Fig. 5.6 Kos, Sanctuary of Asclepius, reconstruction.
(R. Herzog and P. Schatzmann, Kos 1, Pl. 40)
Fig. 5.7 Tarracina. View toward Circeii from Temple of Jupiter Anxur.
(H. Kähler, Rom und seine Welt, Pl. 49)
In materials and methods, in massiveness and axial symmetry, the Sanctuary of Fortune bears a Roman stamp. But when we recall the experience of Sulla and his lieutenants, the Luculli, in the Creek East, Greek influence is very likely. Of the many Hellenistic Greek complexes available for comparison, the closest in spirit to Palestrina is the Sanctuary of Asclepius on the island of Kos in the Dodacanese, in the southeast Aegean Sea, where the major temple, built in the mid-second century B.C., is the focal point of a grandiose composition ([Fig. 5.6]). Placed on the highest of three terraces, it is framed by a three-sided colonnade like the Cortina Terrace at Palestrina, and approached by three successive monumental stairways leading up the lower terraces, which are arched as at Palestrina. A few standard architectural ingredients, arches, colonnades, monumental stairways, are grouped as a clearly defined composition, easy to grasp, simple, bold, plastic, the few standard elements firmly juxtaposed. Contrasts of scale, an elevated and central position, an axial approach, all make of the temple the focal, culminating point of the composition. It is exactly so at Palestrina, and in scores of other Hellenistic sanctuaries. Also noteworthy in both places is “the same outspoken taste for vista. Not only is the triple-terraced sanctuary visible from afar, not only is the crowning element, a temple, a beacon toward which visitor and worshipper alike are drawn by the now familiar devices of setting, frontality and access, but again, once we have reached the summit, a scene of breathtaking beauty, of unexpected amplitude, of mountain, sea and plain confronts us.” The words are those of Phyllis Lehmann, from whom the description of the site at Kos draws heavily, but they were reinforced by a visit made by the present writer to the island in September, 1956, expressly to compare the site with Palestrina. Mrs. Lehmann goes on, “Although many factors, notably the sanctity of a cult spot, were involved in the choice of such sites, their architectural treatment attests a keen awareness of landscape setting as a prime aesthetic ingredient in the total effect.” The unknown architect-genius who planned Palestrina probably knew the Greek Sanctuary at Kos; he was certainly in touch with the main movement of mind of his age. But the final impression of this dynamic, utterly functional, axially symmetric complex is not Greek but Roman, a great memorial façade to celebrate the end of a Civil War. Italy as well as Greece can provide ground-plans by which parts of the Sanctuary at Palestrina might have been inspired, notably one in Cagliari in Sardinia, and another at Gabii, near Rome.
Fig. 5.8 Tarracina. Temple of Jupiter Anxur, reconstruction.
(F. Fasolo and G. Gullini, Il Santuario di Fortuna Primigenia, Pl. 25)