Las estatuas - fuente de la "villa" romana de Los Cantos (Bullas, Murcia)análisis arqueológico e interpretación

Résumé

This article analyses the ornamental programme of the Roman villa of Los Cantos (Bullas, prov. Murcia, Spain), and in particular a set of four statues-fountain with evocations of children, one with a dove, two with a goose and a fourth interpreted as a possible Kairos of Autumn. The sculptures were found in excavations carried out in 1905, although they remained unknown until 2016, when the first three were recovered during an operation by the State security forces against the illicit art trafficking. The crown of the pedestal of the Kairos has recently been recovered. The sculptures are studied from a typological, iconographic, and stylistic point of view, and their significance and functionality at the end of the 2nd - beginning of the 3rd century AD in the context of the decoration of a fountain in the hypothetical hortus of the villa is also discussed