DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31189#0058
Chapter IV
THE PAINTER AND HIS PLACE IN ROMAN ART
We may summarize the results of the preceding observations as follows:
The Black Room, the Red Room and the room with the mythological land-
scapes represent three different forms of landscape painting as wall decoration; all
of them are new and all of them set a pattern for the future. The landscape vignettes
in the middle of a wall and the bucolic and mythological landscapes as central
panels are popular during the Third Style and even occur on many Fourth Style
walls. There are no extant examples of any of these three forms preceding Bosco-
trecase; it seems unlikely that such works ever existed, unless they were slightly
earlier ones by the same painter and his workshop.
With respectto motives the Boscotrecasepainter is no innovator. Itis not hisformal
vocabulary that is original, but the way he uses it in each of the three types, all three of
which elevated landscape painting to a position never attained in Roman art before.
A landscape is now the sole representational decoration, and for the first time
landscape painting occupies the center of a wall. This dominating position is reflected
in the compositions themselves and in their relation to the surrounding fields.
The vignettes (pls. 29-31. A) are compact, brilliant scenes on the vast expanse
of the black background. Unframed as they are, they change the meaning of the
black by making the neutral background an active element of the composition.
Therefore they seem to be large landscapes seen in perspective diminution, vistas in
immeasurable depth, illuminated distant scenes floating in the darkness of night.
A similar effect is achieved in the landscapes of the Red Room (pls. 32-39. C).
Through the aerial perspective of the landscapes themselves the white behind them
is seen as air, but it is simultaneously the background of the entire panel, less than
one half of which is occupied by the actual landscape. Thus the landscapes seem to be
suspended in mid-air.
In the mythological pictures (pls. 40-46. D) the bluish green space connoting
both air and water fuses the two different elements into one immeasurable and
intellectually incomprehensible unit that visually operates like the black around the
vignettes and the white around the bucolic landscapes.
Significantly these analogous effects are achieved by different means: the acti-
vation of the neutral wall (in the Black Room), the double role of the background
within the framed panel (in the Red Room), the fusing of two important represen-
tational elements within a composition (in the mythological panels) have, as pic-
torial means, nothing in common. Yet, considering the fact that the paintings are
murals, wall and background are indeed related. To make the wall appear as back-
THE PAINTER AND HIS PLACE IN ROMAN ART
We may summarize the results of the preceding observations as follows:
The Black Room, the Red Room and the room with the mythological land-
scapes represent three different forms of landscape painting as wall decoration; all
of them are new and all of them set a pattern for the future. The landscape vignettes
in the middle of a wall and the bucolic and mythological landscapes as central
panels are popular during the Third Style and even occur on many Fourth Style
walls. There are no extant examples of any of these three forms preceding Bosco-
trecase; it seems unlikely that such works ever existed, unless they were slightly
earlier ones by the same painter and his workshop.
With respectto motives the Boscotrecasepainter is no innovator. Itis not hisformal
vocabulary that is original, but the way he uses it in each of the three types, all three of
which elevated landscape painting to a position never attained in Roman art before.
A landscape is now the sole representational decoration, and for the first time
landscape painting occupies the center of a wall. This dominating position is reflected
in the compositions themselves and in their relation to the surrounding fields.
The vignettes (pls. 29-31. A) are compact, brilliant scenes on the vast expanse
of the black background. Unframed as they are, they change the meaning of the
black by making the neutral background an active element of the composition.
Therefore they seem to be large landscapes seen in perspective diminution, vistas in
immeasurable depth, illuminated distant scenes floating in the darkness of night.
A similar effect is achieved in the landscapes of the Red Room (pls. 32-39. C).
Through the aerial perspective of the landscapes themselves the white behind them
is seen as air, but it is simultaneously the background of the entire panel, less than
one half of which is occupied by the actual landscape. Thus the landscapes seem to be
suspended in mid-air.
In the mythological pictures (pls. 40-46. D) the bluish green space connoting
both air and water fuses the two different elements into one immeasurable and
intellectually incomprehensible unit that visually operates like the black around the
vignettes and the white around the bucolic landscapes.
Significantly these analogous effects are achieved by different means: the acti-
vation of the neutral wall (in the Black Room), the double role of the background
within the framed panel (in the Red Room), the fusing of two important represen-
tational elements within a composition (in the mythological panels) have, as pic-
torial means, nothing in common. Yet, considering the fact that the paintings are
murals, wall and background are indeed related. To make the wall appear as back-