Aeneas Veneris et Anchisae filius: le immagini di Enea nel repertorio figurativo di età repubblicana e imperiale

The contribution analyses the iconographic attestations of the myth of Aeneas in Roman art from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. It is possible to identify Aeneas more likely in Roman figurative imagery around the middle of the 1st century BC in connection with the political use of genealogy and mythological memory as a means of legitimation and self-assertion in the climate of fierce competition of the Roman gentes. Between the late Republican and Augustan age, the Aeneas myth appears in narrative cycles or individual depictions centred on Rome’s mythical past in the civil, sacred and funerary spheres, as well as in the widespread depictions of Ilioupersis. With the establishment of the principate, the great novelty is the literary and visual construction of a narrative in which, for the exaltation of Augustus and Rome, the story of Aeneas – progenitor of the gens Julia – is combined with that of Romulus – progenitor of the Romans and in turn descendant of Aeneas through Iulus and the kings of Alba Longa. The episodes relating to Aeneas found in official art are those already attested in the previous period: Aeneas sacrificing the white sow in Lavinium, after having landed on the coast of Latium, finds its iconic representation in the Ara Pacis (13-9 BC), while the complex of the Forum Augustum (42-2 BC) depicts the episode of Aeneas’ flight from Troy. The iconography of this sculptural group was a spectacular success in Roman art, being replicated and disseminated in public and private spheres in the most diverse classes of materials and throughout the empire. To the revival of the myth in official art, particularly in the coinage and medallions of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, is linked the presence of Aeneas in the funerary sphere from the 2nd century AD onwards. Funerary art, and in particular the paintings returned to us from domestic contexts add images to the “Aeneas dossier” that depend on the early and widespread popularity of the Virgilian poem, such as Aeneas’ wounding and especially his love affair with Dido.