescoes, whose tone is decidedly popular and a long way from the production of stylish paintings carried out for the Imperial Court by Dea Barberini in the early decades of the 4th century, with a description given by Libanius, the Greek rector of the time, of a painting which depicts an open-air party. Bibliography: M.Borda, La Pittura romana, Milano 1958, p. 343; H. Mielsch, Zur stadtrömischen Malerei des 4. Jahrhunderts nach Chr., in RM 1978, pp. 167-168; P. Liverani, le proprietà private nell'area lateranense fino all'età di Costantino, in MEFRA 100, 1988, pp. 881-915; G.A. Mansuelli, Roma e il mondo romano. Da Traiano all'antichità tarda, Torino 1981, pp. 353-355

Fonte: MANN
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