Livias Garden the Technical, Symbolic

Livias Garden

The Technical, Symbolic and Cultural Implications of the Garden Painting at Prima Porta

When Augustus evolved to take on the mantle of Octavian, uniting ruler of the glorious Roman Empire, his tenure would initiate a period characterized by an interest in reform, rebirth and the strict maintenance of peace-time conditions. His rule is one which, even today in historical reflection and through the lens of Roman mythology, reflects a high-water mark with respect to the cultural state of affairs. In some of the most well-known and singular pieces to come from this time and place, we are shown something of the combined public sentiment and self-declaration which preserved Augustus in a place of high regard to history. Particularly, in such works of art as were produced in close vicinity to the city of Rome from which he held a seat of sweeping and revered authority, there is an opportunity to observe some of the qualities which the Emperor pointedly sought to associate with his rule and the era there represented for Rome, Romans and the world under their purview.

This opportunity invites an assessment of the remarkable and unparalleled work, Livia's Garden Room at Prima Porta. Also referred to as the villa ad Gallinas Albas, the work is a wall mural that establishe the total visual presentation of a room hidden beneath the surface of the palatial capital of the modestly-sized Prima Porta. Occupying all four walls of an otherwise simple room without windows, it invites comparison to the experience of being in a garden or, perhaps more accurately, a grotto. (Lusnia 2001, 137) the most immediately striking aspect of the piece is its attempted inducement of certain tangible senses pertaining to the overarching peace and naturally majesty which are there portrayed. One of the greatest motives which we historians have adopted for the construction of the garden room seems to underscore the grace and beauty recommending the piece. Though it is today observable in the National Museum in Rome (Palazzo Massimo), the Garden Room had originally been discovered in the 19th century by archaeologists in the villa of Prima Porta, which "occupied the height dominating the view down the Tiber valley to Rome." (Wikipedia, 1) in its original context, its elegance would have been appropriate to both its time and purpose. The former would be that of Augustan triumph and the latter would be the gift that this place would represent to his bride, Livia.

Though much is obscured to us by the passage of centuries where the site was subjected to a sustained neglect, there is some sense of the cause for this work in the legend which surrounds the approaching marriage between Augustus and Livia. With the utmost of consistency, scholarly sources have focused in some aspect on the "relationship between the omen of the gallina alba, associated with the marriage of Livia and Octavian/Augustus and both the villa with its gardens and the underground chamber with its famous garden paintings." (Lusnia 2001, 137) Some focus in this discussion will be paid to the symbolic importance of the garden paintings within the larger context of both the villa and Rome at large. In all resonated a commonness of theme and practice, with the vegetation and greenness of the work finding direct reflection in the courts and public grounds stretching down the length of the Tiber River.

As will be further addressed also in this discussion, the fact of the geographical location of Prima Porta plays great importance in an assessment of the paintings once hidden there within. Contained as they were within the direct orbit of the Emperor's capital, the villas from Prima Porta to Rome were by purpose a visual reminder of the resource and rebirth of Augustan Rome. It is appropriate before fully examining the painting itself therefore to touch upon Prima Porta's reflection of this purposes. To this extent, Kellum (1994) provides a fitting contextualization to the discussion at hand. The text observes that "throughout the Augustan city, sacred groves and individual trees provided not only much-needed shade and urban punctuation, but also a living link with the purity of the city's primeval past, when 'once upon a time trees were the temples of the gods,' and at the same time they affirmed the continuation of the golden age that was at hand. Like man of the sculptures or paintings on exhibit with them, these natural wonders served as living unities of meaning within the Augustan system of visual communication." (Kellum, 211) it is thus that the painted works contained therein would reflect a greater purpose even as, to our eyes today, they reflect something quite artistically individual.

By the most basic and general description of the particular artifact, "the Garden frescoes decorated a windowless, underground room (hypogeum) of considerable size, which was discovered in 1863." (Walker, 1) the nature of the painting is such that it warrants consideration for technical, symbolic and cultural value. With regard to its technical implications, the piece would become an important representative work from the era of its conception. So known as the Second Style era of Roman wall painting, the movement encompassing this painting would be prominently indicative of a forward momentum in the technical representation of depth and realism. Hoover (2001) explains that "in the second style Roman wall painting, called the "architectural style," space extends beyond the room with various perspective ("illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat two-dimensional surface) devices. Roman artists came close to developing a true linear perspective." (Hoover, 1) This is certainly an observation which can be verified by the closer inspection to which we will here subject the piece in question, featured in Figure a below in its museum context at an angle featuring the door and portions of two intersecting walls.

