Frescoes by Pompeii, antique painting. Sexual life in Pompeii Photo of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii
In 30 BC. Egypt became part of the Roman Empire, and the influence Egyptian art found reflection in the fresco painting of Pompeii: the walls of the dwellings were decorated with images of sphinxes, lotus flowers, herons, kingfishers, Egyptian gods.
In 62, Vesuvius made a warning earthquake. Many dwellings in Pompeii were damaged, but people, instead of moving to a new place, rebuilt the damaged houses and painted the walls in a new fashion. This is how the 4th Pompeian style arose, which existed until 79 - until the "final" earthquake.
4 style is called "fantastic" or "illusory"... It contains elements of the 2nd and 3rd styles. As a rule, the frescoes depict mythological scenes against the background of fantastic, conventional structures, grotesque landscapes that create the impression of scenery and theatrical action.
It all ended with the 4th style.
Within the styles, August Mau highlighted the phases, but we will not go deep into theory, but rather move on to practice.
Frescoes in the Archaeological Museum of Naples
Temple of Isis in Pompeii
Several halls of the Archaeological Museum are occupied by values found in the Temple of Isis in Pompeii. Isis is one of the most revered goddesses ancient egypt, the wife of the god Osiris, the mother goddess of the universe. Her cult was widespread in the Greco-Roman world - in many ancient cities temples were built in honor of the goddess, who became a symbol of motherhood and fertility (her prototype in Greek mythology- goddess Demeter).
Frescoes from the Temple of Isis:
Sacred action. Those gathered listen to the priest. The heron, or the Bennu bird, in Egyptian mythology personifies the god of eternal rebirth (in the picture there are 4 herons). According to one version, Bennu is the soul of the god Ra, according to the other, a bird flew out of the heart of Osiris.
Arrival of Io to the city of Canopus.
Idyllic sacred landscape. A temple can be seen on the rock. In the foreground is a heron.
Isis and the river gods. Isis transports in a boat the body of Osiris, assembled from pieces.
The time of the creation of the frescoes is about 60 A. 4 Pompeian style.
In addition to frescoes, sculptures, bowls, epigraphs are presented in the hall of the Temple of Isis.
Frescoes from Boscoreale
“Bosco reale” means “royal lands”. There were lands a little north of Pompeii, they went there to hunt, and the villas built here were presumably used as hunting lodges.
In 1893 in the city Boscoreale, the Villa Fannius Sinistor was discovered with beautifully preserved frescoes. All these frescoes "on the vine" were purchased by the United States and are now exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum. The treasure found in the villa was bought by Rothschild and subsequently transferred to the Louvre. A little later, in the same place, in Boscoreale, several more frescoes were dug up - they were already sent to the Museum of Naples.
Frescoes from Boscoreale:
The fresco depicts a hall divided by a column. On the head of a man with a spear (presumably the diadoch of Antigone) is a headdress characteristic of the ancient Macedonians.
The fresco, painted in the 60s BC, is a copy of a third century BC fresco that adorned a palace or public building in ancient Macedonia.
Frescoes from Pompeii
Perseus frees Andromeda... Fresco found in the villa of the Dioscuri in Pompeii, painted in 62-79, style 4
Victim of Iphigenia- a fresco found in the house of the Poet-Tragic in Pompeii, dates from 45-79 years, 4 style.
Odysseus and Diomedes drag Iphigenia to the altar. The sacrifice was intended for Artemis, who sent calmness to the Greek ships, which, due to the complete calm, could not go to Troy in any way.
On the right is the priest, ready to make the sacrifice, and the father of Iphigenia, King Agamemnon, who agreed to sacrifice his daughter, stands with his face turned away and shading his face with his hand.
But at the top, Artemis is already preparing a replacement - at the last minute, a doe will appear on the altar, and Iphigenia will be transferred to Tavria.
And here is a picture from life - a picture of a fight between fans that took place in 59 in the amphitheater in Pompeii. The fight was so violent that Nero banned games for 10 years.
Terenty Neo and his wife. A touching portrait of a married couple, painted in inner wall their homes.
Bacchus against the background of Vesuvius. Yes, once Vesuvius had a completely different shape.
A phantasmagoric painting featuring people and animals:
Hunting scene: many characters, impulse, movement - and two motionless figures under the rock, not involved in the general confusion.
Here too - the intensity of action and equanimity:
In a few words and in a good mood. Minimum colors, perfect composition
Was Pozzuoli (then - Puteoli) ever so beautiful?
