Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples

Villas and Landscapes (c. 100 BCE-79 CE)

Mantha Zarmakoupi

Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation

Architectural analysis of Roman villas which considers contemporary cultural factors, including the appreciation of Greek culture
Points to and discusses key architectural structures in Roman villa architecture
Fully illustrated throughout

Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples

Villas and Landscapes (c. 100 BCE-79 CE)

Mantha Zarmakoupi

Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation

Description

This study explores Roman luxury villa architecture and the Roman luxury villa lifestyle to shed light on the villas' design as a dynamic process related to cultural, social, and environmental factors. Roman villas expressed a novel architectural language which was developed by designers appropriating the existing stylistic and thematic vocabularies of Hellenistic and Roman architecture. Zarmakoupi seeks to describe and explain the ways in which this architecture accommodated the lifestyle of educated leisure and an appreciation of the Roman landscape, and how, in doing so, it became a cultural phenomenon and a crucial element in the construction of Roman cultural identity. In their effort to accommodate the Greek style, Romans created something completely unprecedented in the history of architecture. Through an analysis of five villas from around the bay of Naples (c. 100 BCE - 79 CE), the volume shows that in designing for luxury, Romans developed a sophisticated interplay between architecture and landscape, an interplay which is still seen in architectural design today.

Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples

Villas and Landscapes (c. 100 BCE-79 CE)

Mantha Zarmakoupi

Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation

Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
1:Roman Luxury Villas: Introduction, Historiography, and Scope
2:Case Studies
3:Porticus and Cryptoporticus
4:Porticoed Gardens
5:Water Features: Euripi, Natationes, and Nymphaea
6:Triclinia and Dining Facilities
7:Designing for Luxury
Appendices
Bibliography
Index

Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples

Villas and Landscapes (c. 100 BCE-79 CE)

Mantha Zarmakoupi

Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation

Author Information

Mantha Zarmakoupi, Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow, National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute of Historical Research, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquity (KERA)

Mantha Zarmakoupi is a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute of Historical Research, Department of Greek and Roman Antiquity (KERA). Her research in classical art and archaeology is informed by her background in architectural practice, history, and theory of architecture.

Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples

Villas and Landscapes (c. 100 BCE-79 CE)

Mantha Zarmakoupi

Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture & Representation

Reviews and Awards

"Designing for Luxury on the Bay of Naples would be a rewarding investment for anyone enrolled in a course on Roman domestic architecture. It is definitely a book to add to the reading list." - Katharine T. von Stackelberg, Phoenix

"Mantha Zarmakoupi's volume on villas and landscapes around the Bay of Naples is an essential examination of the architecture and decoration of some of the best-known Roman elite villas, appraised through a thoughtful social-historical lens ... The volume is thoughtful in its combination of architectural description with the literary, material, and cultural contextualization of life in luxury villas." - Francesca C. Tronchin, The Classical Journal

"Zarmakoupi's work provides a useful perspective on ways to analyze Roman villas and their architectural features by examining how social interactions would have contributed to the selection and design of architectural elements ... Zarmakoupi's work sheds light on sites that have seldom been published, and can offer tremendous data on ancient Roman luxury villa lifestyles." - Ismini Alexandra Miliaresis, The Classical Journal Online

"Congratulations are in order. This book is a must-read for all Pompeianisti and, more generally, for all students of Roman architecture as a cultural, not merely a stylistic and technological, phenomenon." - Fred S. Kleiner, American Journal of Archaeology

"The relevance of the topic, as well as Zarmakoupi's capacity to condense a wealth of information about sites and buildings, make this volume a welcome addition to the ever-growing body of scholarship on the Roman "villa culture"." - sehepunkte