The Fortuna of La Boatella
Personatges:
Tema: Rome: sculpture
Competències
Competència en Comunicació Lingüística
Competència personal, social i aprendre a aprendre
Competència en consciència i expressions culturals
Matèries i cursos per Sistema Educatiu
Espanya > Cultura Clàssica > 2n ESO > Continuïtat del patrimoni cultural. Literatura, art i ciència
Enunciat
Viria Acte, born in Valentia Edetanorum, present-day Valencia, ca. the year 90 AD, was an extraordinary woman who, having been a slave, became a successful businesswoman. She was the owner of a statue workshop that she run herself and that became very prestigious. She received many compliments and honours due to her work and her contributions to the city of Valencia.
We are going to study the statue of the goddess Fortune that was created in Viria Acte’s workshop and was found in Valencia between 2007 and 2008.
I- Read the introductions and answer the questions.
Where and in what condition was the statue found?
In the southern area of the Roman city of Valentia, the necropolis of La Boatella is located. In archaeological interventions carried out between 2007 and 2008, an unfinished well of late ancient chronology was located, built with large reused limestone ashlars, among which two funerary altars stood out. It was full of various materials and next to it there was the statue that we will study in this activity, prepared to be used as a construction material, and which appeared broken into three pieces, without head or arms and with mutilated breasts.
Scholars have concluded that the statue, barely 1 meter high, represents the goddess Fortuna. Its size indicates that it was made for the purpose of adorning some domus or villa, -although, according to the specialist in Roman archaeology, José Luis Jiménez, «Fortuna used to be part of burials as a reference for wishing luck». He also believes that the piece was part of a monumental complex. The making of the piece, its finish, the details and the marble used have led the specialists to describe its execution as being of ‘extremely high quality’ and to relate it to Viria Acte’s workshop. It is carved in marble from Paros and it dates from the 2nd century AD.
Why did it appear in a well, savagely mutilated and ready to be reused as building material?
The first observations carried out by the specialists determined that its destruction was not a casual event, nor was its abandonment in the well in which it was found. The statue has its breasts beaten and the head and arms were torn off in a well-aimed blow. The goal: to nullify any trait that could identify her or suggest rank and meaning. According to archaeologists, the statue would have been destroyed during the 4th century, coinciding with the laws of Theodosius, which ordered the destruction of any piece or element of a pagan nature and which put an end to Constantine's decree of religious tolerance: «If any statue still stands in temples and sanctuaries and has received or receives any kind of worship from the pagans, let it be uprooted from its location» (Theodosian Codex XII)
1- Search information about Theodosius: Who was he?
2- Reflect on what you have read: What was Theodosius pursuing with that law?
II- The Fortuna of La Boatella
The first question that comes to mind when looking at this sculpture is: How do archaeologists know that it is the goddess Fortuna? To identify the "character" that hides behind an artistic image, in addition to taking into account the context in which it has appeared, it is necessary to learn how to recognize the attributes that accompany it. Look at this image of one of the representations of Fortuna found in the Vatican Museums and answer the questions:
1- What objects does she hold in her hands?
2- What is the object in her right hand resting on?
3- Is the clothing she wears Greek or Roman? Describe it.
4- Notice the tufts of hair on each side of the neck.
5- Which leg is bent? Notice that the corresponding arm holds a certain object.
6- To which side does the body curve?
7- The cloak she wears surrounds her body, but on which shoulder does it rest? At what height on the body is the cloak draped?
Observe the front and back images of Fortuna found in Valencia.
Compare this image with the Fortuna of the Vatican Museums and answer:
8- What similarities do you find?
9- What differences do you find?
10- Can you find in the two previous images any object that can help its identification?
The attributes with which Fortuna is normally represented are the rudder -symbol of the government of the world-, which rests on a globe that represents the universe, and the cornucopia -symbol of prosperity-. The goddess takes her attributes from the Greek Tyche, with whom she identifies.
Now look at these other images that represent Tyche and the goddess Hygieia (Roman copy found in the Louvre).
11- Establish the similarities that you find between these two images and the one of the Fortuna in Valencia.
12- To which image of all those presented does the Fortuna found in Valencia most resemble, taking into account the disposition of the body and the clothing?
Some Roman empresses or female members of the imperial family, such as Livia Drusilla or Faustina Minor, were also represented with the attributes of Fortuna.
13- Look on the Internet for an image of Livia Drusilla and Faustina Minor represented as Fortuna. Do not forget to cite the sources.
Observacions i context
1- Observations
The businesswoman Viria Acte and, specifically, the workshop that she owned and directed, is the basis that sustains our activity. It was a workshop for sculptures and other stone pieces, such as altars, funerary steles and pedestals. From that workshop in Valentia, which achieved great prestige and was very successful, came the sculpture that represents Fortuna and was discovered in 2007 in the necropolis known as La Boatella.
This activity has been designed for the subject of classical culture of 2nd ESO, in the Block Continuity of cultural heritage. Literature, art and science. However, it could be done in other levels of the subject of Classical Culture, always at the discretion of the teaching staff.
This statue belongs to a sculptural type created in the late classical period. In Roman times it is adopted for the representation of various divinities, especially Hygieia. The arrangement of the arms made it possible to adapt the type -with slight variations- to the peculiarities of the representations of that and of Fortuna. The specimen found in Valencia is, according to the catalogue prepared by Barbara Lichocka, the first representation of Fortune known to date that follows this sculptural type.
2- Context
One of the key factors which led to the greater independence of Roman women in the Imperial period was their ability to own and manage their own money.
The epigraphy of Roman Hispania in the 2nd century offers numerous examples of professions carried out by women who were also, in some cases, owners of their own businesses. To cite just a few names, we can find wet nurses (nutrices), such as Secundilla (Gades) or Clovatia Irena (Emerita Augusta); hairdressers (ornatrices), such as Philtates (Lucus Augusti, Lugo) or Turpa Thyce (Gades); menders (sarcinatrices), such as Latinia Da[.... ] (Corduba); professionals related to the production, dissemination and trade of olive oil, especially in Baetica, such as Accilia Felicissima, Caecilia Charitosa, Cornelia Placida or Caecilia Trophime, among many others; owners of land in production, such as C. Plancia Romana (Fiñana, Almería) or Aurelia Iuventiana (Arauzo de Torre, Burgos); owners of artisan workshops of all kinds _from gilding, textile and footwear workshops to the manufacture of marble pieces, like our Viria Acte _, such as Aurelia Vivia Sabina (domina fabricae marmorariae) (Terena, Portugal), Cornelia Cruseidis (domina inauratoris) (Tarraco) or Valeria Severina, who was also patroness of the guild, (domina fabricae textilis et calceamenti) (Segisama Iulia, Burgos) to women who practised medicine and obstetrics, such as the Hispanic Julia Saturnina (Emerita Augusta) or later women, such as those belonging to other times and places, Primila, Empiria and Venuleya Sosis, qualified as medici; Salustia Ateneis, obstetrix; Naevia Clara, medicaphilologa or Aurelia Alexandra Zozima, cited ‘for her medical knowledge’.
We also find other professions: caementarius (bricklayer): Iulia (Conimbriga, Coimbra); purpuraria (manufacture of purple): Baebia Veneria (Gades); lintearia (weaver or linen merchant): Fulvia (Tarraco); pictor or pistor (painter or baker): Caecilia M [...] (Maresme, Barcino), etc.
Descripció
In this activity, we will study the statue of Fortuna, belonging to Viria Acte’s workshop, and its typology based on observation and comparison. Students will also be asked to answer some questions.
Reading, reflection, observation, comparison.