Abstract

The resumption of excavations at Glanum and the start of restoration work in the House of the Two Alcoves (XVIII) has, by providing new data, resulted in a new and more satisfactory interpretation of the paintings both in position and in fragments. The chronological phases of decoration can be reduced to two main periods : the first is dated 60-50 B.C. (room with the alcoves) and the second 35-30 B.C. (room with the voluled stalks and restoration in the neighbouring room), while the destruction of the house took place between 30 and 20 B.C. The construction goes back to the beginning of the 1st century B.C. Re-examination of the fragmentary decorations has revealed some dubious joins, while new examination of paintings in position, carried out after careful cleaning, has made it possible to reconstruct each wall on paper. These reconstructions are much more complete than before and more consonant with what we know of the II Pompeian Style, to which the decoration is closely related. The making of a model of the two rooms has established the position of the windows and the existence of two vaults over each of the alcoves, which accords with an arrangement known in the great villas of Campania. A similar re-examination has been carried out on room D in the House of Sulla (XII), where reconstruction drawings of the two long walls have demonstrated the bipartite nature of the decoration ; the presence of a painted pilaster a third of the way along the wall suggests that we are dealing with a triclinium rather than a cubiculum, an inference which is supported by the mosaic pavement. The decoration, again of the II Pompeian Style, and datable to the middle of the 1st century B.C., is highly structured and shows anthropomorphic consoles which had escaped notice at the time of the earlier study.

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