Figure a: Door Wall of Villa Garden at http://www.artoffresco.com/03-History/03.6-rome/03.6-history-rome.htm

As seen here above, "the painted garden runs along all four wall of the hypogeum, which was perhaps used by the owners as a summer room." (Walker, 1) Indeed, this is characteristic of the manner in which we are left largely to speculate as to social or cultural implications of such a visual impression as the remarkable frescoes spanning the hidden room in Prima Porta. Though much of the discourse on these images concerns the semiotic value of the lush vegetation and the apparent aviary density of the Rome there depicted, there is little concrete information allowing us to say for certain what the use or intent of the room containing them. Still, we are given over to much speculation based on the enveloping impact of the murals, which cover floor to ceiling and, we must imagine in their original luster, were a chromatically captivating sensual experience. The implications of fertility, the sheer dominance of greenery and the fantastical presence of many species of birds altogether are featured in the legend surrounding the matrimony of Livia and Octavian.

So told, "an omen occurred at the time of Livia's marriage to Octavian: an eagle carrying a white hen with a sprig of Laurel in her beak dropped the bird unharmed into Livia's lap." (Flory, 346) in outcome, the legend tells, Prima Porta, which would witness the event, would thereafter become the site of a flourishing laurel grove and a multitudinous flock of fertile hens. The notions of reproductive fertility and of thriving plant life would be together affiliated with the notion of the Octavian rule, with the unity brought to Rome characterized as rebirth and as a flourishing ground soil for the promise of future generations. The association between the might and persistence of Rome and the iconographic appeal of its green imagery helps to give us some appreciation for the conceptual appeal of the mural indulgences due for discussion here.

If Livia was to take from the strange occasion of the white hen an indication as to her future fertility, or as to her impact on the future of the Roman Empire, so would this anecdote play crucially into the mythology which Augustus would work so hard to endorse. Here would be the recollection of symbols and impressions to suggest a close historical link between the emperor and the rooted primacy of the royal dynasty from which he claimed descent. To this extent, Flory (1989) would report that the story of Livia's omen has been characterized historically by scholars "as an example of how Octavian appropriated the laurel as a personal symbol during the triumviral period in order to imitate Julius Caesar and to surround himself with divinity given omina imperii." (Flory, 346)

The term omina imperii is an important principal to our discussion, perhaps pointing to the most important and compelling reasons for the persistence of symbolic entities such as the laurel, the bird and the garden in general. The themes of life and fertility, very much at play in the painting adorning the garden room, are also detailed with carefully selected garden and forest entities that bear close and inextricable connection to the persistence of collective and individual imperial mythology. Lusnia characterizes this concept as the persistence of signs that foretell of one's "imperial destiny." (517) Namely, this refers to the adoption of personal signs and symbols with some likely connection to historical imperial iconography and suggesting the principles of strength, virility, valor and divinity. Whether present or not throughout the life of the figure in question -- Augustus in this case -- the recurrence of certain specific images such as the laurel, retained within recurrent thematic contexts such as the Octavian 'garden,' would truly be intended to insist upon the hereditary and theological entitlement of Augustus to a seat atop the Roman Empire.

That unification, rebirth and flourishing growth would be themes of the Augustan rule should suggest to us that the images contained in Roman life and in the visual depiction of Roman life were not chosen in idle vanity. Instead, the must be a core psychological imperative that has keyed in on the evocative value of plant-life. As critical description has taken pains to distinguish, the evaluation of the murals in the so-called garden room as portraying a garden may be a misnomer, if not at least a severe understatement. The density and exotic array of life on display on the four walls of the room in which the murals had originally been excavated is compelling to this point, taking on the proportions of a deep wood or perhaps even a jungle paradise.

The theoretical positioning of the omina imperii in this compelling topiary array may trace itself with consistency through the course of Roman mythological history, making the Augustan decision to hone a focus in the implications of the lush greenery not entirely novel. Instead, we may suggest simply that the moment in history occupied by Augustus would inherently enable this most unapologetically elaborate expression of the impulse due to the singularity of his rule. As Kellum (1994) reports on the subject, "the emperor was quick to establish an arboreal mythology all his own through appropriation and invention.... Augustus... affiliated himself with Rome's founder Romulus and the city's early history on many levels." (Kellum, 211)

Indeed, for Augustus, the process of establishing himself as divinely and inherently entitled to preside over all of the Roman Empire would incorporate a studied and meaningful consistency of imagery and impression that could trace itself to the earliest symbolic incarnations of Roman Imperial Majesty.

