The title of today's lecture is "Exploring Special Subjects

on Pompeian Walls."

And that's exactly what I'm going to do today,

to explore a number of scenes: a frieze of figures,

a landscape scene, portraits on Pompeian walls,

and also still life painting.

And we're going to look at them both in the context of the

architectural style walls that we've been discussing thus far

this term, especially the Second,

Third, and Fourth Styles, but we'll also look at them as

interesting in their own right.

We ended last time with a discussion of Fourth Style Roman

wall painting, and I want to show you again

what I consider the quintessential Fourth Style

wall.

It's the Ixion Room in the House of Vettii,

in Pompeii, and you see it here once again in all its garish

glory.

It's an amazing painting.

We talked about the fact that it is a kind of compendium of

all the styles that went before.

We described, for example,

the socle, which attempts to imitate

marble incrustation in paint, which of course makes reference

to the First Style of Roman wall painting.

We talked about the fact that the Second Style elements could

be seen in the substantial columns that are located in the

second tier, or in the main tier of the

painted wall -- columns that support a lintel

above and a coffered ceiling.

We see those here; we see them over here as

well--those, again, elements of the Second Style.

We talked about the Third Style features in this particular

painting, the mythological landscape in

the center that has a frame, a black frame around it,

to make it abundantly clear that this is not a window to

something else but rather meant to look as if it is a flat panel

painting hanging on the wall-- Third Style element.

Over here, another Third Style element,

the floating mythological figure, in the center in this

case, of a white panel with a border

that is made up of floral or vegetal motifs--

again elements of the Third Style.

With regard to Fourth Style, the introduction of

architecture, once again, on either side of

the main panel in the main zone.

These are not representations of complete buildings but

rather, as we discussed,

fragments of buildings depicted in illogical space,

and then in the uppermost tier we see the architectural cages

that we also described as characteristic of the Fourth

Style.

So all of these elements, as I said,

a compendium of all of these painting styles,

all in one place, is where Roman painting ends up

right before the destruction of Mount Vesuvius.

We also have looked--in fact, I want to return at the

beginning of today's presentation to the Villa of the

Mysteries in Pompeii.

We've looked at it twice already.

We looked at it from the standpoint of its architectural

evolution.

We looked at the two phases, first and second phases,

of the Villa of the Mysteries, and you'll remember the plan.

This is the second phase plan, which I show to you again,

and you'll recall the design of the villa, where you enter at

the top.

You enter into the peristyle, then into the atrium,

then into the tablinum; this unusual sequence of rooms

that is more in keeping with villa design,

according to Vitruvius, than to house design.

And we looked at a room, a Second Style wall painted

room, called Cubiculum 16, and I can show you where

Cubiculum 16 is on this plan.

You see it right over here.

And you'll remember that this was an outstanding example of

mature Second Style Roman wall painting --

this idea of opening up the wall illusionistically.

Remnants of the First Style wall still here.

That wall is dropped down.

We do have substantial columns, with projecting entablatures,

a coffered ceiling above and, in this case,

a lintel, and then an arcuated lintel;

all of these elements typical of the Second Style,

and especially the opening up of the wall to see a vista that

lies beyond, in this case a tholos or

round shrine, surrounded by blue sky.

So quintessential Second Style, in Cubiculum 16.

The room that I want to turn to today, also in the Villa of the

Mysteries, is Room 5.

Room 5 is located over here.

You see it right to the right of the tablinum,

and close to the southern side, close to the great bay window

that was added in Phase Two to provide magnificent views out

over the sea.

Room 5, it's a plain rectangular room,

or so it looks in plan, fairly large in scale--not as

large as the atrium but fairly large.

And while the plan is on the screen,

I just want to point to the entranceway,

to the room, this very small entranceway

here-- it's actually very important in

terms of our decoding of these paintings that we find in

there-- this small entranceway.

And then what you see in plan here are actually windows,

rather than additional doorways.

And we're going to see that the designer of this particular

room, the painter,

took the corners, took the location of the door

and also the corners of the room,

and the location of the windows, into great

consideration when he painted the scenes on this wall.

This is a view of Room 5 as it looks today.

It's often also referred to as the room with the Dionysiac

Mystery Paintings, mystery paintings that we'll

see feature the god of wine, Dionysus.

