31. Bronze Trees from the Greek to the Roman World

It is well known that trees, gardens, and landscapes are not commonly represented in Greek art until the Hellenistic period. In vase painting, the focus is on men, gods, and heroes; war, hunting, labor, rituals, weddings, death, and festivals offer the opportunity to represent humans, who are at the center of philosophy and art in ancient Greece. Nature and landscapes, by contrast, rarely appear in vase painting; floral patterns, tendrils, and leaves only appear as subsidiary decoration. In a few cases, flowers and trees acquire life on their own as gods’ attributes or to give emphasis to a sacred setting, as for example the palm tree linked to the birth of Apollo and the sanctuary of Delos.

In the Greek world, fruit and vegetables played an important role as offerings and anathemata. Items such as firstfruits were given to the gods, but these were perishable items meant to be burnt on the altars the same day.¹

Fruit and vegetables could become more durable offerings if they were modeled from clay, ivory, bronze, or gold,² as for instance the famous “golden harvest” dedicated from Metaponto to Delphi; the gold celery from Selinus; or the silphium from Ampelos.³ In addition to such fruits and vegetables given as anathemata, trees made from bronze and precious metals have been reported as offerings at some of the major Greek sanctuaries.

These objects are well known thanks to the ancient sources. For example, Plutarch described the bronze palm dedicated in the sanctuary of Delphi by Kypselos—perhaps a sphyrelaton⁴—and one offered by the Athenians after the battle of the Eurymedon (470/469 BC).⁵ The base of the latter has been identified to the northeast of the front side of the Apollo temple: a statue of Athena with an owl stood on top of the palm tree, which had bunches of golden dates and was still standing at the time of Pausanias.⁶ Another famous bronze palm tree was offered by Nikias at the Apollo sanctuary of Delos around 417 BC, as mentioned by Plutarch; its base is preserved not far from the oikos of the Naxians.⁷

However, we also have many realia. A good example in bronze was found during the excavations of Karapanos in Dodona; it represents a branch of an oak, the tree sacred to Zeus.⁸ Moreover, we may remember the bronze branches and laurel leaves in the sanctuary of Apollo in Klaros, and those found in Magna Graecia, in Kroton, Kaulonia, and Metaponto (fig. 31.1); these testify to the practice of dedicating bronze laurel trees to Apollo.⁹

Among profane artworks, I would note the golden grapevine adorned with precious stones attributed by some scholars to the versatile artist Theodoros of Samos and the golden plane tree, both decorating the Persian royal palace: the grapevine was hung over the king’s bed like a baldachin. According to the majority of sources, this work combined the monumentality of bronze sculptures with the elegance of jewelry.¹⁰

The ancient texts date these ornaments to the period of Darius I (522–486 BC), but it is likely that they remained in use until the time of Alexander the Great. They might therefore have become a source of inspiration for some of the toreutic art in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, such as a golden grapevine offered as anathema in the Artemision of Delos in the third century BC, and the one offered by Aristobulos II to Pompey when he arrived in Syria: εἴτε ἄμπελος εἴτε κῆπος.¹¹ This may be the same one that Pliny the Elder remembered as being displayed during a triumph in Rome, “a square mountain of gold with deer, lions and every variety of fruit on it and a golden vine entwined around it,” which was then exhibited in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus.¹²

Moreover, we know that various metal trees served as interior decorations for sacred temples, such as the ingenious bronze palm tree in the Erechtheion crafted by Kallimachos.¹³ A famous candelabrum, perhaps trunk-shaped, with lamps shaped like fruits, was once held in the Temple of Apollo Ismenios in Thebes. It was taken away by Alexander the Great, then dedicated in the Temple of Apollo at Cyme (Kyme), and finally carried to Rome to be shown in the Apollo Temple on the Palatine. Pliny may be the only source that refers to this installation, but a terminus ante quem for its creation is given by the conquest of Thebes by Alexander the Great in 335 BC.¹⁴

In Hellenistic art, unlike in Classical Greek art, vegetal themes were very popular, perhaps following the model of the Persian royal gardens, which Alexander himself knew well.¹⁵ Flowers and plants were used, for instance, in the luxurious decoration of the famous pavilion (skené) and procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus in the court of Alexandria,¹⁶ whose golden plants and furniture with floral decorations were described by Athenaeus.¹⁷

Of course, gardens like the one in Alexandria were artificial: the exuberance of nature was subordinated to the rigor of architecture and architectural decoration. The same concept is evident in the wall-paintings of imperial villas, for example in the famous villa of Livia (Villa ad gallinas albas) at Prima Porta, where the gardens are depicted according to architectural rules.¹⁸

The taste for ornamental plants spread in the arts and crafts of Early Imperial Rome. They evoked the spirit of the Alexandrian gardens and the tree-shaped artworks and precious monumental anathemata in the Greek temples and sanctuaries (i.e., laurel trees, palms, and grapevines in bronze or gold) that were still visible in Roman times.

