Ceci n’est pas un autel, ceci est un autel ! À propos de quelques jeux d’images rituelles à Rome

Abstract

The article focuses on ancient Roman reliefs and their potential for reflexivity. It looks at the echoes of images and sacrificial rituals by analyzing mainly three monuments. The Ara Pacis in Rome makes it possible to reflect on the internal resonances of the images of the enclosure and of the altar itself, and on the external resonances with the rituals that were performed on the altar. The second monument kept in Padua allows us to continue the questioning of the adequacy between the function of the altar and its ornament, a carved altar. Finally, the monument of Pozzuoli, displayed at the archaeological museum of the Phlegraean Fields of Baia, works like a rebus, presenting in a procession, the images of sacrificial animals, a suovetaurile, which have slipped in sculpture on the altar. The entire article therefore sheds light on the complex games put forward by the sculptors and sponsors both at the ritual and iconic levels, and on the dialogues maintained with the spectators.

Keywords

• Ancient Rome
• Roman reliefs
• sacrificial images
• reflexivity
• ritual.