Severus
A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture
|
2000
|
|
© A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture 2000, originally published by Oxford University Press 2000. (Hide copyright information)
Copyright
Severus (
fl. middle of C1 ad). Supposedly the designer (with the engineer
Celer) of Emperor Nero's (b. 37, reigned 54–68)
Domus Aurea (Golden House), a complex the octagonal hall of which was only rediscovered early in C20 buried within the substructures of the
Thermae of Trajan on the slopes of the Oppian Hill, Rome (64–8). This huge palace contained a series of interior volumes of contrasting geometrical shapes illuminated by indirect and top lighting. It is unclear, however, if
columnar and trabeated forms were expunged from the interiors of the vaulted, domed, and
arcuated compartments, as many C20 commentators have claimed they were. Doubtless beguiled by the surviving bare walls and powerful, clear geometries, they have seen the octagonal hall and its ancillary spaces as original and as heralding a new aesthetic.
Concrete was used for the basic structure,
Orders were employed for the exterior, and it seems highly probable that Orders were used inside as well, as was the case in the vestibule of the ‘Piazza d'Oro’ at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli (118–34). The fact that the rich marble and
stucco finishes have long since disappeared, and with them other internal embellishments (including Orders) does not mean they did not exist. There is no trace of stucco or marble finishes to the dome itself (though there is evidence that such finishes were employed on the walls and elsewhere), but it is likely that the space was covered by a ribbed structure, perhaps of bronze, from which fabric panels were suspended. As David Hemsoll has convincingly shown, the octagonal hall of the Golden House, ‘far from representing a “revolution” in architecture’, seems ‘to have been a design that actually was deeply rooted in tradition … Modernist aesthetic criteria’, such as efforts to define the design as ‘an heroic attempt to come to terms with advances in building technology and to free architecture from the constraints of the past’, are ‘inaccurate and misleading’. Nero and his architects bettered their predecessors by exploiting tradition and established forms, and taking advantage of technological developments. After all, halls and dining-rooms with sophisticated geometries and spatial elaboration were known before Nero's time, and there is evidence from tombs and other building-types of similar ingenious geometrical arrangements before the
Domus Aurea was built. Severus and Celer may also have played roles in the rebuilding of Rome after the fire of AD 64 and the drawing up of the building regulations that set the agenda. They also proposed a vast canal (begun but unfinished
c. AD 60) linking Lake Avernus near the Bay of Naples to the Tiber. Severus and Celer's works are described by Tacitus (
c. AD 55–
c.117) and Suetonius (
c. AD 70–
c.160), neither of whom was particulary sympathetic to the Imperial idea, yet both were impressed by the
Domus Aurea, its grandeur, its rich interior décor, the bathing facilities, and the enchanting gardens.
Bibliography
Antiquity, xxx (1956), 209–19;
AH, xxxii (1989), 1–17;
Boëthius (1960);
W. MacDonald (1965–86);
Placzek (ed.) (1982);
Segala & and Sciortino (1999);
Ward-Perkins (1981, 1986)
Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.
|
WOMEN IN CORRECTIONS: Elizabeth Gurney Fry
Magazine article from: Journal of Correctional Education; 6/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...twelve children bom to John and Catherine Gurney. As a young girl, Elizabeth was shy with delicate health and she...prosperity. In the summer of 1799, Elizabeth met Joseph Fry, who, like Elizabeth, came from a wealthy Quaker family...
|
|
How I uncovered my extraordinary connection with the pounds 5 note; Jo Ind traces her family tree and discovers she is the great-great-great- greatgranddaughter of the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.(Features)
Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 8/28/2009; 700+ words
; ...great-great-grandmother is none other than Elizabeth Fry, yes - she who is on the back of a Bank of...about it as it had not been mentioned since. Elizabeth Fry was born Elizabeth Gurney. She married into the chocolate-makinfamily...
|
|
How Elizabeth has become a real woman of note.(Features)
Newspaper article from: Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England); 1/7/2002; 615 words
; ...Nightingale. But this summer Elizabeth Fry will replace current face of the...far-reaching. She was born Elizabeth Gurney in Norwich on 21st May 1780 into...Gurney family, took a shine to Elizabeth and asked her to marry him. After...
