PDF - Analysis of Nero’s Domus Aurea

Analysis of Nero's Domus Aurea

The Domus Aurea, or Golden House, was a complex and innovative construction. Although Nero, the Roman emperor who would occupy it, was an insane narcissist that only cared about himself and the projection of his image as a powerful ruler, his influence pushed designers to experiment with established forms in ways never seen before, redirecting the way Roman builders utilized their technologies to mold space. It pushed the limits of what was thought possible in terms of scale and knowledge of material. In its short life of about ten years, it provided inspiration that continued through many ages and continues today.

Rome during the Early Empire was expanding, and there was an influx of money, trade, and new ideas. Romans were superstitious people, performing daily rituals to appease the gods and ensure avoidance of their wrath. Eastern influence brought forth new superstitions in the practice of astrology, and Romans in every social order became interested in the sun and movement of celestial bodies, and how individual benefits could be attained by engaging with them. The appearance of a comet after the assassination of Julius Caesar prompted his successor and great-nephew, Augustus, to leverage this celestial event as proof of his connection to the divine and right to power.

Nero was the great-great-grandson of Augustus on his mother's side. He would become the final emperor in the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the first dynasty in the Early Empire. His mother, Agrippina the Younger, had a reputation for ruthlessness and harbored ambitions of power. After the death of her second husband, she married her uncle and reigning emperor, Claudius, in 48 A.D., and convinced him to shun his biological son in favor of Nero for succession. Upon the death of Claudius — who was poisoned by Agrippina — she immediately had Nero, who was sixteen years old at the time, proclaimed ruler of the Empire.

During this early period of his rule, Nero was advised by his mother and two teachers, Seneca and Burrus. Under their influence, his reign was considered somewhat successful after he lowered taxes and ended the death penalty. He was content allowing them to exert the political power that was rightfully his, and instead enjoyed creative pursuits like music and poetry, developing a reputation for seeking pleasure over engaging with his responsibilities to the Empire. As these interests developed, Nero's funding to the arts increased. Never before nor since has an autocrat been so wholly devoted to the arts, regardless of cost and generally to the exclusion of all else — not only in terms of effusive patronage across all media, but in terms of the high quality and often audaciously experimental nature of the works executed under his auspices.

Agrippina interpreted these interests as a loss of influence over her son, and therefore a loss of control of the Empire. Seneca and Burrus urged Nero to take a more active role in his duties. He did conceive some large-scale public works, but eventually lost interest in favor of his personal pursuits. As he began to understand his autonomy and the extent of his power, Nero had his mother killed in 59 A.D. and began acting and performing poetry publicly. These performances were viewed by senators and the general public as inappropriate and embarrassing, furthering Nero's image as selfish and disinterested in politics. This was especially offensive to Roman citizens, who lived and operated in a system of patronage, where the upper classes paid for services and entertainment for the lower classes in exchange for allegiance. In this system, the emperor was expected to be the patrician for the entire social order, providing services to his subjects. Instead, Nero built complexes to host his own performances.

By 64 A.D., when a fire burned three of Rome's fourteen districts to the ground, public opinion of Nero was so low that it was widely believed he started the fire himself to obtain more space for his new palace — a project already underway that had been damaged in the fire. The truth of this claim is disputed. What is known is that Nero began construction, then called Domus Transitoria, in 60 A.D., shortly after his mother's death. Originally conceived as a transitory connection between Domus Tiberiana — an existing palace he inherited covering the western half of Palatine Hill — and the nearby Gardens of Maecenas, this series of passages around existing buildings would have removed any need for Nero to ever leave his property. After the area burned down, the project was redesigned to repair fire damage and utilize the newly freed space for more opulent, monumental construction. It was then known as Domus Aurea.

By the time Nero became emperor, the Julio-Claudian dynasty had lived on the Palatine for many decades. Located in proximity to the Forum and Circus Maximus, the residence was conveniently situated but densely surrounded. Utilizing the adjacent parkland, Nero conceived a villa property that connected the Palatine, Caelian, and Esquiline hills with courtyards, fountains, colonnades, small temples, and an artificial lake where the Colosseum currently stands. Roman culture had an appreciation of nature and believed land should be freely available for enjoyment of the outdoors. Considering the amount of land seized to create such an estate, combined with the rumors of arson for Nero's selfish gains, it is easy to understand why the Domus Aurea was a source of resentment for the Roman people.