You can see from looking at this general view that the

paintings are quite well-preserved.

We'll see that they cover all four walls of the room,

except for the space--except for where the windows are,

obviously.

And you can also see that this is like nothing we've looked at

thus far this semester, in that what we have here are a

series of very large, monumental figures that seem to

walk around the room in a kind of procession,

and you see those extremely well here.

With regard to the style of wall that it is,

I show you another view over here where you can see those

same large figures walking from the doorway along the side of

the left wall.

But you can also see the design of the wall as a whole,

and if you look at it carefully you will note that the figures

are, of course, placed against these

large red panels.

Between those red panels, what look -- they're clearly

not columns, but kind of like flat pilasters here;

that resting on a socle, down below;

and then above, a meander pattern frieze;

and above that another, a course that represents,

in paint, what looks like variegated marble --

variegated marble, the implication being again it

would have been very expensive to bring from somewhere else.

So as we look at this, we think, "Well it's kind

of like a First Style wall."

But you can see that it's not a relief wall, it's not built up

in stucco, it's flat, because it was done entirely in

paint.

And yet, as you look at these very large figures,

you see that they are standing on a ground line that projects

into the spectator's space, and that suggests to us that

what we are dealing with here-- if we have to categorize this

and put it into First, Second, Third,

or Fourth Style -- we're going to call it a Second Style Roman

wall painting, because it has,

again, residual from the First Style,

but it's done entirely in paint, but it has this

projecting element at the bottom,

this baseline on which the figures stand and on which the

figures process.

So a Second Style Roman wall painting with monumental

figures.

And those monumental figures tell a story,

and it's a very interesting, very intriguing,

very mysterious story indeed.

And it is from the mystery scenes here, by the way,

that the Villa of the Mysteries got its name.

This is a view over here, an excellent view of the small

doorway that you need to take to enter into the room.

And as you enter into the room and you make a sharp left--

well first, of course, you enter in the room and you

get a glimpse of the entire space --

but as you turn to your immediate left,

you begin with the beginning of the story.

And the artist again has orchestrated this in such a way

as to make it look like this woman,

who is standing here, has actually entered through

the doorway of the room, and is now beginning to process

from that doorway, along the side of the room.

If we look at the woman, we see that she is wearing

quite a heavy garment, over here.

But it's a very jaunty representation of this woman,

because you can see she has her right hand on her hip,

in an interesting way.

And then, most interesting of all, is the fact that she wears

a veil over her head, and it's a kind of diaphanous

veil, as I think you can see.

It's over her head, protects her hair,

and then it wraps around her--she wraps it around her

chest.

She's holding one corner of it, with her left hand,

and the rest cascades down her back.

The artist has paid a great deal of attention to that veil,

because he wants to identify her for us, and to tell us that

she is a bride.

Brides were often depicted with voluminous veils,

like that, as you see her here.

And she is a bride--as we're going to find out as we

interpret these scenes-- she is a bride,

probably a young Pompeian woman,

who is about to enter- who is about to participate in these

religious rites that are going to allow her--

it's kind of like a fraternity or sorority initiation that

she's about to undergo: let's say a sorority initiation

that she's about to undergo, because she's about to go

through something that's going to enable her ultimately to

enter into a mystical marriage with the god of wine,

Dionysus.

She enters here.

Then she comes upon two other figures.

There's a seated woman, as you can see,

who holds in her left hand, a scroll.

She has her right hand on the shoulder of a little boy.

Note that the little boy is completely naked and completely

oblivious to the fact that he is naked.

He holds in his hand a scroll, which he has--

another scroll--which he has unfurled,

and it looks as if he is--well there's no question,

he's very intent on looking at the text on that scroll--

and it looks as if he is reading from the text of that

scroll.

And we interpret that scroll, or we interpret his

participation in this scene, as probably the fact that he is

reading the liturgy, the liturgy that has to do with

this cult of Dionysus and with the mystical marriage of women

with the god Dionysus.

It's a wonderful depiction of that boy.

And I also show you here the rest of that particular side of

the room.

We're going to look at all the figures in order,

but I just wanted you to get a sense of the rest of the wall as

it unfurls -- this left wall as you first

come into the room.

And I wanted to point out, using this image,

that again about how sophisticated this particular

artist was, because he takes into

consideration, as I mentioned before,