DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.810#0067
444 'HOUSE OF FRESCOES': DECORATION OF ROOM H
Painted
stucco
decora-
tion pre-
served on
walls of
two lower
rooms.
Stack of
painted
stucco
frag-
ments.
signs of any later modifications, and the painted stucco decoration, of which
considerable remains were preserved on the walls of this and the adjoining
room West, may be taken to go back to the time of the original construction
of the building. As seen in the S.W. Corner of Room H, this was executed
in black, white, red, and ochreous brown, in the manner shown by Monsieur
Gillieron's sketch (Fig. 260). At the base of the wall, rising from the white
stucco floor, was a black band 17 cm. high, delimited at top by a finely
incised line; above this was a white field divided into three by narrow red
bands (0-05 cm.), also showing incised guiding lines, and clearly intended to
represent courses of masonry, each 12-13 centimetres high. Resting on
this, at a height of 56 cm. from the floor, was the reproduction of a wooden
beam about 5 cm. thick, with red graining on an ochreous yellow ground.
Over this, again, between similar guiding lines, runs a white band with
black veining 6 cm. broad, intended, according to the usual convention, to
imitate the laminations of a surface of cut stone such as fine alabaster.
Over this appears part of another white field, of which only about 15 cm.
was preserved.
The imitation here, of structural arrangements and of the materials
used, has a special interest, and the position of the painted woodwork
probably represents that of the actual beam that would have run under
the window in the adjoining room, F, where this plaster decoration was
continued.
So close in several directions were the neighbouring houses that the
lighting of the ground-floor rooms could never have been good, and we may
infer that the wall decoration was throughout of the same simple kind as that
illustrated above. On the other hand, apart from dado lines and cornices—•
these too at times presenting brilliant colours—the great mass of the fragments
found in the fresco heap itself were of a highly decorative character, and we
may reasonably conclude that they were derived from the upper rooms.
The Fresco Stack.
The deposit of painted stucco fragments was quite unique in character.
They were literally stacked in the compartment E, East of the space D
(Fig. 261). The pieces were mostly so thin and fragile that it was little short
of a miracle that they should have been preserved at all. Their average thick-
ness was about 4-6 millimetres,1 without any rougher stucco backing, as if the
1 A few had a thickness of 7 or 8 mm. showing crocus clumps was 15 mm. thick.
One or two specimens ran to 1 cm., in one case The size of this piece, 34x41 cm. (e. r^x
with 2 cm. of mixed clay and stucco backing 12 in.), exceeded that of any other found.
in two layers. The exceptionally large slab
Painted
stucco
decora-
tion pre-
served on
walls of
two lower
rooms.
Stack of
painted
stucco
frag-
ments.
signs of any later modifications, and the painted stucco decoration, of which
considerable remains were preserved on the walls of this and the adjoining
room West, may be taken to go back to the time of the original construction
of the building. As seen in the S.W. Corner of Room H, this was executed
in black, white, red, and ochreous brown, in the manner shown by Monsieur
Gillieron's sketch (Fig. 260). At the base of the wall, rising from the white
stucco floor, was a black band 17 cm. high, delimited at top by a finely
incised line; above this was a white field divided into three by narrow red
bands (0-05 cm.), also showing incised guiding lines, and clearly intended to
represent courses of masonry, each 12-13 centimetres high. Resting on
this, at a height of 56 cm. from the floor, was the reproduction of a wooden
beam about 5 cm. thick, with red graining on an ochreous yellow ground.
Over this, again, between similar guiding lines, runs a white band with
black veining 6 cm. broad, intended, according to the usual convention, to
imitate the laminations of a surface of cut stone such as fine alabaster.
Over this appears part of another white field, of which only about 15 cm.
was preserved.
The imitation here, of structural arrangements and of the materials
used, has a special interest, and the position of the painted woodwork
probably represents that of the actual beam that would have run under
the window in the adjoining room, F, where this plaster decoration was
continued.
So close in several directions were the neighbouring houses that the
lighting of the ground-floor rooms could never have been good, and we may
infer that the wall decoration was throughout of the same simple kind as that
illustrated above. On the other hand, apart from dado lines and cornices—•
these too at times presenting brilliant colours—the great mass of the fragments
found in the fresco heap itself were of a highly decorative character, and we
may reasonably conclude that they were derived from the upper rooms.
The Fresco Stack.
The deposit of painted stucco fragments was quite unique in character.
They were literally stacked in the compartment E, East of the space D
(Fig. 261). The pieces were mostly so thin and fragile that it was little short
of a miracle that they should have been preserved at all. Their average thick-
ness was about 4-6 millimetres,1 without any rougher stucco backing, as if the
1 A few had a thickness of 7 or 8 mm. showing crocus clumps was 15 mm. thick.
One or two specimens ran to 1 cm., in one case The size of this piece, 34x41 cm. (e. r^x
with 2 cm. of mixed clay and stucco backing 12 in.), exceeded that of any other found.
in two layers. The exceptionally large slab