|
|
The 50 greatest visionaries
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 10/18/2008; ; 700+ words
; ...banned by the Catholic Church from 1616 to 1835. Elizabeth Fry 1790-1845 It is said that a mark of a civilised...treatment of its prisoners. No one thought so until Elizabeth Gurney Fry, a wealthy Quaker, visited Newgate Prison in 1813...
|
|
The "agency of women" - women and ACA. (American Correctional Association)
Magazine article from: Corrections Today; 8/1/1995; ; 700+ words
; ...adhered to the Declaration of Principles in all of its activities. Women and Reform, 1870-1939 Beginning with Elizabeth Gurney Fry, an English Quaker who, in the early 1800s, established a program in London of lay visitors who aided and comforted...
|
|
Great thinkers: Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845).(IDEAS)(Biography)
Magazine article from: Training Journal; 3/1/2008; ; 700+ words
; ...OMITTED] BACKGROUND: Elizabeth Fry is one of the most famous...family. Her father, John Gurney, was a successful banker...mother, Catherine, who Fry cited as the most influential...the district. The young Fry avoided attending worship...
|
|
BETSY: THE DRAMATIC BIOGRAPHY OF PRISON REFORMER ELIZABETH FRY
Magazine article from: The Spectator; 7/30/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...BIOGRAPHY OF PRISON REFORMER ELIZABETH FRY by Jean Hatton Monarch...somewhat starchy figure of Elizabeth Fry - in this racy...Alas, for many years Elizabeth Fry's true and highly...1780 into the affluent Gurney family of Earlham Hall...
|
|
Anniversaries
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 10/11/1997; 408 words
; ...1866; Ralph Vaughan Williams, composer, 1872. Deaths: Piero della Francesca, painter and writer, 1492; Elizabeth Fry (Gurney), Quaker prison reformer, 1845; Robert Stephenson, civil engineer, 1859; Edith Louisa Cavell, nurse...
|
|
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 5/21/1997; 700+ words
; ...canal pioneer, 1736; Joseph Fouche, Duc d'Otrante, French revolutionary and secret police chief, 1763; Elizabeth Fry (Gurney), philanthropist and prison reformer, 1780; Rudolf Hermann Lotze, physiologist, philosopher and writer...
|
|
Family links
Newspaper article from: Evening Post (Bristol UK); 10/12/2009; ; 338 words
; Did Elizabeth Fry, the prison reformer, come from Bristol...dealt in tea and banking. Origins: Elizabeth Fry William's brother Joseph, however...moved to Keynsham in the 1920s. Elizabeth Gurney, as she was formerly known, married...
|
|
Elizabeth (Gurney) Fry
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
Elizabeth (Gurney) Fry 1780-1845, English prison reformer and philanthropist. Deeply religious, she was recognized as a minister by the Society of...
|
|
Fry, Elizabeth (Gurney)
Book article from: A Dictionary of World History
Fry, Elizabeth (Gurney) (1780–1845) British philanthropist and prison reformer. The wife of a London Quaker, Joseph Fry, she subsequently became recognized as a preacher in the Society of...
|
|
Fry, Elizabeth
Book article from: A Dictionary of British History
Fry, Elizabeth (1780–1845). Reformer. Elizabeth Fry was born into the quaker family of Gurney, bankers of Norwich, and brought up...and went on to raise a large family. Elizabeth Fry began visiting Newgate and in 1817...
|
|
Elizabeth Fry
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of World Biography
Elizabeth Fry Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) was...reading to inculcate virtue, Elizabeth Fry epitomized the reformer...in charity and reform. Elizabeth Fry was born into a happy...younger brother Joseph John Gurney followed her in reviving...
|
|
Buxton, Thomas Fowell
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to British History
...Fowell (1786–1845). Anti-slavery campaigner and quaker philanthropist, Buxton married Hannah Gurney (sister of Elizabeth Fry ). In 1808 he joined the quaker brewers Truman, Hanbury & Co. (his mother was a Hanbury), which...
|