There is yet another level of appreciation to be taken with regard to the images and their determinable diversity. Such is to say that the images depicted in individual moments throughout the massive mural are driven by minute and enveloping detail, with background and foreground blurring and sharpening respectively as if to impel the impression of real depth. Such a moment is captured by Figure B, shown here below. In Figure B, the perceptual depth imposed by the branches jutting out in front of a virtual horizon helps to suggest that the room as a whole had been intended to convey a feeling of being ensconced within the walls of a jungle. The Second Style of Roman Wall Painting which has already been discussed here above would allow for a conjuring of dimensionality theretofore unseen in wall painting.

Figure B: Depth Perspective Moment from Garden Painting at http://www.artoffresco.com/03-History/03.6-rome/03.6-history-rome.htm

As to the additional level of appreciation to be taken the realism which is here enabled, the dense selection of a diverse array of plant and bird species and the detail artfully pointed at their accuracy indicates a scientific import to the proceedings. It is clear that Octavian and, by extension, the Roman Imperial culture, took equal pride in the validity of its work as in its aesthetic worth. Accordingly, Walker (2007) remarks that "the vast variety of plant species indicates a profound knowledge of ars topiaria, and at the same time underlines the artificial character of this genre of painting, which depicts a flowering evergreen garden without any real connection with time, as diverse species are shown in simultaneous and continuous flowering." (1) the suggestion underwritten here is that the diversity reflected is in fact of a fantastical nature, in spite of the perceived impetus in Roman culture on academic veracity.

The implications to this approach are useful in identifying the dual interests in the provocation of such a work. Particularly, the denoted presence and -- according to what critical consensus may be located on the subject -- the definable accuracy of individual plant and animal subjects in the piece is emblematic of the strong Roman connection to academic verisimilitude. Not as much by contrast but perhaps by cultural distinction, the importance of imperial mythology may help to justify -- along with the aesthetic interests which at this juncture in the discussion we may consider as inherently relevant to all observations -- the incongruously dense array of potentially incompatible and geographically distinct life forms. Here, the purpose of their presence to the dominance of impression management may be seen to suggest an otherworldly force at play in the evolution of the Roman Empire.

And even still, our research can draw us directly to the location of scientific endorsement of even the choices made with regard to the density of the work. According to Caneva & Bohuny (2003), there can in fact be a case made through the closest of scrutiny that the accuracy and scientific value of the murals may be greater than the above comments suggest. Accordingly, within the study by Caneva & Bohuny (2003), "the painted flora is analyzed from the scientific viewpoint and previous identifications are critically discussed. Here, 24 different species are described, giving information on the taxonomic, and phytogeographic position. Most of them belong to the spontaneous elements present in the Mediterranean forests, maquis and grasses of Southern Italy, such as Arbutus unedo, Laurus nobilis, Nerium oleander, Quercus ilex, Quercus robur gr., Cornus mas, Myrtus communis, Phyllitis scolopendrium, Viola reichenbachiana, Chrysanthemum coronarium, Anthemis cotula, or widely cultivated, such as Cupressus sempervirens, Cydonia oblonga, Pinus pinea, Punica granatum, Papaver somniferum, Rosa centifolia, Phoenix dactylifera." (Caneva, 149) This breakdown of species variety is indicative of a close observation of specifications made in visual detail and representation which suggests that in fact, there is some high level of geographical proximity allowing for a display of these variant species in one location. Thus, to the defense of the purpose of the images here displayed, we can see that there is an academic trajectory which is not pursued with carelessness. Quite in fact, though we have before this point in the discussion already recounted a few of the more prominent species of plant depicted here, it is another thing entirely to make remark upon the taxonomic value of the display, which itself is possessed in no small degree of scientific merit.

All of this being stated, Caneva & Bohuny too make it clear that even a scientific scrutiny of the site should reveal an additional intent beyond empiricism for the density. As the review states of the mural, "a symbolistic purpose of the pictures is also clearly evident." (Caneva, 149) Namely, there is a set of specified premises, even beyond that which endorses the Octavian Empire, which are to suggest that in addition to an historical claim to the seat of power in Rome, the Emperor was likewise a clear harbinger of the future.

The semiotic correlation between blossoms, flowers and foliage and the new rising of the Roman Empire under its newly uniting leadership. The subject of peace, therefore, comes pointedly to mind as we assess the idyllic serenity suggested by the murals. Again, were it our opportunity to view such works in the context of their originating color and detail, it is likely that we would witness a compellingly calming panorama from the center of the garden room. With all walls seeming to bend almost to he width of the room, there is an imposing verdant quality that instigates a sense of comfort, warmth and equanimity.