2020 | Building Peace through Heritage
systems . All these elements conveyed the message of the exhibition in an almost playful way and by using very good scenographic effects .
The exhibition “ I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale ”, ( it was originally scheduled from 28 September 2002 to 19 January 2003 . Then , it was extended until the end of 2003 . See the rich , scientifically accurate Exhibition Catalogue : De Nuccio M . and Ungaro , L ., 2002 ) carried out at the Mercati di Traiano , developed within what can be considered the great open-air museum of the archaeological areas of the Fori Imperiali : an exceptional location , or rather ideal , for a likewise exceptional exhibition , both for its subject , the history and the fortune of the coloured marble of Rome in the Imperial Age , and because of the importance and the number of pieces -240 works- which came from the most important European museums in this field .
Along a route , divided by themes and contexts of origin of the finds , you could take an educational journey that , in parallel with the exhibition and right through the works and the finds , wondered about the formal , aesthetic , ideological , symbolic and metaphorical meaning of marble , and also studied , on different communicative levels , the exploitation , the extraction and manufacturing techniques , the transport and lifting of the blocks of the noble , precious material par excellence , marble indeed , and the distribution of the most important imperial quarries located in the Mediterranean basin .
The sections of the exhibitions which undoubtedly aroused greatest curiosity were the ones where some hypotheses about the reconstruction of architectural structures were brought to the attention of the visitors , which particularly referred to the polychrome richness of the floors and the marble wall claddings . These structures were of various kinds , including temples , arcades , exedrae , all situated in the area of the Fori Imperiali and , therefore , in direct visual contact with their respective archaeological emergencies which are still on-site .
The specific educational purpose of the exhibition transpired in the methodological approach of the layout : from the clarity and brevity of the communicative systems to the high presence of three-dimensional reconstructions , in which appearance and , especially , the materic , chromatic and textural differences of various kinds of marble were particularly emphasized ; from the display of ancient marble samples to reconstructive hypotheses of great visual impact and with strong educational value , realized with the insertion of finds , such as columns , capitals , friezes and trabeations . Then from the descriptions of extraction , transport and manufacturing techniques of the blocks of marble through the use of tools , miniature machines , reconstructive and explicative drawings which represented scenes of a construction site , to the refined use of the open-air archive , located in Trajan ’ s Forum , at the end of the exhibition , in order to allow the visitor direct , personal contact with the materials of the exhibitions .
It is clear that the strong guiding idea of the team that designed the exhibition I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale was to conceive a single integrated guided tour which could establish a visual and conceptual connection between the ruins in situ , which are still perfectly legible , and the materials -architectonic and decoratve fragments and pieces of sculptures- which were shown and presented in order to especially favour , as already mentioned , the educational aspect .
Talking about successful and very appreciated museographic layouts , we could refer to the two very famous models related to the way an exhibition of works of art is read : resonance and wonder . The first consists in the evocative capacity of a displayed object to remind the visitor about elements or concepts , which are maybe absent or obsolete , which refer to the cultural context in which the object itself has been created and of which it is a significant example . The second , on the other hand , enhancing the direct relationship with the objectivity , indicates the capacity of the object , in its status of a museum object , to be considered as a unicum by the visitor . Literary critic Stephen Greenblatt claims that all the exhibitions which are worthy to be seen possess elements of both ( 1995 , p . 45 ).
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