2. Roman Wall Paintings
An exploration of the four styles
Claudia Marchesi
PhD Candidate
University of Canberra
April 2014

3. Villa dei misteri

5. • August Mau
Geschichte der decorativen Wandmalerei in Pompeji.
Reimer, Berlin 1882
Based on houses in Pompeii
Problems:
implies that innovation stopped in 79AD
not discrete periods
buon fresco

6. Before pompeii

7. Before pompeii
• Most surviving early wall painting is from tombs,
such as the Macedonian tombs at Lefkadia
• More recent finds of domestic wall painting at Delos
and Akrotiri
• Best known examples in Italy are from Etruscan
tombs and the Tomb of the Diver at Paestum
(Magna Graecia, c. 470 BC)

8. Tomb of the Diver, Paestum
Above: painted sarcophagus lid
Below: wall decoration

9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Domus_romana_Vector002.svg

10. The
Samnit
e
House
Herculaneum
First style

11. also called incrustation

12. • from 200 BC to 60 BC
• Architectural zones:
• Plinth
Socle [Dado]
Orthostats
Isodomic courses
Stringcourse
Cornice
• The idea of faux-finishes is something that has
persisted.

13. • House of the Griffins, Palatine, Rome

14. Second style
• Fresco wall painting in a
cubiculum (bedroom) from the
Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at
Boscoreale, ca. 40–30 B.C.; Late
Republican

20. Second Style cont’d
• Fresco wall painting in a
cubiculum (bedroom) from the
Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at
Boscoreale, ca. 40–30 B.C.; Late
Republican

22. Villa of Livia at
Prima Porta

23. Summary
• Second Style, Architectural, dates from about 60 BC
to 20 BC and serves to open up the claustrophobic
spaces of Roman houses.
• A distinctly realistic feel, using perspective.
• Illusions of windows and covered walkways looking
onto imaginary scenes framed by columns.
• Objects of daily life depicted realistically, with items
on shelves and tables appearing to project out of the
wall.

24. Third style

25. ornate
• Illusion is rejected in favor of ornamentation.
• Largely monochromatic walls were often painted
with a few pieces of architecture
• As time progressed, the style of wall paintings
became even less architecturally realistic and more
of a mixture of styles.

26. Villa of Poppaea, Torre Annunziata / Oplontis

29. Villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase, the Black Room

34. Fourth style

35. Intricate
• The fourth style, Intricate, dates from around 20 AD
to 79 AD. This style incorporates all the elements of
the earlier styles.
• Fragments of architecture in illogical space
• Unlike the clarity of the third style ‘galleries’, fourth
style rooms appear chaotic and filled to excess.
They don’t resemble any believable space, but
instead consist of a variety of architectural elements
arranged in an unrealistic manner with unrealistic
perspective, set against a flat background,
interspersed with panel pictures.

39. From Nero’s Domus Aurea

43. bibliography
• Diana Kleiner Lectures on Roman Architecture
http://oyc.yale.edu/history-art/hsar-252/lecture-6
http://oyc.yale.edu/history-art/hsar-252/lecture-7
• Maurice Owen (2010) The False - Door : dissolution and becoming in
Roman wall-painting,
http://creadm.solent.ac.uk/custom/rwpainting/cover/contentspage.html
• Nina Miller http://honorsaharchive.blogspot.com.au/2005/09/four-styles-of-roman-
wall-paintings.html
• http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/painted-garden-villa-of-livia.html
• John R. Clarke (1991) The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 BC–AD 250:
Ritual Space and Decoration