Candelabra in the form of trees, more or less naturalistic, were widespread. The most common were certainly lampstands with slender shafts a canna (cane-like), representing bamboo or lopped branches, surmounted by a disk to hold a single lamp (fig. 31.2).¹⁹ This type was most likely produced in central Italy and was manufactured in a small, tabletop version, and in a larger version, to be placed on the floor.²⁰

In addition to such stylized variants, however, there is also evidence of more naturalistic representations. There are medium-sized lampstands, trunk-shaped, made to be placed on tables or supports, with small lamps suspended from their branches like fruits, such as the specimens from Pompeii and the famous lampstand from the Meloria (Livorno) (fig. 31.3).²¹ It has been noticed that the leaves are poorly represented, but these items are not trees—they are lampstands. Evidently, the lamps, as small bearers of light, replaced the leaves.

Some ornate stands have a large rectangular base upon which statuettes of heroes, satyrs, or gods could be placed, as for instance a beautiful acanthus-shaped candelabrum, with Attis or Alexander Helios, which is now in Geneva.²² In these examples, the tree can be naturalistic, with twisted trunk and branches, in the manner of Hellenistic art, or modeled with more architectural forms, such as a floral column. In addition to examples of this type from the Early Imperial period, there is evidence of more complex objects in which the tree is the support of statuettes, leaning toward the plant. I recall here examples in Pompeii, Ephesos, Baden (Switzerland), the one now in Kansas City, and perhaps the one from Hungary (Brigetio).²³ These artworks testify to the decorative function of certain metal trees, which is very evident in the Roman world; the tree, after a long life as agalma or gift to the gods, is now a “bringer of light” that found its way out of the sanctuaries and into the wealthy domus of the Romans as luxury furniture.²⁴

Other bronze trees in the Roman world had a votive function: such is likely the case for the candelabrum in the British Museum, a true signum pantheum, in which a twisted tree became the support for pantheistic attributes in relief. This is a unique object, as far as I know, which due to its small size should be assigned to a lararium or a small domestic shrine setting.²⁵

In northern Italy, a group found in the region of Verona is of great interest. It consisted of a small bronze tree and a statuette of Minerva (fig. 31.4): one can assume that they too were likely placed in a lararium.²⁶ Lamps modeled in the form of an acanthus bud are known also from among the famous findings of Montorio Veronese, some of which were likely part of a lararium.²⁷ Individual leaves are represented in Roman times among votive offerings, as we know from many examples from northern Italy.²⁸

Some finds derive from the provinces, but these materials are mostly without context; the hypothesis that they belong to lararia or domestic shrines is considered here because of the small size of the objects. Small trees have notably been found in the Magdalensberg (Noricum); in Strasbourg (Argentoratae) and in Seltz (both in Alsace); in Hintzerath (Trier); in Zugmantel; and in Bonn.²⁹ These examples are scattered over a wide area, but always within the Roman Empire; some of them are quite alike (and may have been produced in the same area³⁰) and they all attest to the practice of dedicating more or less naturalistic little figures of trees to the gods.

We can gain a sense of the importance of plants from two famous statuettes. One is the miniature silver statuette from northern Italy, considered the Terra mater/salus, of the Summano mountain site.³¹ The find is linked to transhumance routes but also to practices that evoke the rural fertility cults: the goddess sits on a throne, with a patera, snakes, and branches. The second is the well-known Dea Artio from Muri (Bern), with a tree that seems to represent the wild landscape.³²

If we turn from votive objects to wall-painting, we can see that, at least in southern Italy, branches, plants, and flowers are widespread in lararia, in scenes of sacrifice—representing the natural landscape of the ritual—or to recall the ancient lucus, the sacred grove.³³

I would speculate that these small bronze trees, when they were placed in lararia or domestic shrines, are more than mere small-sized tree-shaped lamp-holders. Rather they may reference the lucus or the ancient offering of firstfruits that was always of great importance in the Roman world.

Notes