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THE ARCH OF TRAJAN (Benevento)

Page history last edited by Claudia M. Pengue 12 years, 1 month ago



Among the three hundred and fifty honorary arches spread in all of the Roman Empire, the arch in Benevento is surely the loveliest and artistically most completed. The arch, typically Roman, were mainly used to honour the power gained and the political deeds of the Princeps to whom the monument was dedicated. The Arch of Trajan with it's 27 slabs sculptured and with over 400 images visually represent the deeds through which the emperor Trajan gained great merits in Rome. There is a double interpretation: historical and allegorical. The symbolic language of the arch of Benevento has often been topic of discussion because, apart from having the function of honouring military virtues of sovereigns, it stimulates further reflection and awareness. In this masterpiece Trajan is immortalized as being an exclusive sovereign, the inimitable character of the happy destiny of ancient Rome. 


The arch was imagined as a stone panegyric in which the emperor Trajan would be portrayed with his physical, moral, military and civil virtues. It forms an iconographical summary of over ten years of government and military actions of a character admired by his contemporaries and posterity. The monument was erected in 114 A.D. and represents various moments: peace in the province, conquest of Dacia, organization of the army, strengthening of the empire boarders, defence of labour work and trade, foundation of colonies, respect of Senates, creation of new roads (Trajan road). All these facts and elements build up the invisible story of this “stone book”. In these “page” written by stone-masons, the narration ends with Trajan being assimilated to divinity. In fact in one of the top engraved panels, Jupiter welcomes the emperor to the entrance of the immortals, and hands him a lightning as a symbol of his power. Thus, the arch becomes a sort of imperial power theology, and various scholars have tried to interpret the individual scenes. The characters in the scenes which refer to historical facts and legislative events are quite easy to identify, whereas the other images are more difficult and leave some doubts because they contain symbolic messages of those Roman times.


This consideration goes for the four minor panels which spread between the corinthian capitals of the two fluted columns. The sculpture images with the shields and the other two sculptures next to the thurible, surely must have been linked to the iconography and symbology of the scarifying rites and public votes, as in the female images richly dressed and with no head placed in the middle of the fornice curve on both sides. The keystone could symbolize the personification of the goddess Rome. Other female images in the various historical scenes are the personification of virtues and state laws with the intention of praising social laws and deed in favour of the Roman people in Benevento and of the province. So, read under these term, the Arch is a source of unrepeatable historical memories and an inexhaustible “book” of Roman culture.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITYBjNXrHks

 

Claudia Maria Pengue

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