Among finds near Villa Palombara Horti Lamiani there is a big amount of bronze gilded panels, stripes with gemstones. They were part of the villa decoration, set into the wooden elements on the walls and furniture.
Over 400 gemstones used in decorations have been found in the villa: peridots, amethysts, garnets, lapis lazuli, green and blue chalcedony, crystal quartz, carnelians, various agate, sapphire and aquamarine. We can see here all gemstones used in Roman jewelry, but the settings refer more to the architectural elements.
“An echo of this kind of painstaking decoration, very suitable for the excessive taste of an emperor like Caligula, and testified by some Pompeian 2nd style paintings at the villa of Poppea in Oplontis.” (see “The Villa of Caligula”)
“It is not possible to ascertain the exact shape of this extraordinary piece of furniture, which had the frame of hard wood, encrusted with gilt metal, and studded with precious stones”. Rodolfo Lanciani
More pictures of decorations >> https://www.araldodeluca.com/ricerca
sources:
- Mariarosaria Barbera, Salvo Barrano, Giacomo de Cola, Silvia Festuccia, Luca Giovannetti, Oberdan Menghi and Manola Pales, The villa of Caligula: a new sector of the Horti Lamiani discovered under the ENPAM headquarters in Rome pp. 13-14
- The polychromy of Greek and Etrusco-Roman architecture
- https://www.romeartlover.it/Vasi195.htm
- Musei Capitolini
- http://www.romainteractive.com/eng/imperial-rome/imperial-villas/horti-lamiani.html
- http://romapedia.blogspot.com/2014/05/capitoline-museums-gallery-of-gardens.html