The so-called ‘Tellus’ relief from the Ara Pacis is my all time favourite relief. The details are mesmerising with so much layered symbolism built in from the infant twins to the vegetation.
The Augustan style often calls for abundance to be on full show and this relief captures that idea in spades.
A skilful and jaw-dropping relief not to be missed!
@BeebsyMcA@histodons@antiquidons Definitely deliberate and symbolic. It’s partly on account of all the variety that scholars continue to discuss who the central figure might be. Spaeth’s article is a great starting point to dive into this further: https://www.jstor.org/stable/506222
@phistorians@histodons@antiquidons Ah! That's fascinating. Thank you so much.
It's hard to make out the vegetation but it certainly looks like poppies to her right and grain possibly which would make sense if that's Ceres
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