The Small Baths at Hadrian's Villa

Abstract

The building is something of a minor celebrity because of its unorthodox plan and the unusual, undulating form of one of its vaults, but it has not been published in any detail. Its fabric, quite well preserved, has now been studied thoroughly with a view to obtaining a reliable base for analysis and for restoration studies. Here the building is described, its plan and interior dispositions analyzed, and its decor and technology reported. Details of chronology, and of the physical state of the building, are given in appendices, drawings, and tables. The artistic nature and historical position of the design are discussed against the background of the architectural principles of the Villa as a whole and within the framework of Roman imperial architecture. Although the Baths are usually regarded in the literature as something of a dead end-interesting, perhaps, but of little significance in the history of architecture-they can be said to be an outstanding example of that experimental strain in Roman architecture which in a sense reached maturity only when certain of its principles were absorbed into the work of postRenaissance, anti-regole masters.