(by Silvia Lambertucci)
Voluptuous embraces and stolen rapture, violence and pleasure
intermingled, eros and pathos. Restored in all its pieces and
assembled in an unprecedented operation, the stunning bridal
carriage rediscovered two years ago at Pompeii, in the portico
of the Villa di Civita Giuliana, where the bodies of the two
famed fugitives emerged thanks to casts, has come back to life
after 2,000 years, ANSA can exclusively report.
"Extraordinary work has recovered an artifact that is unique in
the world," Massimo Osanna, the director general of the culture
ministry's museums departments, says in illustrating the
restoration, which he wanted to showcase, in a world premiere,
in 'The Instant and Eternity", a major exhibition slated from
May 4 to July 4 in the Baths of Diocletian in Rome.
"(It's) the expression of an Italy capable of extraordinary
results that have been attained via collaboration between
institutions," applauds Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano,
stressing the importance of the joint work of the archaeologists
of the Pompeii archaeological park, the Carabinieri police and
the prosecutor's office at Torre Annunziata which has made this
extraordinary restoration possible.
Saved by a hair's breadth from the tomb raiders, who had been
hunting it for years and who had almost found it by digging
umpteen tunnels in search of the treasures from the luxurious
villa on the outskirts of Pompeii, this carriage which the
Romans called a 'pilentum' was known, in fact, almost
exclusively from the images of mosaics and bas-reliefs and the
accounts of ancient sources, Livy, Virgil, Claudianus, who
linked it to female cults, describing its splendour and comfort.
The restoration, which after the highly delicate phase of
excavation deployed, for a whole year, microscope in hand, the
team led by Emiliano Africano, now brings back to our eyes the
stupefying object of those accounts.
"It's almost more like a luxurious coach," underlines Osanna,
pointing out every detail while alongside him the restorers
assemble with infinite caution the last few pieces under the
monumental vaulted ceilings of the Roman baths.
"A vehicle shining anew with bronze and silver, made to dazzle
and enchant".
Seeing it up close, when the glass case that will protect it
from the multitudes of visitors has not yet been mounted, almost
takes your breath away.
"It's incredible how Pompeii has this special ability to freeze
the instant," smiles the director general.
Because despite the inevitable modern interventions - the
underlying wood of the undercarriage which has naturally been
rebuilt, the plexiglass elements that indicate the missing parts
- what we find before our eyes is to all effects a vehicle of
2,000 years ago, marvellous, complex and certainly highly
delicate.
With large wheels which were once in beech wood and iron rims
which the horror of the eruption and the ravages of time have
spared, the truncated wooden hubs which the phenomenon of
mineralization has somehow kept alive, and the long iron
linchpin which ensured the movement of the front wheels still
there to make steering possible.
Without mentioning the painted wooden seat - narrow, yes, if you
think of it for a girl of today - literally plastered with shiny
metals, large and small medallions with erotic scenes which are
also very crude, amorini, female figures, a myriad of refined
and sometimes microscopic decorations spread everywhere, from
the bronze base to the cones that embellished the ends of the
hubs.
Everything is decorated in this masterpiece of artisanal
refinement, even the iron bobbins around which were curled the
ropes that are believed to have held up, a little like a cradle,
the caisson of the carriage, so as to offer those on top the
comfort of a bouncy ride.
And then the back of the seat of which today there only remains
the iron skeleton but which it is easy to imagine covered in
leather and comfortable cushions, with the two arms to make the
progress of the bride and her companion easier.
"Who knows, perhaps her mother," hypothesizes Osanna, pointing
out that the seat seems to have been made for two persons.
A carriage similar to this one, he says, was found years ago in
Greece, in ancient Thrace, in a tomb belonging to a high-ranking
family.
"In that case, however, it was decided to leave it in the tomb
without restoring it or remounting it".
This, too, makes the operation in the park of Pompeii
extraordinary: it is the first time in the world that a pilentum
has been rebuilt and studied.
The restoration work that has made the decorations legible,
bringing back to light hundreds of details, confirms this
carriage's link with the female world and with marriage.
"Now we must work on the iconography of the medallions," says
Osanna, and then "on the carriage's system of movement".
Ludovica Alesse and Paola Sabbatucci, the restorers of the
Pompeii park, carefully supervise the assembly work. "We were
there when the carriage came out, impressed into the cinerite
(volcanic-ash rock) were still evident the traces of the ropes,
the fabrics, the wood," they recount.
All things that time has dissolved, like the mark of the wheat
sheaf left on the seat.
A few metres from there, in the large stable, the remains of
horses have been found, including a bay that was still in
harness.
Meanwhile the excavations, like the studies, go on.
Of course, it is hard to say if the young bride really enjoyed
that day of celebration. But who knows, perhaps her splendid
silver carriage may tell us something more about that.
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