Top: Sealed, or branded, bricks, according to customs of several factories. Having been dug up in Naples, Carafa believes the one branded, left to right, “IMP. CAES. HADRIANI AVG” to have served some building at the behest of Caesar, or at least in his honour. Bottom: to the left a small pot with the imprinted name “HPAKɅEIOY ɅYKON”: that is, Licone, son of Heraclius. The middle fragment bears the Greek women’s name “MAPΣIA ΠAPAMOvn”, whom Carafa believes was the owner of the land where the clay was dug up or the owner of the factory; as is the case with the other specimen’s name “ΔAMOKPATHΣ” – with a stamp or a sign of the lily — the fragment coming from Sicily.
Featured on PDR in the collection Curiosities from the Museum of Giovanni Carafa (1778)
These fantastic depictions of various Roman antiquities are sourced from Alcuni monumenti del Museo Carrafa (1778), a wonderful catalogue of objects once found in the private museum of 18th-century antiquities collector Giovanni Carafa, the Duke of Noja (now called Noicattaro, a town near Bari in southern Italy ). Born in 1715, Carafa studied grammar and literature but soon developed an interest in scientific subjects, mainly mathematics. Around 1738 he was appointed lecturer of Optics and Mathematics at the University of Naples, and there he continued to explore his interests in the natural sciences, especially geology and mineralogy. He soon began collecting archaeological and numismatic pieces concerning southern Italy and established a small museum (which would become part of the collection of Museo di Capodimonte in…
Also appearing in the collection…
Bricks, pot, and fragments.
Artist
Date
1778
From
Alcuni monumenti del Museo Carrafa
Source
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