View of the port of Puteoli
Bizarre architectural forms
Genre and mythological scenes:
There were two cities - Pompeii and Herculaneum. Nearby was the Vesuvius volcano - and the townspeople were grateful to the volcano, at the foot of the mountain the earth was always warm and fertile, the peasants took two or even three harvests a year, the townspeople bathed in hot springs that healed ailments of body and soul.
And now one rich city dweller ordered a portrait to decorate the wall of his house.
The portrait was made by a master who came from the capital - it was so fashionable then. First, I carefully prepared the wall. The slaves applied several layers of plaster to it, leveling the surface. Crushed alabaster was added to the last layer to give the wall a shine. Then the artist painted a portrait, combining encaustics - wax paint - and tempera - paint diluted on eggs.
Then the already painted wall was covered with a protective layer of wax so that the paints would not fade. The artist tried to keep his work for a long time. But he did not even suspect how long this work would survive.
Then it all ended ... In 79 A.D. NS. the city died. Vesuvius strangled him with ash, bombed him with flying stones, filled up with seven meters of pumice and rubble.
Giuseppe Laezza artist
Archaeologists began excavating it in 1748.
Magnificent mosaics have been found in many of the houses of Pompeii. Among them, the most famous are the mosaics of the "House of the Faun", named after the bronze statue of a dancing faun, installed in the courtyard. During its long existence, this house belonged to several owners, one of whom was Publius Sulla, the nephew of the famous Roman dictator.
In some houses of Pompeii, paintings from different periods have survived. The plots of most of the paintings are taken from ancient Greek mythology, many of them are repetitions of the famous works of Greek painting that have not survived to this day. The finest example of Pompeian painting is the painting of the Villa of the Mysteries.
This villa is located outside Pompeii, in a secluded spot on the hillside that slopes down to the Gulf of Naples. As the researchers suggest, the owner of the villa was the priestess of Dionysus. The cult of this god, which at one time was very widespread in Italy, was banned by a special decree of the Roman Senate. Probably, this circumstance prompted the priestess of Dionysus to settle not in Pompeii, but in the city suburb, away from prying eyes and long languages... Among the sixty rooms of her luxurious villa, the "Hall of the Dionysian Mysteries" stands out. The ritual of initiation into the sacraments of the cult of Dionysus is depicted on its walls. These splendid murals feature twenty-nine characters, which are believed to include a portrait of the owner of the villa.
The rich palette, extraordinary luminosity and durability of colors still remain the secret of Pompeian painters.
Dozens of paintings-wall frescoes were brought to light: "Sacrifice of Iphigenia", "Daedalus and Pasiphae", "Punishment of Dirka", "Death of Penteus", "Venus and Cupid", "Abandoned Ariadne", "Achilles and Briseis" ... there are many of them ...
The provincial town of Pompeii was painted very beautifully by artists. And not only palaces, but also ordinary houses of townspeople. For example, the house of the Vettii. The owners were not noble people, not patricians, but two former slaves who were set free. They got rich, together they bought an old mansion and ordered artists to paint it.
This is one of the most beautiful houses in Pompeii.
When the remarkable French painter Renoir visited Pompeii in 1881, he was struck by the combination of simplicity and virtuosity in the execution of the frescoes. “Some merchant or courtesan ordered the artist to paint his house, and he tried to revive smooth surface- that's all. No geniuses! No emotional experiences! .. "
The mysteries of the frescoes from Pompeii are their amazing preservation. Of course, the ashes “preserved” these paintings for centuries, but all the same, in two thousand years the colors should have faded. And they still shine! It is believed that no such frescoes have survived anywhere else, and this is due to some local invention. Encaustic and tempera used in an unusual way... but nobody knows how.
In general, the inhabitants of Pompeii loved riddles and practical jokes. They even depicted them on the walls of their homes. For example, one of the halls of the Villa of the Mysteries (about 50 BC) is painted in such a way that it seems as if the characters painted on the wall are in fact in the room next to the viewer. And Ixion's room in the Vettii house (named after Ixion chained to a wheel of fire) is full of surprises: the frescoes look like framed paintings, the plastered wall depicts marble, and painted landscapes are visible in the painted windows.
... now you tell me
Artist of Caesars, my venerable Vetruvius,
Why did you build Pompeii on lava,
As if he didn't remember and didn't know
That the heart of your Italy is Vesuvius?
