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Domus Aurea (Golden House)
When Nero inaugurated the house at the end of the works, he showed himself satisfied, and said "Finally I begin to live in a house worthy of a man " (Suet., Ner., 39)
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After
the famous fire of 64A.D., in which his house, the Domus Transitoria
(Transitory House) was destroyed, he ordered the construction of the most
fantastic imperial residence ever built in Rome.Nero, appropriated huge
areas of central Rome for his proposed pleasure dome. The complex was eventually
to spread over a quarter of the city, covering the Esquiline, Coelian
and Palatine hills (today valley of the Colosseum). Over a surface
of 100 hectares alternated, as Svetonio says, porches and palaces, pavilions
and baths (fed direct either by sea water or from sulphurous springs),
gardens, pastures, vineyards and forests " full of domestic and wild animals of all
species ". Around the central pond, the architects in charge, Severo and
Celere, erected buildings "so big as real towns ", adorned with hundred
of statues sacked in Greece and Asia Minor, preceded by a 30mt statue of
the emperor (called the " Colossus ", after which the Colosseum got its
name ). What remained of the Domus was used as foundations for the Baths
of Trajan. They consists of two wings with several rooms displayed
around a rectangular courtyard. The most famous ones: the rooms to the
south of the great peristyle, divided in two identical apartments with
bedrooms, perhaps private residence of the imperial couple (" room of the yellow vault
", " room of the black vault", " room of the vault of the owls" and other
symmetrical rooms); the hall that overlooks the polygonal court, with a
famous decoration with gilded stuccoes and mythological scenes, badly preserved
but famous for its Renaissance motifs (" room of the gilded vault ");
the huge octagonal room, with nearly non- existent walls which led into
other rooms. This room , together with the surrounding rooms in a radial
disposition, constitutes one of the masterpieces of Roman architecture.
The decorations, in great part lost, are a work at least of two hands
(one is perhaps of the famous Fabullo, skilful painter who painted wearing
a toga). Some paintings are in the traditional style, with fine architectonic
and fantastic elements that enclose small landscapes painted with rapid
brushstrokes. Others paintings present an innovation in the decorative
system, widely articulated with the insertion of figures in the several
sections (first example of " fourth
style"). Nothing remains of the dining rooms with " ceilings composed of
movable ivory tiles pierced with holes so that flowers or perfume could
be sprinkled on the guests below" and even the columns, the coverings
and the pavements in marble of the rooms have been removed and red-used
for the Baths of Trajan. Discovered in the Renaissance, the Domus
has been visited by many artists who where inspired by the decorative
motifs of the frescoes (called "grotesque ") and who left their names
scratched on the walls
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