Painters Studio Rome

8/12/2019 Painters Studio Rome

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ROM NP INTING

ROGER LING

The rgJ of heUniversity of Cambridgeto print and U

all mannerof ooksH OS gront>d y

Ht>nry V in 1534.The Un rnsily has printedortd pubfishl d continuouslysince 1584,

C MBR ID GE UNIVERSITY PRESS

C MBR ID GENEW YORK PORT CHESTER

MELBOURNE SYDNEY


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XIV A B ust of Mercury. Po mpeii V 4, a House of M. LucretiusFronto . Bedroom 6 west wall right). c A.D. 4o-5o. Diam. 2 2 em . XIVB Portrait

of Menander. Pompeii I 10 4 House of heMenander). Exedra 2.3, left wall. T hird quarter of IS t century A.D.H. 1.08 m.

XIVC Cupids engaged in perfume-making and selling. Pompe ii Vl1 5, (Houseof the Vettii). Oect1s q Soon after A.D. 62.

XVA Heroine from Greek legend Agave?). Detail ofwa ll-decora tion from Magdalensburg, ncar Klagenfurt,Austr ia. Late ISt century n.c. or beginning of ISt centuryA.D . Karn ten, Landesmuseum.

XVC White gorgoneion Avenches Switzerland), from insula 18,red r us M id 1st century A.D. Ro man Museum.

XVD Panel containing portrait of Socrates. Ephesus H 2 /7 and14a Room of the Muses). Second ha lf of 1St century A.D .

/XVB Vegetal column growing fro m a wine-cup. Fragments ofplaster from villa at Commugny, Switzerland. First halfof 1stcentury A.D. Nyon, Roman Museum. H. approx. 32 em.


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e hn ique

23 Painters cquipmcm fro m tomb ncar Fontcnay-lc-Comrc (Vendee, France).

23 Grave-goods includ ing pigment-po ts (fro nt left), from tomb at Nida-H cddcrnhc im. Frankfurt ,Museum fo r Preh istory and Ear ly Histo ry.

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inting

232 Paintrcss at work, from Pompeii VI r, ro Mid rst century A D Naples, ArchaeologicalMuseum 9018 H. 32 em.

used for finer work (in late medieval and Renaissance times,in addition to pigs bristles, we hear of brushes made ofsquirrels tails, badgers hair and miniver). No doubt thebrushes came in different sizes; a broad one would be usedfo r large coloured surfaces, and narrower ones for moredetailed work . No brushes complete with bristles haveturned up in archaeological deposits; but brush handles ofbone have been recognised, fo r instance, among the effectsof a Roman tomb at St-Med ard-des-Pres near Fontenay-leComte in France. The same tomb, while containing implements wh ich were obviously used by a pa inte r of woodenpanels rather than of walls, gives a glimpse of the remainingapparatus which a wall-painter would ha ve needed [230):glass bottles containing pigments, palettes, a paint-box, amortar and rubbing-stones for grinding colou rs, knives,bronze scoops and so forth. Other tombs, at Herne-St-

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Hubert near Tongres, Belgium, and at Nida-Hedderin the suburbs of Frankfurt , Germany, have yieldeof cylindrical paint-pots [23 ], while artistic reptations of easel-painters from Pompeii and elsewherefurther examples of pai nt-boxes [232). From archaecal sites where decoration was in progress weexamples of the rather more rou gh and ready contpressed into se rvice by wall-painters on the job .include standard dr inking-beakers, the broken-off bacook ing-pots, and potsherds or oyster-shells used aettes. In addition to all these items associated wiapplication of the paint we must not fo rget the implethat would have been needed to lay out the decoscheme, such as a chalk-line, plumb-bob, rules and coses, and the po inted imp lements employed to score lines and to incise preliminary sketches in the plaster


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SOURCES OF ILLUSTR TIONS

DAI = Deu tsches Archao logisches Insti tut DAIR = Deursches Archiiolog isches Institut, Rom ische AbteilungICC D = lstituto Centrale per il Ca talogo e Ia Docume ntalione, RomeColour photographslA. Mau 1882 pl. 11blB. Ed e MarcIIA. E. de MareliB. E. de MarcIliA. E. de M areIIIB. B BiniIVA. DAIR F 82 .427IVB. DAIR F 82-457VA. Mau 1882, pl. XIIVB. M au 1882, pl. XVIVC. F. and F. Nicco lin i, Le case ed mommtentidi Pompei 1854-