This massive site presented its share of challenges. Steep hillsides sloping inward converged into a valley that would need stabilization for an east-west orientation of the building, and previous constructions would need to be torn down or adapted for the new design. The architects, Severus and Celer, cleverly repurposed existing structures as terraced retaining walls by filling them with dirt and rubble. Adjacent cryptoporticii — covered, subterranean passageways — ran around the perimeter of the property, defining the site and leaving views of the surrounding parkland unobstructed.

The urban villa on Esquiline Hill is the best-preserved section of Domus Aurea. After Nero died, artifacts from his administration were destroyed in an attempt to erase the damaging effects of his reign from memory. His residence was stripped, subdivided, and filled in, becoming part of the foundation of the Trajan baths built on top. The infill protected what remained of the lavish interior finishings, but the grand villa with wide, light-filled rooms and spectacular views of the surrounding parkland no longer exists as it was designed.

Because what remains of the Domus Aurea is underground, what we know of the exterior articulation is speculative. However, the general consistency of Roman architecture allows some assumptions based on structures from the same era. The Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia, a temple similar in scale that predates the Domus Aurea by approximately 150 years, was built in a Hellenistic style into a hillside. One enters cross-axially into a series of terraced transitions, culminating in a peristyle courtyard with a strong central axial arrangement that opens toward the landscape — a journey intended to emphasize the transition from the profane to the sacred, and to bring those who make it physically and spiritually closer to the heavens. The west wing of the Domus Aurea had a similar cross-axial arrangement and central peristyle courtyard that opened toward the landscape. Although there was no sacred path to the courtyard in the west wing, this arrangement portrayed the divine image Nero made sure to project throughout the Domus Aurea.

The application of a Hellenistic style would also appropriately communicate the high status of those who occupied it. This style, characterized by the Corinthian Order, developed in Greece during the late classical period as a more elaborate evolution of the Ionic order — still employing 1:9 base-to-height proportions and rich, pictorial details in the columns, yet more delicate, thoughtful, and elaborate. In Greece, the Corinthian Order was initially applied only to interiors, but eventually moved outside as the Hellenistic style dispersed throughout the Roman Empire.

The need for a building that fulfilled the requirements of a private residence as well as a functional government presented a design challenge that had never before been attempted. The architects not only had to deal with a difficult site, but also had to adapt the strict design standards of Classical style. More modest homes in Rome at the time were closed rectilinear containers well suited to the rectangular blocks of the densely populated city, with spaces arranged in an inflexible sequence of rooms laid out in axial symmetry. Similarly, public buildings were oriented around a strong central axis and meticulous symmetry. Instead of compromising the axial symmetry so fundamental to Roman architecture, the architects organized the public wing and the private wing side-by-side, each with a parallel central axis, connected cross-axially by peristyle courtyards. They faced in opposite directions and opened toward the landscape, creating further separation between public and private spaces.

This departure from regular rectilinearity signified a new era in Roman architecture, where the possibilities of spatial order were limitless. Although certain features drew a relationship between old and new styles — like the peristyle court in the west wing — designers were now freed from the regimented order they had perfected. Hadrian's Villa, completed in 134 A.D., is an even grander example of this new freedom. Its buildings sprawled across the landscape with comparatively little regulation to their arrangement. Archiated and trabeated systems were combined for the first time to create experimental shapes. In Piazza d'Oro, the central courtyard was surrounded by an undulating colonnade of alternating concave and convex sections, giving onto secondary and tertiary screened spaces to form an environment of dazzling openness and fluidity.

Inside the Esquiline wing, it is thought that every surface was embellished. It was the style of Roman architecture and decoration to remove or cover any implication of structure. Even the comparatively humble wall surfaces in the well-preserved city of Pompeii reveal colorful paintings and thoughtful inlays throughout. In the Domus Aurea, there is evidence of ivory ceilings, overlays of gold, marble, sparkling jewels, and mother of pearl, as well as wall paintings, mosaics, and stucco. When the ruins were rediscovered during the Renaissance, the highly decorated surfaces became a major influence on the Italian masters, igniting an unregulated excavation of hundreds of rooms through the 1960s that exposed delicate paintings to humidity and dramatic temperature shifts. Although many of these paintings have been damaged beyond repair, we can at least experience their influence through the work of Raphael.

A feature that overtly communicated the excessiveness of the property was an over-100-foot bronze statue of Nero portrayed as the sun god, which became known as Colossus. Although its exact original location is unknown, it is thought to have been visible from the terraces of the Esquiline wing. When the palace was destroyed, Nero's likeness was removed from Colossus and the statue was moved near a newly-constructed Flavian amphitheater — which is thought to be where the Colosseum got its name. Other extravagant features inside the palace included saltwater and sulfur baths, a dining room ceiling that rotated continuously "like the universe," and a delivery system of pipes that sprayed visitors with flower petals and perfume.

