Nel Fondo Caiazzo there are a series of Roman age funerary hypogea, equipped along the walls with several orders of niches. In the arcosolium of the third environment of one of them, part of the usual seat for the meal in honor of the deceased is still visible in situ. In the first two rooms, the presence of dry stone walls delimiting burial boxes testifies to a reuse in late antiquity. Of the group of hypogea, only the two largest present a rich white stucco decoration that affects the walls and the vault, despite the cuts made over time to remove the figured reliefs considered more precious. The decoration, common to both hypogea, follows the scheme formed by geometric elements, often arranged concentrically around a panel or floating figures. All the larger panels, delimited by a thin egg-and-dart frame, contain a figured relief, generally inspired by Dionysian themes; one can indeed recognize dancing Maenads among pavilions supported by pseudo-architectural structures and other genre subjects reproducing iconographic types widespread in Roman painting. Other recurring themes in the decoration of both environments are scenes with winged cupids engaged in hunting or associated with dolphins, aquatic monsters, and other marine creatures. The external part of the funerary shrines, placed in the center of the free walls, had to be supported by columns, fragments of which remain, also stuccoed and adorned with vegetal motifs.
Information about the Hypogea of Fondo Caiazzo
Via Nuova Campania
80078 Pozzuoli (Naples)
0815266007
sar-cam.pozzuoli@beniculturali.it
https://sba-na.campaniabeniculturali.it
Source: MIBACT
