Il decoro del mausoleo imperiale dell’area di San Vittore (Milano)

This paper discus the wall and floor decoration of the imperial mausoleum, analyzing the fragments discovered during the excavation trough an archeological (formal and comparative) and archaeometrical method (material analysis). The main aim is to imagine the aspect of the interior of the mausoleum, and to know the chronology, the level of the decoration and network necessary to create this decoration. The 1369 preserved crustae and 2612 glass tesserae, representing less than 2% of the surface area that must have been covered by the covering in the excavated portion, are here analyzed. The pavement has a white and black opus sectile, combing hexagonal, triangular, squared and rhomboidal crustae. In the wall the decorative scheme was in all likelihood articulated in figured and geometric sectile, which were to compose modular panels, placed above a smooth slab marble cladding sealed by a moulded frame. The attested lithotypes are white and coloured, the latter being among the most valued in Roman times, as in the case of alabaster or red porphyry. The presence of the figurative crustae and opus the interrasile suggests a comparison with similar prestigious 3th-4th c. examples, including that one of the building outside Porta Marina in Ostia. A mosaic with a blue background decorated the niches and probably the dome. It was mainly made of glass materials dating back to the 4th century and was probably later restored in the medieval era. This attests a probably refection in middle age, as suggested trough some fragments of medieval frescos, probably integrating some sections of the walls where there were gaps left by the removal of marble.