Pompeian Style Wall Fragments

Item Type

Wall Painting/Fresco

Region

Italy

Condition

Very Good

as photographed, rough hewn underside.

Full Description

Pompeian Style Wall Fragments

c. 1st Century A.D

Pompeian style white and green fragments with separating geometric triangular motif.

The art of fresco as practiced in Classical times was described by Vitruvius (De Architectura) and Pliny The Elder (Naturalis Historia.) A wall was prepared by the application of 1-3 coats of mortar (lime and sand) followed by 1-3 coats of lime mixed with finely powdered marble; colored pigments were applied while the wall was still damp. Sometimes tempura and liquid wax were added after the wall had dried. Roman domestic interiors were claustrophobic - windowless and dark - so the ancients used painted decoration to visually open up and lighten their living spaces. Technical elements of Roman painting include the fresco technique; brightly colored backgrounds; division of the wall into multiple rectangular areas ("tic-tac-toe" design). Pompeii in particular is famous for its elaborate forms of wall decoration, in deed they constitute a genre of their own amongst frescoes of the ancient Roman world, illustrated by the fact that in the late nineteenth century Mau categorised Pompeian frescoes and identified four 'Pompeian' styles of painted wall decoration. It is difficult to say which style these fragments belong to given that they have been removed from their original context, perhaps they constituted part of the division between multiple vistas which are mostly assigned to the second style and date from as early as 1st Century B.C.

cf. Pompeii, Its Life and Art, tr. F. W. Kelsey, London, 1899

Provenance: ex. Jeger Collection (Switzerland), by descent.

6.5 cm (Width) x 8.5cm (Length) the size of the largest fragment.