The axial symmetry in the east, public wing of the Domus Aurea was articulated through two pentagonal-shaped courtyards. While the purpose for employing these shapes is not immediately clear, this shows another departure from traditional Roman architecture and a movement away from rectilinear form. At the center between these two courtyards, likely the main entrance hall of the public wing, was a domed, eight-sided room known as the Octagonal Room.

Just as Augustus leveraged an association with a comet to depict a connection to the gods, Nero began projecting himself as "the new Apollo." The Octagonal Room was conceived to satisfy both Nero's inclination toward impressive, extravagant amenities and to reiterate his supposed position as the new sun god. The Esquiline wing was oriented east-west on the hillside — despite the availability of more logical, less challenging orientations — likely because the building needed to align with cardinal directions in order to draw light through a large dome into the interlocking spaces of the east wing. It is possible that a fire which damaged the first iteration of Nero's palace also destroyed an earlier version of this structure, giving the architects another opportunity to perfect the idea.

The sunbeam gave direct and ambient light to adjacent rooms at various times of year, creating different experiences depending on when one visited. The orientation of the building and the specific design of the dome caused the light beam from the oculus to illuminate the doorway on March 5th and October 13th — dates widely known as the dates of Nero's ascension. With this seemingly magical manipulation of light, the intention was to further draw a connection between Nero and a god in control of the sun.

One would enter the Octagonal Room from the south side through an unassuming doorway centered exactly between the pentagonal courtyards. Upon entrance, the visitor experienced a rapid expansion in space, both horizontal and vertical. The room is divided axially four times, creating eight symmetrical voids on the surrounding walls and a very strong emphasis on the center. From this point, the eye is drawn skyward as the eight pieces arch upward and converge at an exposed center oculus, forming the grand, domed room.

Other domed structures of the time were utilitarian, frequently occurring in baths or garden structures at a smaller scale without challenging structural requirements. Designing the support of a dome this size without employing solid walls was an incredible feat of engineering, and the builders found a solution using Roman concrete technology. As opposed to the poured concrete used today, Roman concrete consisted of mortar inlaid by hand with large pieces of aggregate. Its success in this application depended on the wide variety of stones available in the region of modern-day Italy. Specifically, the volcanoes on the west coast provided builders with a lightweight aggregate to support the upper layers of the dome, decreasing the load and providing more control of the forces transferred through the eight columns.

The significance of the Octagonal Room is that it is the first known application of domed structure at a monumental scale, establishing a precedent for what has been called the greatest structure of antiquity to have survived in a state of near-completeness and one of the most influential buildings of all time: the Pantheon. The Pantheon was a temple rebuilt by Hadrian, completed around 125 A.D., dedicated to all the gods. It represented the unity of the Roman Empire and everything coming together at the center. It consists of a front portico that, when entered, opens to a massive coffered dome equal in distance from its oculus to the equator, and from the equator to the ground level. Space is divided cross-axially by eight major axes and four minor axes, and when the sunbeam from its open portico aligns with its doorway on April 21st, people are still compelled to go see it. Both structures handled their approached space with consideration to how light would affect space and what it would mean when light interacted with it a certain way. The Pantheon just perfected it at an even grander, more elaborate scale.

Nero's reign grew progressively more tyrannical. He lost his allies, was declared a public enemy, and committed suicide with the help of two enslaved people — one held a sword, and one pushed him onto it. In the years that followed, what remained of his enthusiasm for selfish extravagance was systematically destroyed and rebuilt by the new emperor for public use, as a form of repentance for the chaos Nero's reign had brought forth. The parkland surrounding Domus Aurea was opened, the artificial lake was drained and the Colosseum built, and the Trajan baths were constructed over the filled-in Esquiline wing. While it could be considered a monumental tragedy that some of the grandest constructions of all time were destroyed out of disassociation, humanity still took many lessons from the gifts the Domus Aurea gave to the world during its short time upon it. The rediscovered ruins informed master painters and craftsmen of the Renaissance. Roman designers were liberated from their own regimented design standards to create innovative shapes that drew in the landscape instead of forcing it to conform to severe forms. The Octagonal Room created a new style of building that was awe-inspiring, one which considered and controlled light in a way that provides a spiritual experience — a connection with something bigger that still remains true today.