27 minutes 5 seconds

So in Pompeii the houses were decorated with with wall paintings or painted frescoes and there
were or archaeologists have identified 4 different styles of wall painting in Pompeii and the
surrounding region which helps with with dating.
27:33
27 minutes 33 seconds
So the the the archaeological dates of these structures.
27:40
27 minutes 40 seconds
So just briefly, you don't need to know this just background.
27:45
27 minutes 45 seconds
The first style of Pompeii and wall painting is called the masonry style and it mimics stonework as
you see here.
27:57
27 minutes 57 seconds
It's just paint.
27:58
27 minutes 58 seconds
It's plaster that's painted over, but it's to look like blocks of marble colored marble.
28:06
28 minutes 6 seconds
The second style is called the architectural style, and this shows us these vast cityscapes, for
example, so we have the illusion of looking out from the room.
28:26
28 minutes 26 seconds
This room has been reconstructed in the Met Museum in New York, but we can see that there are
columns that have painted onto the wall that give the illusion of depth.
28:40
28 minutes 40 seconds
So the columns are in the viewers or are to be interpreted as being in the viewer's space.
28:47
28 minutes 47 seconds
And we look through those columns to the outside world and see this vast expanse of buildings
and a city beyond the room that we're standing in.
28:59
28 minutes 59 seconds
And there are different, different ways of rendering perspective, but the the idea is to create this
illusion of three dimensionality.
29:19
29 minutes 19 seconds
The third style is called the ornamental style, and here the focus is on the flat wall, the surface of
the wall.
29:30
29 minutes 30 seconds
So in the second style it's as if the wall melted away and we could just see the landscape as it
unfolded before us.
29:39
29 minutes 39 seconds
But here in the third style, we're very aware of of the wall and the decoration is on the surface.
29:48
29 minutes 48 seconds
It's meant to be read on the surface and we get these tiny little vignettes operation in the center
called a sacred landscape and this is a detail of one of these sacred landscapes.
30:05
30 minutes 5 seconds
It's just a lovely little idyllic or pastoral scene in the middle of a blank wall.
30:18
30 minutes 18 seconds
And the 4th style is a combination of the second and third styles.
30:26
30 minutes 26 seconds
So we do get a bit of that illusion illusionistic technique, but we're also at the same time aware of
the wall.
30:40
30 minutes 40 seconds
So in this one example, between these columns we can see beyond illusionistically into the
distance and right beside it.
30:55
30 minutes 55 seconds
It's as if this picture, this vignette, is just hung on the wall like a painting.
31:01
31 minutes 1 second
So we get both techniques mixed together.
31:16
31 minutes 16 seconds
Also in the fourth style, we start to see still lives.
31:23
31 minutes 23 seconds
You know, we, I'm sure we're all familiar with the still life from the Dutch Renaissance or Van
Gogh or Stan.
31:35
31 minutes 35 seconds
You know, still lives are a a fairly common theme in art to us now from our modern sensibilities.
31:47
31 minutes 47 seconds
But it was new in the ancient Roman world and in this example, which comes from a house called
the House of the Stags in a town called Herculaneum, which is near Pompeii.
32:03
32 minutes 3 seconds
It's in the vicinity of Pompeii.
32:06
32 minutes 6 seconds
There were a number of still lives and they were meant to be seen all together.
32:11
32 minutes 11 seconds
So these these squares of of decoration, they were not meant to be seen one at a time or in
isolation.
32:22
32 minutes 22 seconds
So on the left we have still life with Peaches and water jar, in the middle we have still life with a
silver tray with prunes, dried figs, dates and glass of wine.
32:38
32 minutes 38 seconds
And then on the right we have still life with branch of Peaches.
32:44
32 minutes 44 seconds
So, so obviously we're looking at a variety of of foods here, food and drink here we have different
fruits in other other of these scenes, we see shellfish and meat and just a variety of foods also
drinking vessels.

33 minutes 19 seconds
And on the one hand, it's a way for the homeowner to to display certainly a certain amount of
wealth that he could afford to, to buy all these foods, these nice foods and varied foods.
33:37
33 minutes 37 seconds
But on the other hand, it's also a way for the artist to sort of show off his technique.
33:45
33 minutes 45 seconds
So you know, I'll, I'll, I'll come back to this in a second, but let's take a look at the a detail of the
still life with Peaches and a water jar.
33:57
33 minutes 57 seconds
We can see that the Peaches and the water jar are placed on different levels.
34:04
34 minutes 4 seconds
They're stepped and there's a certain amount of recession in space.
34:11
34 minutes 11 seconds
So this, this second step is going, is receding farther into the background from the viewer where
the viewer stands.
34:22
34 minutes 22 seconds
So the artist is playing with depth and perspective here and also this idea of transparency.
34:31
34 minutes 31 seconds
There's this double transparency going on with the the glass jar which is transparent and also the
water that's contained in the jar.
34:42
34 minutes 42 seconds
So this double charity is kind of showing off that that he's he's got these techniques, the skill and
he's able to to render these items rather realistically.
34:59
34 minutes 59 seconds
So if we just return to this slide for a moment to look at this term Zennia, it's a Greek word which
means hospitality.
35:11
35 minutes 11 seconds
Anxenia was very important to the ancient Greeks.
35:17
35 minutes 17 seconds
This idea of of hospitality was almost embodied in in a religious sense that it was their duty to be
hospitable to guests.
35:31
35 minutes 31 seconds
The Romans also engaged in Xenia and and hospitable treatment of guests, but it was less of of a
philosophical or religious meaning.
35:53
35 minutes 53 seconds
It didn't hold that meaning.
35:55
35 minutes 55 seconds
It was more almost showing off that the owner had the means to be able to afford these
wonderful things to offer to their guests.
36:28
36 minutes 28 seconds
And if we look at a few more of these examples of lives from the House of the Stags and
Herculaneum, we see on the left, still life with chicken and hare, next still life with Partridge, oh
sorry, Partridge, pomegranate and apple, then still life with thrushes and mushrooms, and finally
still life with partridges and eels.
37:06
37 minutes 6 seconds
So this is quite a variety, quite an array of different birds, different fowl that the homeowner
would be offering to his guests fruit and wild mushrooms.
37:27
37 minutes 27 seconds
And it was almost like an experience.
37:30
37 minutes 30 seconds
Not only was the homeowner offering these these varied foods to his guests, but he was also
offering them the experience of being in the country.
37:41
37 minutes 41 seconds
So as I said, these these towns in the Bay of Naples area near Pompeii, this one being in
Herculaneum, they were holiday towns for the Romans.
37:55
37 minutes 55 seconds
So they wanted to experience Country Life and do things differently when you're on holiday,
right?
38:02
38 minutes 2 seconds
You eat differently, you go different places and have new experiences.
38:06
38 minutes 6 seconds
And this was all part of this, this sort of package, this way that Romans were presenting
themselves, or well to do.
38:14
38 minutes 14 seconds
Romans were presenting themselves to the world through their art.