Pompeian Styles

• 1. Mau's Four Periods

  ›

  August Mau stood before the excavated walls of Pompeii in the late 19th century. He was a German archaeologist born in 1840 and died in 1909. The ruins offered him a massive collection of surviving Roman frescoes to study. No other site provided such a complete record of ancient interior decoration. Mau observed that these paintings did not follow a single rule. They shifted over time into four distinct phases. He named these periods structural, architectural, ornamental, and intricate. His classification system allowed art historians to track changes from the Republican era through the Augustan age. This framework remains the standard for understanding Roman wall painting today.

  1234

• 2. Simulated Marble Walls

  ›

  A stucco molding rose from the plaster surface of a Samnite House wall around 200 BC. This technique created the illusion of expensive marble veneering on ordinary stone. Painters used vivid colors like yellow, purple, and pink to mimic different types of cut stone. Wealthy homeowners could afford suspended alabaster discs or white pillars painted onto their walls. Those with less money simply varied the shades of yellow and pink instead. The style divided each wall into multi-colored patterns that replaced actual masonry blocks. It reflected the spread of Hellenistic culture as Rome conquered Greek states. Mural reproductions of Greek paintings appeared throughout the Mediterranean region during this period.

  235

• 3. Breaking Down The Wall

  ›

  Painters in the first century BC applied trompe-l'œil techniques to flat plaster surfaces. They wanted viewers to feel as though they were looking out of a window at a real scene. Columns painted in Ionic styles divided the wall space into distinct zones. A structure inspired by stage sets developed where one large central tableau sat between two smaller ones. False architectural elements opened up wide expanses for artistic compositions. The landscape elements eventually took over to cover the entire wall without any framing device. This approach countered the claustrophobic nature of small Roman rooms. Aerial perspective blurred objects further away into indistinct purple, blue, and gray tones. The Villa of the Mysteries contains a famous Dionysiac mystery frieze from this era.

  2345

• 4. Monochromatic Elegance

  ›

  A delicate linear fantasy replaced the three-dimensional worlds of the previous period around 20 BC. Painters left vast areas of the wall plainly colored with no design whatsoever. Symmetry dictated every element through strict rules dividing walls into horizontal and vertical zones. Slender columns of foliage hung around candelabra or fluted appendages decorated the spaces. Black, red, and yellow continued to be used throughout this time. Green and blue became more prominent than in earlier styles. Small plain pictures like birds or semi-fantastical animals appeared in the background. An example exists in Cubiculum 15 of the Villa of Agrippa Postumus near Boscotrecase. These paintings featured a blank monochromatic background with only a tiny floating scene in the middle.

  345

• 5. Complex Narratives Before Ash

  ›

  The House of the Vettii displayed an Ixion Room painted between 60 AD and 79 AD. This final phase revived large-scale narrative painting while integrating architectural details from earlier eras. Intricate paintings appeared busier and used the entire wall surface to create a complete effect. The lower zones often composed themselves of First Style patterns alongside floral designs on panels. Shading played a very important role in Roman still life depictions during these years. Colors warmed up once again to advantageously depict scenes drawn from mythology and landscapes. A textile-like quality dominated the Julio-Claudian phase where tendrils connected all elements. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD covered Pompeii in ash before development could continue elsewhere.

  238