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sienamysticThe letter V actually has quite a few art historical possibilities, but my interest today has been caught by something slightly peripheral, so I’m going to cheat just a tad by using my letter to indicate two examples of a broader topic.
is for the Villa Boscoreale and the House of the Vetii.
As most of you know, I work for a museum that is composed of a couple of galleries plus about thirty period rooms. One of our rooms shows a very neoclassical dining room from the late 1700s. Recently, one of our curators who has a passion for wallpaper finally achieved his ten year old dream of turning the room from the blah Pepto Pink that it was into something much cooler. The wallpaper he chose is very neoclassical, composed of garlands and a cherub and a mini-landscape in an octagonal cartouche. In essence, it’s a decorative style that is based on Roman wall paintings as seen in Pompeii. Pompeii was rediscovered on March 23, 1748, and almost overnight, designs influenced by the discoveries became all the rage..
There are four generally recognized styles of Roman wall painting. They overlap to a certain extent, and are not hard and fast divisions, but are useful nonetheless.
The first style, known as Incrustation, appears as rectangular panels, painted in solid colors. Sometimes, a faux marble panel would be interspersed for a textural contrast. The style is very simple, and would still appear as a part of the other styles, but would be moved to the lower part of the wall.
The second style, known as Architectural or Archetronic, starts treating the wall as more than a flat surface to be colored prettily. Architectural elements push the plane of the wall beyond the room, and the addition of things like columns, pilasters (essentially, flattened columns) and window frames turn the wall into a rough (and not entirely convincing, but very pretty) form of tromp l’oeil scenes – mostly landscapes and buildings, but also scenes of people, as in the Dionysian cult figures from the Villa of the Mysteries.
The style of perspective used in this second style work, for those really dedicated art geeks, is called herringbone perspective. Unlike its more famous descendant, the Renaissance-era vanishing point perspective, the lines of herringbone perspective converge on a vertical axis that runs down the center of the painting. It’s convincing to a certain point, but it’s not as true as vanishing point perspective. Still, it does give an appearence of moving backwards in space. The Villa Boscoreale, in the vicinity of Pompeii is a good example of this second style. An entire bedroom has been relocated to the Met, so if you’re in NYC, stop by and say hello to it.
Third style wall painting is called Ornate. The architectural focus of the second style gave way from the pretense that one was viewing an exterior scene through a window or between columns, to turning the garden scenes into small paintings of their own. Instead of “looking out a window into the garden,” the architectural elements aren’t intended to indicate anything real, but instead turn into frames for small scenes displayed like we would hang paintings on a wall. This is a wall in the house of Marcus Fronto, showing third style work.
Fourth style, or “Intricate” wall painting, blends the previous three styles into a new whole. Incrustation appears along the lower walls, architectural motifs are ever-present, but are used in a more third style manner. The individual paintings are hung almost as they would be in a gallery, and they do not relate to each other but are instead meant to be admired individually. However, the entire room would be integrated into one design whole. This period is also where we get some of the lovelier still life paintings that get reproduced frequently. The House of the Vetii’s Ixion Room displays the Intricate style in all it’s lavish, brightly colored glory. Gardner notes that the unknown painters working during this time, while not mastering the complete realism that, for example, Dutch still life masters would achieve, still grasped the idea that the way light fell on an object served to define and interacted with it in a fashion that later artists such as Paul Cezanne would use.
is for the Villa Boscoreale and the House of the Vetii.As most of you know, I work for a museum that is composed of a couple of galleries plus about thirty period rooms. One of our rooms shows a very neoclassical dining room from the late 1700s. Recently, one of our curators who has a passion for wallpaper finally achieved his ten year old dream of turning the room from the blah Pepto Pink that it was into something much cooler. The wallpaper he chose is very neoclassical, composed of garlands and a cherub and a mini-landscape in an octagonal cartouche. In essence, it’s a decorative style that is based on Roman wall paintings as seen in Pompeii. Pompeii was rediscovered on March 23, 1748, and almost overnight, designs influenced by the discoveries became all the rage..
There are four generally recognized styles of Roman wall painting. They overlap to a certain extent, and are not hard and fast divisions, but are useful nonetheless.
The first style, known as Incrustation, appears as rectangular panels, painted in solid colors. Sometimes, a faux marble panel would be interspersed for a textural contrast. The style is very simple, and would still appear as a part of the other styles, but would be moved to the lower part of the wall.
The second style, known as Architectural or Archetronic, starts treating the wall as more than a flat surface to be colored prettily. Architectural elements push the plane of the wall beyond the room, and the addition of things like columns, pilasters (essentially, flattened columns) and window frames turn the wall into a rough (and not entirely convincing, but very pretty) form of tromp l’oeil scenes – mostly landscapes and buildings, but also scenes of people, as in the Dionysian cult figures from the Villa of the Mysteries.
The style of perspective used in this second style work, for those really dedicated art geeks, is called herringbone perspective. Unlike its more famous descendant, the Renaissance-era vanishing point perspective, the lines of herringbone perspective converge on a vertical axis that runs down the center of the painting. It’s convincing to a certain point, but it’s not as true as vanishing point perspective. Still, it does give an appearence of moving backwards in space. The Villa Boscoreale, in the vicinity of Pompeii is a good example of this second style. An entire bedroom has been relocated to the Met, so if you’re in NYC, stop by and say hello to it.
Third style wall painting is called Ornate. The architectural focus of the second style gave way from the pretense that one was viewing an exterior scene through a window or between columns, to turning the garden scenes into small paintings of their own. Instead of “looking out a window into the garden,” the architectural elements aren’t intended to indicate anything real, but instead turn into frames for small scenes displayed like we would hang paintings on a wall. This is a wall in the house of Marcus Fronto, showing third style work.
Fourth style, or “Intricate” wall painting, blends the previous three styles into a new whole. Incrustation appears along the lower walls, architectural motifs are ever-present, but are used in a more third style manner. The individual paintings are hung almost as they would be in a gallery, and they do not relate to each other but are instead meant to be admired individually. However, the entire room would be integrated into one design whole. This period is also where we get some of the lovelier still life paintings that get reproduced frequently. The House of the Vetii’s Ixion Room displays the Intricate style in all it’s lavish, brightly colored glory. Gardner notes that the unknown painters working during this time, while not mastering the complete realism that, for example, Dutch still life masters would achieve, still grasped the idea that the way light fell on an object served to define and interacted with it in a fashion that later artists such as Paul Cezanne would use.
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 05:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 05:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 08:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 11:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 09:57 pm (UTC)(buuut... you forgot the most famous little wall-painting of all in the Vetii House *cough*Priapus*cough* *g*)
BTW, that kind of ochre-red colour is still called "Pompeian Red" among modern oil painters ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 11:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 10:34 pm (UTC)(Don't answer if it's too personal a question, obviously, but which museum?)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-09 11:53 pm (UTC)I'm glad you liked the entry!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-10 03:13 am (UTC)My husband's sister is an assistant curator at a museum in Massachusetts. I was just wondering exactly how small the world is. (Not *that* small, I guess...*g*)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-11-10 04:14 am (UTC)