96), IV, par t 2, pl. XVIVIA. BBC Open Unive rsity Production Centre D. Am y)VIB. BBC Ope n Un iversity Production Centre D. Amy)VIlA. L.A. LingVIIB. Pompeii Research Committee D. Gr iffiths)VIIC. BBC Open Univers ity Prod uction Centre D. Amy)VIllA. BBC Open University Production Centre D. Amy)VIIIB. BBC Ope n University Produc t ion Centre D. Amy)IXA. E. de Mar eIXB. E de Mar eIXC. W. SwaanXA. W. SwaanXB. DA IR F 87.84X A. BBC Ope n University Production Centre D. Amy)XIB. W. SwaanXIC. Pompeii Research Committee D. Griffiths)X IIA. BBC Open University Production Centre D. Amy)XIIB. V. P. International LtdXIIIA. BBC Open University Production Centre D. Amy)XII lB. BBC Open University Production Centre D. Amy)XIVA. BBC Open University Production Centre D. Amy)XIVB. E. de Mar eXIVC. BBC Open University Production Centre D. Amy)XVA. Landesm useum, Kiirnten U. P. Schwa rz)XVB. Nyon Museums A . Moccia)XVC. Mu see Romain, Avenches A. R. Glauser)XVD . V. M. StrockaXVIA. R. Hud sonXVIB. BischoAiches Museum, T rierX VIC. BischoAiches Museum, Tri erXVID. BischoAiches M useum, Trier

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Black and white illustra tions1. DAIR 58.14472 M. Skiadaresi, Athens3 Anderson 4II564 DAIR 65 .2.86o5. L. von Matt6. DAIR 34.192.97 M. Bulard, Peintures murales et mosai ques de Delos 1914),

pl. VIa8. Drawing R. J. Ling, after A. Laidlaw9 Drawing R. J. Ling, after A. Laid law and K. Sar ring

10. J. Felbermeyer, courtesy A. Laidlaw11. Mau 1882., pl. a12.. DAIR 31.2.7Io, detailIJ. A. Laidlaw P75.2..37A14. A. A. Parland, K'lstorii rkhitektumoi D ekoratsii v /talii

19I J , fig 16I . R. J. Ling 79/816. A. Laidlaw P7577-8q B. Bini, cour tesy A. Laidlaw18. R. J. Ling 5/ 319. M . Bulard, Peintures murales et mosaiques de Delos 1908),

pl. VIAa2 0. DAIR 66 .12.1. DAIR 66.2.082 2 J Engemann2 3. J. Engemann2.4. Catholic University, N ijmegen P. Bersch and H. van de Sluis)

82.32.25 . A. Bar bet26 . E. Hyman and P. Chorley 457-A2 7. F. Barnabe i, La villa pompeimta di P. Famrio Sinistore 1901)28 . Me tropolitan Museum of Art, New York 163384-6 B2 9. R. j.Ling79 /430. Spinazzola 1953, pl. XX31. Drawing W. Klinkert: photo DAIR 54.101732 . Mau 1882., pl. v11b33 DAIR 66.2.334 DAIR 66.2.935 lstituto Centrale peril Restauro, Rome 63736. Alinari 2.810537 DAIR 82..2.15438. G. E. Rizzo, Le pitture dell' Aula lsiaca di Caligola 1936),

pl. 111


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ND 120 . c 2Maiu r i Amedee 1886-1963.Roma n p a i n t i ng

REED O L L G USR RYPORTLAND OREGON ~ n o

The colorplate on the title-page: Tavern Scene Pompeii.Translated y Stuart Gilbert

PRim ED IN SWITZERLAND

THE GRE T CENTURIES OF P INT

ROM N P INT

TEXT BY AMEDEO MAIURICurator of the Naples Museum

SKIR


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ketchiness of the drawing or its seeming inability to reach the level of high art.. frankly popular works, in which the technique shows signs of carelessness, havejginality that is far to seek in works of the traditionalist school. Indeed it was{S to the regenerating influence of this popular art that Campanian mural:ing did not lose its vigor and lapse into a frigid, tedious reiteration of traditional,ositional schemes and motifs that had lost all spiritual or cultural purport. Norwe forget how much the early Christian art of the catacombs owed to it.

