THE ROMAN EMPIRE GARDNER CHAPTER 10-2 PP

POMPEII AND THE CITIES OF VESUVIUS  August 24, 79 CE -> Mount Vesuvius erupts -> many prosperous towns around the Bay of Naples buried in one day -> most famous city was Pompeii  Ruins undisturbed for 1700 years -> first excavated in the 18 th century -> major event for archaeologists and art historians

FORUM  FORUM = the center of civic life in any Roman town -> public square  Located at the center of the town  North end -> Temple of Jupiter/Capitolium -> sits at north of Forum -> unlike Greek temple it does not stand isolated  Porticoes lined the forum  BASILICA -> at the southwest corner of the forum -> housed the law court of Pompeii -> long and narrow with 2 stories of internal columns -> central nave and flanking aisles

AMPHITHEATER  Pompeii’s amphitheater is the oldest know -> 70 BCE  Could seat 20,000 -> seating was assigned by rank -> social hierarchy  Amphitheater = “double theater” -> resembles two Greek theaters put together  Artificial earthen mound surrounded and supported by giant retaining wall that holds up the earthen mound and stone seats -> barrel vaults form tunnels that lead to the arena

HOUSE OF THE VETII  Atrium of the House of the Vetii -> 62 BCE  Roman townhouse with central atrium with impluvium with open roof above -> bedrooms/cubicula opened onto the atrium  Peristyle garden at the back with mural paintings

PAINTING  Houses and villas around Vesuvius provide best record of interior decoration in the ancient world  Custom painted murals in nearly every room  True frescoes  The various mural painting schemes are dived into 4 Pompeian Styles

THE ROMAN HOUSE  Patron-client relationships was a key element of Roman society -> status of a patron depended on size of his clientele  DOMUS = house  FAUCES = entryway  ATRIUM  IMPLUVIUM  CUBICULUM = bedrooms  TABLINUM = “home office”  TRICLINIUM = kitchen  PERISTYLE = columns surrounding small enclosed garden

FIRST STYLE  First Style wall painting in the fauces of the Samnite House, Herculaneum, Italy, late 2 nd century BCE  First Style -> also called Masonry Style = decorator’s aim was to imitate costly marble panels using painted stucco relief

SECOND STYLE  Second Style wall painting, detail of tholos from cubiculum M of the Villa at Boscoreale, BCE  Second Style is antithesis of First Style  Painters wanted to dissolve a room’s confining walls and replace them with the illusion of an imaginary three-dimensional world  Illusionism

VILLA OF THE MYSTERIES  Dionysiac mystery frieze, Second Style wall paintings in room 5 of the Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy, BCE, fresco, frieze 5’4”  Chamber used to celebrate in private the rites of Dionysos -> precise nature of Dionysiac rites unknown  Imaginary 3 dimensional world on the walls -> mortals interacting with mythological figures  Frieze is framed by painted panels imitating wall w/a shallow ledge on which the actors move around the room

VILLA AT BOSCOREALE  Second Style wall painting in cubiculum of the Villa at Boscoreale, BCE  All around the room are vistas of Italian towns, marble temples, and colonnaded courtyards  Use of linear perspective -> all receding lines in a composition converge on a single point along the paintings central axis to convey depth and distance

VILLA OF LIVIA, PRIMAPORTA  Gardenscape, Second Style wall paintings, from the Villa of Livia, Primaporta, Italy, ca BCE, fresco  The ultimate expression of a Second Style “picture window” wall  To suggest recession, the painter used atmospheric perspective = intentionally blurring the most distant forms

THIRD STYLE  Detail of Third Style wall painting from the Villa at Boscotrecase, 10 BCE, frsco  Third Style -> reasserts the primacy of the wall surface -> does not seek to create 3-D world -> does not imitate a marble wall  Walls are decorated with delicate linear fantasies sketched on predominantly monochromatic (one-color) bacgrounds

VILLA AT BOSCOTRECASE  Third Style wall painting  Landscapes and mythological scenes appear in frames, like modern canvas painting hung on walls

FOURTH STYLE  Fourth Style wall paintings from the Domus Aurea of Nero, Rome, CE  Creamy white walls of Nero’s Golden House display a kinship w/the Third Style but views through the walls revealing irrational architectural vista characterize the new Fourth Style

IXION ROOM  Fourth Style walls paintings in the Ixion Room of the House of the Vetii in Pompeii, CE  Garishly colored, crowded and confused compositions with a mixture of architectural views, framed mythological panel paintings, and First and Third Style motifs  Like a small private art gallery with paintings decorating the walls

WALL MOSAICS  In Roman times mosaics move from the floors onto walls and even ceilings  Neptune and Amphitrite, wall mosaic at Herculaneum, CE  Sea deities overlooking an elaborate fountain

PRIVATE PORTRAITS  Portrait of a husband and wife, wall painting from a Pompeian house, CE  Man holds scroll, woman holds stylus and writing tablet -> thoughtful and finely educated  Like a wedding photo  Realistic portraiture

STILL LIFE PAINTING  Still life with peaches, detail from a 4 th Style wall painting from Herculaneum, CE, fresco  Roman interest in illusionism -> attention on the play of light and shadow on different shapes and textures