Le problème d’identification et de datation du monument de Centcelles, près de Tarragone

Abstract

The article reviews the proceedings of a 1995 colloquium, published in 2002, concerning a building that has aroused a multiplicity of debates since Helmut Schlunk’s attempted reconstruction. Schlunk wished to demonstrate that it represented a mausoleum hurriedly created by Magnentius in 351 for Constans, whom he had had assasinated at Elne at the end of the previous year. Schlunk left a large unpublished volume on the mosaics (later published by A. Arbeiter). In this colloquium, A. Arbeiter defends his “imperial” interpretation against J. Arce, who sees in the mosaics allusions to the episcopal hierarchy, and R. Warland who prefers the idea of an iconography well suited to an aristocratic receptionroom. Many of Schlunk’s detailed arguments appeared to carry little credibility with accepted specialists (the funerary crypt, use in the mausoleum of a porphyry tank re used for a king of Aragon and Sicily at the monastery of Santes Creus, and an initiative b y Magnentius in honour of Constans and of the Concordia imperatorum). Above all, the collection of hunting scenes, of biblical depictions, and of the curious portraits of personages rather difficult to be identified leaves scope for imagination because of the considerable lacunae. In fact, in the absence of extensive excavations and a critical analysis, it has yet to be established whether the villa was finished, whether the rotunda could have served as a reception hall, and whether a radical modification to its function is conceivable.