Archinect - News

Domus Aurea reopens with an improved ramp and entryway from an Italian maestro

2021-06-30T18:03:00-04:00

The Domus Aurea in Rome is open once again with a new feature following a 14-month hiatus after the coronavirus pandemic forced the 2,000-year-old palace’s shutdown.

Stefano Boeri Architetti helped welcome back the public with an improved ramp and new entryway featuring an exhibition titled “Raphael and the Domus Aurea: The Invention of the Grotesques.” The event will coincide with a show at the Scuderie del Quirinale observing the 500th anniversary of the death of the painter and architect.

Photo: Lorenzo Masotto

Originally the replacement home of 1st-century ruler, Emperor Nero, the Domus came back into prominence during the High Renaissance in large part due to its display of ancient grottos filled with grotesques. The Roman paintings were noteworthy enough to attract visits from influential figures throughout Europe including luminaries like Michelangelo and the Marquis de Sade.

Now, with help from Boeri, the curious can once again be transported through the maze of frescoed gall...

Excavating ancient Rome beneath London's streets

2016-02-05T17:57:00-05:00

During an excavation for a new office development at 21 Lime Street, a team from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) found the millimeter-thin fresco nearly 20 feet below street level. Dating to the late 1st century AD, and the first decades of London, it’s one of the earliest surviving frescos from Roman Britain. [...] The rare, ornate wall painting is likely to have decorated a reception room for party guests at the home of a wealthy Roman citizen.

A statement issued by MOLA explained, “The fate of this rare wall painting was literally sealed in the ground ... In AD 100, construction of the 2nd Forum Basilica, the main civic center for the city and the largest Roman building ever built north of the Alps, began. In advance of construction of the Forum the area was flattened. The painted wall was deliberately toppled and the Forum immediately built over it, incredibly preserving the fresco for nearly 2000 years.”

More excavations from the News:

Medieval Frescoes Uncovered and Displayed in Rome

2014-07-30T14:07:00-04:00

Rome may be a mecca for Medieval art, but it isn’t every day that conservationists there discover a trove of long-lost frescoes dating to the 1240s. That’s what happened a few years ago in the Gothic Hall of Santi Quattro Coronati convent, after a restoration project funded by ARCUS began in 1996. This summer, for the first time ever, those artworks can be seen by the public [...] [The frescoes] reveal how cardinals’ palaces were “places from which to launch very clear political messages.”