|
''Velificatio'' is a stylistic device used in ancient Roman art to frame a deity by means of a billowing garment. It represents "vigorous movement," an epiphany,〔Paul Rehak, ''Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), p. 111.〕 or "the vault of heaven," often appearing with celestial, weather, or sea deities.〔Robert Turcan, ''Les religions de l'Asie dans la vallée du Rhône'' (Brill, 1972), p. 21.〕 It is characteristic of the iconography of the Aurae, the Breezes personified, and one of the elements which distinguish representations of Luna, the Roman goddess of the Moon, alluding to her astral course.〔Stefania Sorrenti, "Les représentations figurées de Jupiter Dolichénien à Rome," in ''La terra sigillata tardo-italica decorata del Museo nazionale romano'', «L'Erma» di Bretschneider, 1999), p. 370.〕 A figure so framed is a ''velificans'' (plural ''velificantes''). Not all deities are portrayed as ''velificantes'', but the device might be used to mark a member of the Imperial family who had been divinized (a ''divus'' or ''diva'').〔Lise Vogel, ''The Column of Antoninus Pius'' (Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 45.〕 ''Velificatio'' is a frequent device in Roman art,〔Hélène Walter, ''La Porte Noire de Besançon'' (Presses Univ. Franche-Comté, 1984), vol. 1, p. 332.〕 including painting, mosaic, relief, and sculpture, though it poses technical difficulties for freestanding sculpture. The Athenian sculptor Praxiteles was able to achieve it.〔Pliny, ''Natural History'' 36.29; Davide Stimilli, ''The Face of Immortality: Physiognomy and Criticism'' (State University of New York Press, 2005), p. 172.〕 The term is also used to describe Hellenistic art.〔Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, ''Hellenistic Sculpture II: The Styles of ca. 200–100 B.C.'' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2000), ''(passim. )''〕 The device continued to be used in later Western art, in which it is sometimes described as an ''aura'', "a breeze that blows from either without or from within that lifts the veil to reveal the face of an otherwise invisible being."〔The term is so used in the art criticism of Walter Benjamin; Aleida Assmann and Jan Assmann, "Air From Other Planets Blowing: The Logic of Authenticity and the Prophet of the Aura," in ''Mapping Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Digital Age'' (Stanford University Press, 2003), pp. 153–154.〕 ==Usage and examples== In classical Latin, the abstract noun ''velificatio'' is uncommon,〔It occurs in Cicero, ''Ad familiares'' 1.9.21, and not again in Latin literature until Fronto, 267,4–5; Michel P.J. van den Hout, ''A Commentary on the Letters of M. Cornelius Fronto'' (Brill, 1999), p. 608.〕 and refers to the act of setting sail, from ''velum'', "sail" (but also "cloth, garment, veil") and the ''-fic-'' combining element from ''-ficio, -ficere'' (= ''facio, facere'', "do, make"). The verbal form was the basis for modern scholarly usage. Pliny describes ''Aurae velificantes sua veste'', the Breezes "making a sail with their own garment"〔Pliny, ''Natural History'' 36.29.〕 at the Porticus Octaviae ("Portico of Octavia").〔Thomas Köves-Zulauf, "Plinius d. Ä. und die römische Religion," ''Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt'' II.16.1 (1978), p. 277.〕 Such depictions of the Aurae are known from extant Roman art, and have been used as comparative material to identify the pair of ''velificantes'' in a scene from the Augustan Altar of Peace. On the basis of a passage from the ''Carmen Saeculare'' of Horace, composed and performed for Augustus's staging of the Saecular Games in 17 BC, the central figure is often identified as Tellus (Earth):
Not all scholars agree on this analysis of the scene. The creatures on which the ''velificantes'' are seated also suggest Nereids, and the reference may point to the Cult of the Nymphs.〔Babette Stanley Spaeth, "The Goddess Ceres in the Ara Pacis Augustae and the Carthage Relief," ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 98 (1994), pp. 77–78.〕 The significance of the veil is sometimes explained in terms of the initiation rites of the mystery religions. Initiates wore drapery or a veil which was lifted by a priestess. The veil was a symbol of death, and its removal in the rite signified the initiate's rebirth. The ''velificatio'' thus appears in scenes on sarcophagi and in other funerary art.〔Elisabeth Matelli, "Hieronymous in Athens and Rhodes," in ''Lyco of Troas and Hieronymous of Rhodes'' (Transaction Publishers, 2004), pp. 294–295.〕 File:Villa dei Misteri V - 2.jpg|Villa of the Mysteries (1st century). File:Proserpina kidnapped Kircheriano Terme.jpg|Pluto (cinerary urn, 2nd century). File:Clipeus Selene Terme.jpg|Selene (clipeus from a sarcophagus, early 3rd century). File:Sousse neptune.jpg|Neptune (mosaic, 3rd century). File:French Empire mantel clock.jpg|French Empire mantel clock (1822) depicting the nereid Galatea. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Velificatio」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|