Roman Wall Paintings The Three Types: I.Architectural and Landscape II. Mythological and Historical III. Portrait

Type 1: Architectural and Landscape - Pillars, moldings, windows, doors, decorations - “Makes the room feel bigger.” - “Makes the room look fancier.” - “The room is more dynamic.” - Adds realism. - Looks outside, and makes one feel away from the city.

Painting showing peaches and a bowl of water.

Type 2: Mythological and Historical - “Told a story.” - Could represent a myth, battle, or particular event - Though often obscure to us, painters would use clear symbols to identify characters, especially the gods.

Mars and Venus How can you identify them?

Zeus (disguised as a bull) abducting Europa.

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia

Venus stands over her son, Aeneas (mythical founder of the Roman people) as his wounds are tended to. This scene is from the Aeneid, Virgil’s epic poem describing Aeneas’ travel to Italy, and the beginning of the Roman history.

Painting showing the Dionysiac Mysteries, a secret religious initiation process.

Painting showing an unspecified naval battle.

Type 3: Portriats - Showed common people and common themes. - Often represented life-like scenes, such as groups of people dining, preparing food, etc. - Would sometimes represent animals and pets. (Do you think this makes it a little more like the first type of painting?)

Portrait of a Roman woman

A Roman woman preparing for her wedding day.

Above: A woman preparing perfumes. Left: A woman gathering flowers.

Slaves preparing a meal, or possibly a sacrifice.

Painting depicting the sale of bread from a baker’s stall. (This doesn’t appear to be a taberna, which would have been covered. Perhaps this was in front of the taberna, or this may have been some sort of mobile stall.)

A dinner party in a triclinium. It appears that the party is breaking up.

A figure (most likely a satyr) peeking out of a garden.

A bird eating a fig. In some ways, this is like the first type, as it adds depth and realism to the room. On the other hand, it also adds a living, moving dynamic to the room, much like the portraits and other images of people.

Some useful links (also found on my website at: ) Beautiful images of a decorated dining room from Herculaneum asphttp:// asp - The first half is all vase paintings. However, the lower half of the page has numerous wall paintings Full of wonderful mythology images.