Themes in Roman Wall Painting

1
Themes in Roman Wall Painting

• Comparison with Greek Vases

2
Wall Paintings

• Unique representations
• Different moment in time in a popular myth
• Different emotion feel
• Landscape emphasis
• Medium affects portrayal

3
Unique Representation

• Telephus story
• Telephus suckling fawn
• Herakles, his Dad, watching
• Personification of Arcadia, the region of Greece
  where it happened
• The eagle of Zeus

4
Herakles and Omphale

• Herakles dressed in womens clothing
• Tied down by cupids
• Regal amusement of Omphale

5
Cupids, again

• Story adapted to include the Romans favorite
  figure, the cupid.
• Humor in tiny winged figures of love subduing the
  enslaved Herakles.

6
Different moment in time

• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Hero of the people
• Some pity for the minotaur
• Landscape - gates of the city.

7
Minotaur

• Minotaur relegated to a subsidiary position.
• Innocence of children in contrast to the beast
• Central heroic nudity of Theseus

8
Different emotion feel

• Pensive Medea instead of vengeful
• Light and shadow in the room
• Children still playing
• Paidagogos worried.

9
Landscape emphasis

• Sack of Troy
• Greeks stole the cult statue of Athena, the
  Palladium
• Theft is subsidiary to the grand landscape of
  trees, altars, temples.

10
Medium changes portrayal

• Sacrifice of Iphigenia
• Shamed priest
• Statuette of Artemis
• Iphigenia held by attendants
• Pensive Agamemnon
• Replacement deer in the sky