DU QUESNOY, FRANÇOIS, known as IL FIAMMINGO. — Sculptor, born in Brussels on 12 January 1594, died in Livorno on 12 July 1643. He received his initial artistic training from his father Girolamo il Vecchio in his native city; in 1618 he went to Rome, where he formed a relationship with Nicola Poussin and began studying the antique.
(1st. Alinari)
Duquesno, S. P. — S. Andrea — Basilica of S. Pietro.
excavation, which was the great temple of the Palmyrene deities, and roughly outlined the contours of the city and its fortifications. Breasted reported the discoveries to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris, which decided to undertake a systematic excavation campaign on site, the area having meanwhile passed under French mandate. The excavations were carried out in 1922–23 under the direction of F. Cumont and were then resumed in 1927 by a joint mission of Yale University (USA) and the French Academy until 1937.
The excavations revealed that the Mesopotamian town was soon, perhaps from the very beginning of the Greco-Macedonian colony, completely surrounded by a high wall, which in some sections has a zigzag course. The Romans strengthened the position further with two ramparts. Within the circle of these fortifications, on one side of which—facing the desert—opened a grand gateway, Dura Europos, from an urban planning perspective, appears to have been laid out according to the Hippodamian plan, with streets intersecting at right angles. The center was occupied by the agora and various public buildings. The blocks, formed by the intersection of streets sometimes lined with columns, were occupied by private houses, often large and richly decorated in an Oriental style, or by large temples, mostly of Babylonian type, with spacious courtyards and small chapels.
During the Roman occupation, about a quarter of the inhabited area, that in the northwest, was transformed into a military camp: there arose several barracks, a monumental praetorium, a castrense amphitheater, sumptuous baths, and various military sanctuaries, including a mithraeum decorated with paintings found almost intact. These are particularly important from a thematic standpoint, as they depict two figures unknown in the decoration of other military temples—Zoroaster and Ostanes—as well as Mithras on horseback as a hunter. Among the numerous temples dedicated to the deities of the four Olympians, Babylonian, Syrian, Greek, and Roman, noteworthy are those of the warrior god Aphlad; of a deity perhaps local, Artemis Azzanathkona; of Zeus Kyrios; of Artemis Nanaia; and of Bel, Yarhibol, and Agibol, which was frescoed in the Parthian period with scenes depicting sacrifices performed by the faithful in the presence of the donor’s family.
DURA EUROPOS - Plan of the Christian church (3rd century).
Dura Europos - Plan of the Christian church (3rd century).
2001
and in the Roman period, toward the end of the 2nd or early 3rd century, with a large scene depicting the Roman tribune Julius Terentius, accompanied by eight officers, a standard-bearer, and the twentieth cohort of indigenous archers, performing a sacrificial rite to the Palmyrene triad and to the Tychae of Dura and of Palmyra.
Amidst so many cult buildings, there also stand a Christian church and a synagogue, which are of particular importance because the former has preserved the oldest baptismal frescoes with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, while the latter constitutes the only example of a Jewish temple with painted decoration. The building that housed the Christian church with its attached baptistery differs in no way, planimetrically, from the other civil structures of Dura. It is a large private house (m. 18 x 20) built in the 1st or 2nd century, which subsequently underwent transformations to be adapted for use as a place of worship. At the center of the building was a large square courtyard.
A door on the south side led into a large rectangular hall, whose length of 12 meters resulted from the joining of two rooms, as evidenced by traces still preserved of an ancient dividing wall that was removed to create a single large space. This transformation likely occurred around 232–33, at the time when an inscription was scratched into the still-fresh stucco of this hall bearing that date. Near the back wall, remains of a broad podium were found, on which it is highly probable that the altar or the bishop’s cathedra stood. This hall is to be identified as a liturgical space. From the north side of the courtyard, one enters a small rectangular room that was converted into a baptistery with the addition of a pool, which was covered by a kind of baldachin richly decorated and supported by two pillars and two columns. The walls of this room were frescoed with scenes of the Good Shepherd, Adam and Eve beside the tree of the terrestrial paradise, David’s combat with Goliath, and the Samaritan woman at the well.
