Painting Pompeii
Painters, Practices, and Organization
By (author) Francesca Bologna
This book looks beyond the bright colours and imaginative forms of Roman wall paintings, investigating the materials, gestures, and decisions involved in their making.
In the Roman world, wall paintings were one of the most pervasive art forms, adorning buildings of all levels, from public spaces and elite houses to far more modest dwellings. Yet despite the very visual nature of their work, Roman painters have remained largely invisible to history. This book attempts to rectify this situation, by shifting the focus from the paintings themselves to the people who realized them, looking beyond the bright colours and imaginative forms to investigate the materials, production practices, and choices underpinning artistic decisions. Taking Pompeii as its starting point, this volume reconstructs what it meant to paint for a living, and asks if it was actually possible to make a living as a painter in the Roman world. Wall paintings are investigated stylistically but also from an ethnological and economic point of view. Broader comparisons across time and space, combined with a quantitative analysis of the labour involved in making wall paintings, allow the author to assess this art form as an economically-embedded practice. Through this unique approach, the volume exposes the social and economic forces underlying craft production, and offers new insights into the lived experience of Roman artisans.
- By (author) Francesca Bologna
Other Titles in this Series
Zerstorte Architektur bei Pausanias
Phanomenologie, Funktionen und Verhaltnis zum zeitgenossischen Ruinendiskurs
Volume 5
Portraying the Individual in the Roman East
Local–Imperial Entanglements in Sculpture, Mosaics, and Paintings (First–Fourth Centuries AD)
Volume 18
The Sanctuary of Parthenos at Ancient Neapolis (Kavala) Volume I
Incised and Painted Ceramic Inscriptions from the Sanctuary and in Aegean Thrace
Volume 15
The Sanctuary of Parthenos at Ancient Neapolis (Kavala), Volume II
Pottery, Stone Inscriptions, and Small finds
Volume 17
Funerary Representations of Palmyrene Women
From the First Century BC to the Third Century AD
Volume 3
Die Basileia von Alexandria
Topographisch-urbanistische Untersuchungen zum ptolemaischen Konigsviertel
Volume 9
Hellenistic Sealings & Archives
Proceedings of The Edfu Connection, an international conference
Volume 10
The Painted Tetrarchic Reliefs of Nicomedia
Uncovering the Colourful Life of Diocletian's Forgotten Capital
Volume 12
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