Page 416 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Italy

414  ROME AND LAZIO

emperor’s family can be
identified, including Augustus’s
grandson, Lucius, clutching at
the skirt of his mother, Antonia.
The site is housed in a building
by architect Richard Meier.

5 Mausoleum of
Augustus
Piazza Augusto Imperatore. Map 2 F2.
Tel 06 06 08. @ 81, 117, 492, 628, 926.
Open for events; call for info. & 7
Pinturicchio’s fresco of the Delphic Sibyl (1509) in Santa Maria del Popolo Now just a weedy mound
3 Santa Maria del there are two realistic works ringed with cypresses and
strewn with litter, this was once
Popolo painted by Caravaggio in the most prestigious burial
1601: the Conversion of St Paul place in Rome. Augustus had
Piazza del Popolo 12. Map 2 F1. and the Crucifixion of St Peter. the mausoleum built in 28 BC,
Tel 06 361 08 36. @ 117, 119, 490, The artist uses daringly
495, 926. q Flaminio. Open exaggerated lighting effects the year before he became sole
7:30am–12:30pm & 4–7pm Sun–Thu; and foreshortening techniques ruler, as a tomb for himself and
7:30am–7pm Fri & Sat. his descendants. The circular
to intensify the dramatic effect. building was 87 m (270 ft) in
Santa Maria del Popolo was one diameter with two obelisks
of the first Renaissance churches (now in Piazza del Quirinale
in Rome, commissioned by Pope and Piazza dell’ Esquilino) at
Sixtus IV della Rovere in 1472. the entrance. Inside were four
Lavish endow ments by Sixtus’s concentric passageways linked
descendants and other powerful by corridors where urns holding
families have made it one of the ashes of the Imperial family
Rome’s greatest artistic treasures. were placed, including those of
Shortly after Sixtus died in Augustus who died in AD 14.
1484, Pinturicchio and his pupils
frescoed two chapels (first and
third right) for the della Rovere 6 Trevi Fountain
family. On the altar of the first Piazza di Trevi. Map 3 B3. @ 116 &
chapel there is a lovely Nativity Detail of the Ara Pacis frieze many other routes.
from 1490 that depicts a stable
at the foot of a Classical column. 4 Ara Pacis Nicola Salvi’s theatrical design
In 1503 Sixtus IV’s nephew Lungotevere in Augusta. Map 2 F2. for Rome’s largest and most
Giuliano became Pope Julius II Tel 06 06 08. @ 70, 81, 117, 119, 186, famous fountain was completed
and had Bramante build a new 628. Open 9am–7:30pm daily (last in 1762. The central figures are
apse. Pinturicchio was called adm: 6:30pm). Closed 1 Jan, 25 Dec. Neptune, flanked by two Tritons,
in again to paint its vaults with 7 ∑ arapacis.it one trying to master an unruly
Sibyls and Apostles framed sea-horse, the other leading
in an intricate tracery of Painstakingly reconstructed
freakish beasts. over many years from scattered
In 1513 Raphael created the fragments, the exquisitely carved
Chigi chapel (second left) for Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace)
the wealthy banker Agostino celebrates the peace created by
Chigi. The design is an Emperor Augustus throughout
audacious Renaissance fusion the Mediterranean. Commissioned
of the sacred and profane; there by the Senate in 13 BC and
are pyramid-like tombs and a completed four years later, the
ceiling mosaic of God holding altar stands in a square enclosure
the signs of the zodiac of Carrara marble, carved with
describing Chigi’s horoscope. realistic reliefs of such quality
Raphael died before the chapel that experts think the craftsmen
was finished and it was may have been Greek.
completed by Bernini, who The reliefs on the north and
added the dynamic statues of south walls depict a procession
Daniel and Habakkuk. In the that took place on 4 July, 13 BC, Rome’s largest and most famous
Cerasi chapel, left of the altar, in which the members of the fountain, the Trevi
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp573–6 and pp596–600

414-415_EW_Italy.indd 414 4/4/17 5:36 PM
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2)
Date 14th November 2012
Size 125mm x 217mm