3o varied was the range of subjects covered by this popular painting, as comparedother types of art, that it was, naturally enough, in great demand at all social5. Sometimes it was of a religious order and associated with public or private acts:votion (as in the numerous paintings found in lararia , or else with exotic religions,as the cult of Isis, imported from abroad. Sometimes it illustrates the dailyenings in the Forum; or else such more spectacular occasions as the games and)ats with wild beasts that took place in the great arena. Or, again, it has for itstesome such outstanding incide nt in the life of the city as the pitched battle between?ompeians and the Nucerians in the Amphitheater. Nor must the fact (alluded to inious chapters) that already in the iconographic painting we find Campanian as wellIellenistic influences at work, be overlooked in this connection. Thus we see

ts of quite humble citizens painted with a realism very different from thathonorific portraits in bronze or marble. Then, again, we have popular, colorful

of ancient myths and legends, and, at the end of the scale, paintings thatkly caricatures, products of the same vis comica as that which impelled thein the street to take out his stilus and trace on the plaster walls of houses quaint

of people who had caught his eye. In these sketches we see the typical gestures,and attitudes of the Campanians who thronged the markets, streets andof their native cities - and they were uncommonly like the crowds we see todayolder quarters of Naples.

the popular painter felt under no obligation to confine himself to the well-themes of classical antiquity; on the contrary he put his talent to the service

~ u n him, everyday reality. And, naturally enough, he found that it wasrap d brushstrokes and small patches of color that he best could get the

and expressive vigor he was aiming at.characteristic of this art can be seen in some pictures of horsesburden, animals far more suited for heavy work than for figuring in.or as steeds for the immortal heroes. On a panel (one of a set

falls.mto two parts perhaps rather arbitrarily linked together, we seep i l ~ t r a big mule with a pack on its back, which a man is holding

u m ~ n n reddish-brown of its body is diversified by streaks of an the harness and accentuating the spirited drawing ofother side is a group of horses and riders to which the, dd ,a s a remarkable vivacity. On another panel of thelllule also laden th t .W 1 s pack; 1t has very long, thin, wiry

legs and is jerking up its head, as if wanting to display its ornate head-stall to thebest effect. Indeed so sprightly is the artist's rendering of the mule that we hardlynotice the human figures near it.

In another picture, however, also a street scene, it is on the figures that our interest isfocused. There are two women, one with a rather matronly air, in a tunic and darkcloak, and with her another woman so humble-looking that she seems inferior evento a servant, while facing them is a bearded old man with a bent back, leaning on astick, who is accompanied by a dog on a lead: the typical beggar of antiquity.

Particularly interesting among works of this kind is the group of pictures calledin Italy forensi, because they deal with Forum scenes. The big open square of theForum at Pompeii with buildings all around provided an effective setting for thedaily events of public life and the activities of the petty tradesfolk in their picturesqueshops and stalls. Limited as is their scope, the forens on the walls of a privatehouse (the Villa of Julia Felix), obviously the work of the same artist, give us the mostvaluable illustrations we possess of everyday life at Pompeii.

They cover a great variety of subjects : market-scenes, passers-by reading thelatest municipal regulations posted up between stately equestrian statues, an openair school with the teacher and pupils watching or taking part in the punishment ofa disobedient schoolboy. One of the liveliest scenes, none the less effective for beingtreated sketch-wise, shows us the itinerant pedlars who hawked their wares in the

OPEN -AIR MARKET IN THE FOR UM. FR OM THE HOUSE OF JULIA F E LIX, POMPE II.


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ll.\1\ERY FRO M POMPEII. MUSEO NAZIONALE NAPLES. DICE-PLAYERS. FROM POMPEII. MUSEO NAZIONALE NAPLES

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Painters Studio Rome