Otium e politica: ritratti della domus Augusta nelle ville imperiali

This article aims to discuss the presence of portraits representing members of the Domus Augusta in the imperial villas from the Augustan age to the Tetrarchic one. A first case study is the cuirassed statue of Augustus found at Prima Porta, which is interpreted as an exceptional work designed specifically for Livia’s villa. Starting from the Julio-Claudian age, there was a progressive increase in the presence of portraits in the imperial villas, due to the need to progressively update the image of the imperial family. From the Flavian age, some historical reliefs are also attested, demonstrating the penetration of specific forms of public celebration even in imperial villas. From the 2nd century A.D. the presence of busts forming dynastic galleries quickly became the preferred formula for representing the domus Augusta inside a villa, thus creating a difference between the image of the imperial family in private and public places, where standing statues still prevailed. Villa Adriana and the villas of Antoninus Pious in Lanuvium and Lucius Verus in Acquatraversa provide the best preserved galleries. At the time of the Severi, the inclusion of portraits of the new dynasty continued while subsequently the evidence of new portraits decreased. Thus, since the Augustan age, an ambiguity between otium and negotium emerged in the spaces of the imperial villas. On one side they were usually dedicated to the otium of the princeps, but on the other side their praetoria often housed some of his public duties too. Therefore, the imperial portraits did not only represent the Emperors as owners of their villas, but always recalled their constant engagement to negotium even in a ‘private’ space.