Hypogea on Via dei Cristallini

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The hypogea on Via dei Cristallini (also Ipogeo dei Cristallini ) in Naples are four independent hypogea carved into the tuff . They were originally located on a street to the northwest outside the city walls of ancient Neapolis and served as graves between Hellenism and the Roman Empire . The burial chambers are built over today and can only be reached through an underground tunnel in a modern building on Via dei Cristallini, after which the tombs were named. Their facades were originally open on a rock edge made of existing tuff along a road. There are more burial chambers in the vicinity.

Research history

The complex was discovered in 1889 in the garden of the palace of Baron Di Donato and at the time was about 12 meters deep. The work there lasted until the end of 1896. First, the complex was published by Gennaro Aspreno Galante. Giulio De Petra published the inscriptions in the Hypogea in 1898.

In an inventory of various Naples hypogea, Angela Potrandolfo and Giuseppe Vecchio finally resumed research on the tombs of Via dei Cristallini in 1985. More articles by Potrandolfo and other researchers followed over the next few years, until Ida Baldassare finally published a comprehensive description of grave C. A detailed interpretation and, above all, a pictorial recording of the individual small reliefs and paintings from later construction phases as well as a precise study of the dating of the individual graves are still pending.

description

The four hypogea are carved into the rock side by side. They only differ very slightly in alignment. The basic structure of all four graves follows the same pattern. There is always an almost square, upper room with surrounding benches, the floor of which is almost completely taken up by a staircase. This leads into a deeper, longer rectangular room. Tuff benches approx. 70–80 cm wide and high were left on three walls and hollowed out as sarcophagi . Three burial places were created on each of the long walls, and two on the rear wall designed as clinics. The dimensions of the individual chambers differ slightly from each other, but are always around 3.70 × 3.00 m for the upper, 3.70 × 6.70 m for the lower rooms.

Due to the poor state of preservation, it cannot be assessed whether the ceilings in the upper rooms were uniformly designed. The ceilings of the lower rooms always consist of a barrel vault . All architectural links and reliefs were carved directly into the tuff.

The facades of the graves also follow the same pattern: Each grave has a large entrance door between two half-columns or pilasters . However, due to the state of preservation, there is hardly any evidence of any other architectural design.

Painting and architecture

Wall painting and architectural decoration have been preserved in grave C. The lower burial chamber is equipped with various types of garlands on the walls and architectural reliefs that determine the composition of the room (pilasters with figurative capitals , architraves with serrations and cymation , tympanum with profile strip, gable roof). In addition, there is a Gorgoneion on the Aigis in the bezel on the back wall, composed of relief and painting . The entrance wall is painted with depictions of a suspended patera (bowl), a jug and two candelabra. The type of painting is considered to be of high quality and artistic.

literature

  • Ida Baldassarre: Documenti di pittura ellenistica da napoli. In: A. Rouveret (ed.): L'Italie méridionale et les permières expériences de la peinture hellénistique. Paris / Rome 1998, ISBN 2-7283-0535-8 .
  • Giulio De Petra: Di un antico ipogeo scoperto in Napoli . Monumenti Antichi 8, 1898
  • Gennaro Aspreno Galante: Il sepolcreto greco ritrovato in Napoli sotto il palazzo Di Donato in via Cristallini ai Vergini . 1895, book in Arachne
  • AG Potrandolfo, G. Vecchio: Gli ipogei funerari . In: G. Macchiaroli (ed.): Napoli antica . Naples 1985

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ida Baldassarre: Documenti di pittura ellenistica da napoli. In: A. Rouveret (ed.): L'Italie méridionale et les permières expériences de la peinture hellénistique. Paris / Rome 1998, ISBN 2-7283-0535-8 , p. 99.
  2. ↑ XV. Napoli, In: Notes degli scavi di antichità . 1889, ISSN  0391-8157 , p. 164.
  3. ↑ Gennaro Aspreno Galante: Il Sepolcreto greco ritrovato in Napoli sotto il palazzo Di Donato in via Cristallini ai Vergini . 1895, book in Arachne
  4. ^ Giulio De Petra: Di un antico ipogeo scoperto in Napoli . Monumenti Antichi 8, 1898.
  5. ↑ AG Potrandolfo, G. Vecchio: Gli ipogei funerari . In: G. Macchiaroli (ed.): Napoli antica . Naples 1985.
  6. ^ Ida Baldassarre: Documenti di pittura ellenistica da napoli . In: A. Rouveret (ed.): L'Italie méridionale et les permières expériences de la peinture hellénistique . Paris / Rome 1998, ISBN 2-7283-0535-8 .
  7. ^ Except for a few reliefs in J. Papadopoulos: I rilievi funerari . In: G. Macchiaroli (ed.): Napoli antica (Naples 1985) and JP Morel: Remarques sur l'art et l'artisanat de Naples antique . CMGr 25, 1985.
  8. ^ Giulio De Petra: Di un antico ipogeo scoperto in Napoli , Monumenti Antichi 8, 1898, pp. 223-227 and AG Potrandolfo, G. Vecchio: Gli ipogei funerari . In: G. Macchiaroli (ed.): Napoli antica . Naples 1985, pp. 284 and 290
  9. ^ Ida Baldassarre: Documenti di pittura ellenistica da napoli. In: A. Rouveret (ed.): L'Italie méridionale et les permières expériences de la peinture hellénistique. Paris / Rome 1998, ISBN 2-7283-0535-8 , p. 113.

Coordinates: 40 ° 51 ′ 29 ″  N , 14 ° 15 ′ 13 ″  E