Temple of Portunus
{{Short description|Ancient religious monument in Rome, Italy}}
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The Temple of Portunus ({{langx|it|Tempio di Portuno}}) is an ancient Roman temple in Rome, Italy. It was built beside the Forum Boarium, the Roman cattle market associated with Hercules, which was adjacent to Rome's oldest river port ({{lang|la|Portus Tiberinus}}) and the oldest stone bridge across the Tiber River, the Pons Aemilius. It was probably dedicated to the gateway god Portunus although the precise dedication remains unclear as there were several other temples in the area besides his. It was misidentified as the Temple of Fortuna Virilis (Latin for "Manly Luck") from the Renaissance and remains better known by this name. The temple is one of the best preserved of all Roman temples.
It is dedicated to Portunus, the god of keys, doors and livestock, and so granaries, it is the main temple dedicated to the god in the city.{{cite book|author=L. Richardson Jr. |title=A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome |url=https://archive.org/details/newtopographical0000rich|url-access=registration |date=1 October 1992|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-4300-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/newtopographical0000rich/page/320 320]–}} During the Medieval period, the temple was converted to a Christian church dedicated to Santa Maria Egyziaca ("St Mary of Egypt"). It remained a church up until the early 20th century, when it was deconsecrated, stripped of all later additions, and returned to its classical appearance, as an archaeological monument. This restoration included the demolition of surrounding medieval and Renaissance era buildings.
Architecture
Image:PalladioWare1738FortunaVirilis.jpg, The Four Books of Andrea Palladio's Architecture, London, 1738]]
It is in the Ionic order and is by the ancient Forum Boarium by the Tiber. During Antiquity the site overlooked the Tiberine port at a sharp bend in the river; from here, Portunus watched over cattle barges as they entered the city from Ostia.{{cite book|author=John W. Stamper|title=The Architecture of Roman Temples: The Republic to the Middle Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSP4ovkOTpoC&pg=PA62|date=16 February 2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-81068-5|pages=62–}}
Image:Rome.Temple of Portunus.backside.JPG
The temple was originally built in the 3rd or 4th century BC and was rebuilt between 120 and 80 BC.{{cite web |url=http://www.wmf.org/project/temple-portunus |title=Temple of Portunus. |website=World Monuments Fund |year=2013 |access-date=30 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603073329/http://www.wmf.org/project/temple-portunus |url-status=live |archive-date=2013-06-03 }} The rectangular building consists of a tetrastyle portico and cella, raised on a high podium reached by a flight of steps, which it retains.{{cite book |author=Fred Kleiner |title=A History of Roman Art, Enhanced Edition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r-r0S-z-UxkC&pg=PA7 |date=4 February 2010 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-495-90987-3 |page=7 }} Like the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, it has a pronaos portico of four Ionic columns across and two columns deep. The columns of the portico are free-standing, while the remaining five columns on the long sides and the four columns at the rear are half-columns engaged along the walls of the cella. This form is sometimes called pseudoperipteral, as distinct from a true peripteral temple like the Parthenon entirely surrounded by free-standing columns. The Ionic capitals are of the original form, different in the frontal and side views, except in the volutes at the corners, which project at 45°, a common Roman detail. It is built of tuff and travertine with a stucco surface.
If still in use by the 4th-century, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. The temple owes its state of preservation to its being converted for use as a church in 872 and rededicated to Santa Maria Egiziaca (Saint Mary of Egypt).{{cite book |author=Amanda Claridge |title=Rome |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKc4j1kkL0MC&pg=PT334 |date=5 August 2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-150138-8 |page=334 }} Its Ionic order has been much admired, drawn and engraved and copied since the 16th century.{{cite book |author=Irma B. Jaffe |title=The Italian Presence in American Art, 1760–1860 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmMu8K1x08kC&pg=PA242 |date=1 January 1989 |publisher=Fordham University Press |isbn=978-0-8232-1249-1 |pages=242 }} The original coating of stucco over its tufa and travertine construction has been lost.
The circular Temple of Hercules Victor is south-east of the temple in the Forum Boarium.
The 18th century Temple of Harmony in Somerset, England is a folly based on the Temple of Portunus.
See also
- {{annotated link|Temple of Saturn}}
- List of ancient monuments in Rome
- List of Ancient Roman temples
References
{{Reflist|33em}}
External links
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right
| video1 =[http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/temple-of-portunus.html Smarthistory - Temple of Portunus, Rome, c. 120-80 B.C.E.]}}
- [http://www2.siba.fi/%7Ekkoskim/rooma/pages/PORTUNUS.HTM Temple of Portune]
- [http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/romanvirilis/virilis.html Mary Ann Sullivan, "Temple of Fortuna Virilis (Temple of Portunus)"]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061231093935/http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maecenas/rome/t_fortuna_vir/section_contents.html Images of Temple of Fortuna Virilis (or Portunus)]
- [http://archeoroma.beniculturali.it/en/archaeological-site/temple-portunus-forum-boarium Description in the site of the "Soprintendenza Speciale per il Colosseo, il MNR e l'Area Archeologica di Roma"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171218102715/http://www.archeoroma.beniculturali.it/en/archaeological-site/temple-portunus-forum-boarium |date=2017-12-18 }}
- High-resolution 360° Panoramas and Images of [https://mcid.mcah.columbia.edu/art-atlas/ancient-and-early-christian-sites-rome/temple-portunus Temple of Portunus | Art Atlas]
- {{cite book |first=M. |last=Lucentini |title=The Rome Guide: Step by Step through History's Greatest City|date=31 December 2012 |publisher=Interlink |isbn=9781623710088 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=laMDAQAAQBAJ}}
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{{Sequence
| prev = Temple of Minerva Medica
| list = Landmarks of Rome
| curr = Temple of Portunus
| next = Temple of Saturn
}}
{{Rome landmarks}}
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Category:1st-century BC religious buildings and structures
Category:Buildings and structures completed in the 1st century BC
Category:Conversion of non-Christian religious buildings and structures into churches