Ancient Roman painted walls.(Books about antiques)(Book Review)

Ancient Roman wall painting is not quite Peto or Harnett and certainly not Pollock. Think rather of realistic wraparound stage sets, opening and closing vistas, extending and fore-shortening walls, creating gardens, and peopling rooms with gods and mythical heroes at work and play. These paintings are most bountifully evident in villas at Pompeii and Herculaneum, although some prime examples have been found in and near Rome.

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The authors of this large and handsome book have singled out twenty-eight of these painted villas for discussion, each accompanied by illustrations of many of the surviving paintings and a floor plan of the house keyed to indicate the locations of the painted rooms. This is followed by large details from the paintings, printed on mat rather than glossy paper to simulate the texture of fresco, for that is the medium used for all these wall paintings.

Umberto Pappalardo, one of the authors writes: "The first thing we note is that every Roman citizen of a certain rank assumed the airs of a king, and it is from this sense of self that all his other social values sprang." Thus, when military victories made them rulers of the Mediterranean world, the Romans sought the historical background to justify their dominance. They claimed to be the direct descendants of Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic princes, whose luxurious residences they wanted to duplicate at home. Illusionistic frescoes, often peopled with the heroes of Greek myths, were an economical way to gussy up what they wanted to think of as their own Hellenistic palaces.

Ancient Roman wall painting has been broken into four chronological styles. The first, and simplest, consisted of simulated veneers of precious marbles and was in vogue from the fourth to the first century BC. The second style (between 80 and about 15 BC) invoked perspective to dissolve the walls of rooms and extend vistas. The walls flattened again during the third style (about 15 BC to AD 50) and were divided by verticals and horizontals that framed integral paintings. Illusion returned in the fourth style (AD 50 to AD 79) and included scenes chiefly of unhappy love.

Among the most pleasing aspects of these wall paintings are the gardens populated with birds and flowers that bring the outside inside. A particularly extravagant example of the second style is the decoration of the underground dining room in the villa outside Rome occupied by Livia, the wife of the emperor ...