Wall paintings through the ages: the roman period\u2014Republic and early Empire

Monica Salvadori,Clelia Sbrolli

doi:10.1007/s12520-021-01411-3

Abstract

This paper aims at presenting an overview of Roman wall painting production between late Republic and the early Empire. It will focus on the technique and style of in situ wall paintings from the Vesuvian area (Italy). Frescoes are indeed an integral part of architecture and reflect the patrons’ ambitions and social level as well as the craftsmen’s technical know-how. Since this is a handicraft product, the quality of materials, the craftsmen’s skills and the technique are fundamental to understand the fresco’s value and the message that the patron wished to communicate through the use of elaborate schemes, expensive colours or certain mythological themes.

Highlights

The history of Roman painting is mainly a history of wall painting
It should be noted that the corpus of wall paintings found in different areas of the Roman Empire has increased in recent decades; such evidence is most often fragmentary and lacunose, difficult to fit into an overall scenario though (Dubois and Niffeler 2018)
Thereby, putting together all the aspects of wall painting production allows to reconstruct the characteristics of the architectural context, the technical know-how of the craftsmen and the economic and social value of the paintings. Since this is an artisanal product (Bragantini 2004), the quality of the materials, the craftsmen’s skills and the technique are fundamental to understand the value of the wall painting and the message that the patron wished to communicate through the use of elaborate schemes, expensive colours or certain mythological themes

Summary

Introduction

The history of Roman painting is mainly a history of wall painting. Instead, there is almost no or scarce evidence of portable paintings on wooden panels (the Fayum mummy portraits and the pinakes—boards—from Pitsà represent precious exceptions), or other types of support like marble, of which the monochromata of Herculaneum are a famous/ paradigmatic example (Sampaolo 2009; Lenzi 2016). 187 Page 2 of 30Archaeol Anthropol Sci (2021) 13:187Frescoes have been found in diverse conditions, either they had remained in situ, i.e. in the original context which they belonged to, or fallen in fragments following the wall’s collapse or reused as debris in different contexts—even in landfills (Carrive 2017).As regards in situ frescoes, the Vesuvian area (Southern Italy) offers exemplary evidence; it has attracted great interest from scholars since the discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It has been repeatedly emphasised that the frescoes preserved in situ – that is, as an integral part of the building – qualify the function of the rooms, contribute to defining the paths of use of the building itself, and may reflect the patrons’ ambitions and social level (WallaceHadrill 1994). It has been observed how much the typology and lexicon of the so-called Pompeian styles have influenced studies in Roman painting (Bragantini 2019). It should be noted that the corpus of wall paintings found in different areas of the Roman Empire has increased in recent decades; such evidence is most often fragmentary and lacunose, difficult to fit into an overall scenario though (Dubois and Niffeler 2018)

Objectives

Conclusion