DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31189#0041
35
the most sacred island. It is even more modest than the landscapes he saw before;
there is no tetrastylon, no schola, but simply a column, a tree and a statue of a goddess.
And yet even on this island, in fact on this very island and not on the road to it, a
goat-herd has found the place for his flock.
Such simple, blissful and tranquil bucolic life, however, is not depicted as though
it were easily attainable. These paintings are not friezes accompanying the beholder
who walks alongside, nor are they a string of vignettes of almost endless variations
invented for the pleasure of the spectator, nor ever-repeated little scenes freely
sketched on any available part of the decoration. On the contrary, the paintings of
the Red Room are large, thoughtfully composed pictures placed between mono-
chrome panels on walls that are decorated with elegant restraint. Thus they appear
on their white ground distinct but remote, intimate but sacred, charming but
untouchable, natural but unreal. Without any pretention or ceremoniousness, discreet
and noble, they convey their message in a low key. It is a novel message in the arts
of antiquity, it is not for the multitude and not for the public but for the pensive,
educated private man who, worried by the state of affairs or troubled by the uncer-
tainties of life, has come to the country in search of contemplation and of the tran-
quillity of his villa 41. In these landscapes he may recognize a world of divine still-
ness, at moments close to him but ultimately unapproachable, a vision, a dream, but
one that smilingly gives life a new meaning and perhaps even peace.
Influence
These paintings, or paintings such as these, made a deep and lasting impression.
From now on walls of houses and villas abound with similar landscapes. But few to
my knowledge place them on a surrounding white ground: one of the most sug-
gestive aspects of the Boscotrecase landscapes seems to have been lost 42. This is not
the place to catalogue the many large and small landscapes that have come down to
us. Every one familiar with panels of the Third and Fourth Styles has seen a number of
them. Three panels from Pompei (pls. 52,1. 53,1. 2) no longer preserved but known
from drawings made when they were discovered, seem especially closely related to
the Boscotrecase models. Two were found in Pompei VII 2, 18 43, and one in Pom-
41 Latin literature testifies abundantly to such form of country life and use of the villa.
Suffice it to recall Statius’ famous praise in silv. 1, 3 (particularly 90 ff.), Cicero’s withdrawal
to his villa to overcome his sorrows at the death of his daughter and the Younger Pliny’s
description of his villa (epist. 5, 6) or his other reference to country life in his letters (for
instance 1, 3. 6). Particularly characteristic is epist. 1, 9 contrasting the life in Rome with
the life in the country. Compare Grimal 380 ff.
42 I know of only one somewhat similar painting, a small panel in the National Museum
in Naples, said to be from Herculaneum and reproduced in color in Enc. Arte ant. III (1960)
to p. 404. Comparable is the effect of a silhouette suspended in space, but the painting is
hardly more than a piece of decoration.
43 Schefold WP. 171.
the most sacred island. It is even more modest than the landscapes he saw before;
there is no tetrastylon, no schola, but simply a column, a tree and a statue of a goddess.
And yet even on this island, in fact on this very island and not on the road to it, a
goat-herd has found the place for his flock.
Such simple, blissful and tranquil bucolic life, however, is not depicted as though
it were easily attainable. These paintings are not friezes accompanying the beholder
who walks alongside, nor are they a string of vignettes of almost endless variations
invented for the pleasure of the spectator, nor ever-repeated little scenes freely
sketched on any available part of the decoration. On the contrary, the paintings of
the Red Room are large, thoughtfully composed pictures placed between mono-
chrome panels on walls that are decorated with elegant restraint. Thus they appear
on their white ground distinct but remote, intimate but sacred, charming but
untouchable, natural but unreal. Without any pretention or ceremoniousness, discreet
and noble, they convey their message in a low key. It is a novel message in the arts
of antiquity, it is not for the multitude and not for the public but for the pensive,
educated private man who, worried by the state of affairs or troubled by the uncer-
tainties of life, has come to the country in search of contemplation and of the tran-
quillity of his villa 41. In these landscapes he may recognize a world of divine still-
ness, at moments close to him but ultimately unapproachable, a vision, a dream, but
one that smilingly gives life a new meaning and perhaps even peace.
Influence
These paintings, or paintings such as these, made a deep and lasting impression.
From now on walls of houses and villas abound with similar landscapes. But few to
my knowledge place them on a surrounding white ground: one of the most sug-
gestive aspects of the Boscotrecase landscapes seems to have been lost 42. This is not
the place to catalogue the many large and small landscapes that have come down to
us. Every one familiar with panels of the Third and Fourth Styles has seen a number of
them. Three panels from Pompei (pls. 52,1. 53,1. 2) no longer preserved but known
from drawings made when they were discovered, seem especially closely related to
the Boscotrecase models. Two were found in Pompei VII 2, 18 43, and one in Pom-
41 Latin literature testifies abundantly to such form of country life and use of the villa.
Suffice it to recall Statius’ famous praise in silv. 1, 3 (particularly 90 ff.), Cicero’s withdrawal
to his villa to overcome his sorrows at the death of his daughter and the Younger Pliny’s
description of his villa (epist. 5, 6) or his other reference to country life in his letters (for
instance 1, 3. 6). Particularly characteristic is epist. 1, 9 contrasting the life in Rome with
the life in the country. Compare Grimal 380 ff.
42 I know of only one somewhat similar painting, a small panel in the National Museum
in Naples, said to be from Herculaneum and reproduced in color in Enc. Arte ant. III (1960)
to p. 404. Comparable is the effect of a silhouette suspended in space, but the painting is
hardly more than a piece of decoration.
43 Schefold WP. 171.