Parco archeologico del Colosseo - Domus Aurea

Domus Aurea After the great fire of Rome in the year 64 A.D. destroyed a great part of the city centre, the emperor Nero began the construction of his new living residence, which for its pomp and magnificence is known in history as Domus Aurea.The project was laid down by the architects Severus and Celer, and the painted decoration was signed by the painter Fabullus.  The Domus Aurea was not a single palace, but  was made of several  buildings separated by gardens, woods and vineyards.  It even included an artificial lake, located in the valley where we now see the Colosseum.  The main buildings of the architectural complex were located on the Palatine and on the Oppian hill, and were celebrated for their rich decoration, made of stuccoes, paintings and coloured marbles,  and also of wall coverings made of gold and precious stones. The huge complex included, among other things, thermal baths with common and sulphur water, many banquet halls, as the famous coenatio rotunda, which rotated around its axis, and an enormous vestibule with a colossal statue of the emperor dressed as the Sun-god.  The buildings which are still visible today are those on the Oppian hill.   They have a complex plan and were probably used for  celebrations and banquets. After the death of Nero they were buried under the great baths of Trajan, and were only discovered in Renaissance times. After some accidental findings, famous artists with a passion for antiquity, such as Pinturicchio, Ghirlandaio, Raffaello e Giulio Romano, descended from the ceiling in those grottoes and started copying the decorative style of the wall paintings, which was then given the name of “grottesco”. The term  “pittura a grottesche” is still in use today, and  denotes a particular style, most popular in the 16th century, which elaborates and interprets in a ludic and imaginative manner the motifs of the ancient roman  paintings.