Ekaterina Izmailkina

The State Hermitage Museum, Russia

Buildings specially intended for holding libraries start to appear in Asia Minor during the Hellenistic and Roman times. Depending on the period, the buildings differ in forms. Hellenistic libraries resemble Greek constructions with clear order structure and the usage of pediments, while those of Roman times demonstrate a combination of influences — the one inspired by the city of Rome and the other one originating from Oriental tradition.
Hellenistic libraries were usually both museums and scholarly institutions. This is the reason why it is difficult to consider separate buildings of the Hellenistic period to be just libraries. Of much greater interest is the possibility to consider groups of various buildings as holistic ensembles associated by their purpose. Libraries as separate buildings characterized by certain constructive and deco­rative features do not seem to appear in Asia Minor before Roman times.
During the Republican period, libraries used to be only in private possession. The most renowned example is the Villa Papyri at Herculaneum with about two thousand scrolls of manuscripts. The first public library was built in the early Imperial period. Gradually many public libraries appeared in Rome and across the Empire. They existed at various temples (like the Pantheon or the Temple of Apollo Palatinus), at thermae (Baths of Trajan and Baths of Caracalla) or at forums. Several cities possessed their own libraries. The largest among private libraries were those belonging to emperors hou­sed in their palaces and villas (Nero’s Domus Aurea, Domus Flavia in Rome, and Hadrian’s Villa at
Tivoli).
The author of the report is going to discuss the Library of Celsus at Ephesus. This building is a fascinating example of this type of ancient constructions that give an idea of the specificity in the development of architectural order in the Roman Asia Minor.
It is worth mentioning that architects of the Renaissance turned to the tradition of Classical Antiquity not only by rejecting Gothic forms and reviving the order system, but also by returning to Classical proportional harmony. An example of the Renaissance architecture recalling models of Classical Antiquity is the building of Biblioteca Marciana in Venice.

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Oxana Kifishina

Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia

The paper deals with study of floral motifs in the decor system of South Italian red-figured vases. They have got the richest and the most elaborate interpretation since the middle of the 4th century BC, with the adoption of Ornate style in the South Italian vase-painting. At the same time flower motifs have been little studied (only general information on a particular group of plants is represented). But given the fact that the studied material consists of more than 20 000 vases after a large-scale work accomplished by AD. Trendall with his colleagues in detecting South Italian basic vase-painting centers, leading masters, and also the main types of character scenes, it is necessary to go further. The following vectors can be indicated.
• Studies of iconography: a simultaneous comparison of separate antique floral images with descriptions of ancient Greek authors as well as certain forms of known flora (M. Meurer, P. Jacobsthal, H. Baumann). In Apulian interpretations of flower motifs roses, poppy and aracea can be revealed. The method of stylization can also be considered as a problem: Greek vase-painters were inclined to depict “hybrid” plants including elements of different forms. The combination of a lily, a reed and a palm tree is the most typical for the Aegean material — it has been convincingly revealed by L. Morgan. For the South Italian vase-painting we should distinguish combinations of palmettes, roses, aracea and acanthus — it comes from Attic practice, in addition ivy, hyacinth or lily can be observed as well as combinations of faces or busts with flowers. In the Ornate style a “hybrid” flower is inclu­ded into figurative compositions, in some cases pushing aside and replacing an anthropomorphic
figure.
• Semantic analysis: there are a lot of investigations dealing with cult practice (Sh. Joret, M. Nilsson, J. Murr, T. V. Tsivjan). Nowadays flower subjects are also mentioned. L. I. Akimova established their links with festive occasions, wedding rituals. In a 2007 paper, N. Kei considers scenes with flowers as a “signe de grâce” in Attic vase-painting; most of the author’s observations are applicable for the South Italian vase-painting as well. The analysis of such subjects as the finding of a flower, wedding scenes, depiction of a flower in a naiskos, Eros in the garden (possibly in the Orphic context) represent next research steps.

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Petr Samoylov

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia

The Severus forum was built in a north-African city called Leptis Magna in the beginning of 3rd century AD. The ancient roman forum architectural typology had gone a long way by that time, including the transition from republic image to imperial one. It reached its peak in the construction of Trajan’s forum. Its features included the generalization and reinterpretation of previous forums’ expressive achievements.
Aside from the major branch of typology evolution, there also were local ones, less complex and widescale. However, they still show influence of major forums. This becomes more evident with the construction of Trajan’s forum. As the most expressive of forums, it fully achieves the typology principal goal — glorification of the emperor. It is not surprising that Trajan’s forum became a role model.
Among local forum traditions, there was one of Northern Africa. Those forums are based on a formula close to the republic one. Complexes built prior to 3rd century AD show no connections to the development of imperial forum typology, although it is very active in the capital.
The situation changed with Septimus Severus’ rise to power. By that time, a tradition of paying respect to emperor’s native land, started by Trajan, had existed for a century. It included both political gestures and architectural projects. Septimus Severus, a known venerator of Trajan, began a vast reconstruction of his native town — Leptis Magna. Naturally, it included the construction of a forum, called the Severus forum.
The complex shows influence of several origins. The most important one is the local tradition. This leads to another source — the republican forums, which is quite distinguishable in the Severus forum. Finally, another goal was to either mimic some features of Trajan’s forum or make a reference to it.
Thus, one complex shows a certain array of influences: republican forums, local tradition and Trajan’s forum (which was influenced by the Imperial forums of 1st–2nd centuries AD).
Architectural variety of these origins, as well as the variety of their locations, historical periods, and socio-political realities of Ancient Rome determines the importance of formal and typological analysis of the Severus forum in Leptis Magna.

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Dmitry Karelin

Moscow Architectural Institute (State Academy), Russia

The paper is devoted to several architectural principles and building types typical for the late Roman architecture, which could reflect the authoritative concepts and influenced the early Christian architecture. In the architectural theory mainly based on the conceptions of R. Krautheimer and J. Ward-Perkins, the idea that the early Christian architecture has but a few links with late Roman pagan buildings is still vivid. However, A. Grabar proved that many motifs of late Roman art which came from the culture of the ancient Near East had an influence on the early Christian iconography. It seems possible for architecture as well. It is necessary to pay attention to three main architectural features and their meanings.
The first one is the usage of halls with apsidal ends which were typical both for pagan and Christian religious architecture in the 3rd–4th centuries, as well as for luxurious palaces and villas of late Roman nobles. This tendency could develop due to the new religious and political concepts of tetrarchy. They were probably based on concepts of ancient Near Eastern kingship and the new hierarchical organization of ruling class mainly of former military officers.
The second architectural type chosen for study is the tetrastyle (four triumphal columns placed at the crossroads in a city or fortress). It had a wide usage during the first tetrarchy and probably was connected with the idea of concordia — harmony between four rulers. There was a later example of such monument built in the time of Justinian with figures of the evangelists on the columns. H. Bogdanovich supposed that this architectural form could be the probable prototype for the Christian ciborium. In the third place the origin of the latter architectural element is of peculiar interest. Due to the wide numismatic evidence it is known that the baldachin with four supports and flat roof, cylindrical vault or cupola was one of the attributes of God’s or divine ruler’s representation. This motif could come to the Roman culture from the architecture of ancient Egypt and the ancient Near East.
The examination of these three motifs which influenced some features of the early Christian architecture together with the authoritative and religious concepts which they expressed could be very fruitful and important for architectural theory.

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