L.A. Mei
Ancient Roman Pompeii, as you know, was destroyed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and after the eruption, hot lava filled the entire city and engulfed all buildings and structures in such a way that it filled all available places. As a result of this feature, many buildings, sculptures, household items and human remains have been well preserved to this day due to the lack of oxygen. For many years the city was buried under a six-meter (!) Layer of lava ..
Let's define the term. So, fresco, according to Wikipedia, painting on wet plaster, one of the techniques of wall painting, the opposite of a secco (painting on dry). When dry, the lime contained in the plaster forms a thin transparent calcium film, which makes the fresco, which is important, durable! The availability of raw materials (lime, sand, colored minerals), the relative simplicity of the painting technique, as well as the durability of the works, led to the great popularity of fresco paintings in the ancient world.
So that's it. Before visiting Pompeii, the word "fresco" for me was associated exclusively with the Middle Ages and temple painting (basically, yes, Christian churches). What a discovery were the stunningly "real" wall frescoes of ancient Pompeii with bright, vivid colors! And beyond words .. Two thousand years of beauty, almost intact ..
Yes, what is important - almost all the frescoes from Pompeii are currently in the Archaeological Museum of Naples (I didn’t have time to go there, alas, I didn’t have time). It is understandable - what has lain in a multi-meter thickness of volcanic ash for two millennia would not have existed for a week under the pressure of the southern Italian sun and crowds of tourists .. But those few frescoes that were left in Pompeii are valuable because they are on the same the same place as 2 thousand years ago ..
So, let's see!
Here, for example, a fresco from the famous Villa of the Mysteries imitates the masonry of the wall with bright precious marble. The pictorial illusion is enhanced by the fact that “ stone blocks", Written by the painter, protrude from the wall in relief. The photos turned out, alas, dark, tk. room with frescoes without windows and daylight.
And here are the frescoes of the 1st century AD. another rich house (the so-called House of the Ancient Hunt). The real name of the house comes from a mural depicting a hunt for animals, which is unfortunately poorly preserved, located in the depths. See how carefully the details were written out, and what bright colors ..
Here in the middle of the fresco was carved, and it was too even, most likely in this place there was a remarkably preserved image, already moved to the museum
Pompeii is also famous for its erotic frescoes found on the walls of the hallway of a brothel (lupanaria). Not "high art", but curious, of course)). Most likely these are copies (and the originals are in the Museum of Naples in the so-called Secret Cabinet).
By the way, these frescoes were simply posters of the services provided by girls (mainly slaves from the East) in the Lupanaria.
Another house with frescoes. I suspect that the originals, tk. partially survived, and they wouldn’t dare to take them off and take them to the museum ..
These murals are from Stefan's famous laundry house. By the way, the ancient Romans, it turns out, did not know soap! And they washed things (and animal hair for its subsequent processing) with the help of ... urine, which was collected in a special place near the forum and stood for 2 weeks. Scientists also learned about the intricacies of this technical process from the frescoes painted on the walls of the laundry.
And here is a fresco from Thermopoly (a bar-restaurant in our opinion))
Here are two guesses for this image - either it was a pointer how to get to the nearest lupanaria, or just "for good luck" (since the ancient Romans revered the phallus as a symbol of fertility)
UPD - the second guess turned out to be correct:
"Phallus \ in Ancient Greece and Rome \ was interpreted not as a shameful part of the body, but as a symbol of fertility and reflection of hostile forces, therefore he was depicted on houses, in public places, on everyday objects "(from
Nowadays, it is well known that the ancient Romans were distinguished by very liberal views on sexuality. However, when the ancient Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were discovered in the middle of the 18th century, buried under a layer of volcanic ash from Vesuvius, the public was not quite ready to discover also the juicy details of ancient Roman society, namely, the craze for eroticism.
In Pompeii, a vast sex industry flourished with dozens of brothels whose walls were covered in erotic frescoes. Artistic depictions of sex were often found on bedroom walls in wealthy private homes.
The inhabitants of Pompeii wore phallic amulets around their necks to ward off evil spirits. And at home, almost each of them kept a small collection of art objects of sexual themes.
The household often used oil lamps and other phallic household items.
And the most scandalous find was a statue of the Greek god Pan - half man, half goat - copulating with a goat.
The demonstration of all these explicit sexual materials caused a lot of embarrassment and awkwardness among the public of the 18th century, so the obscene antiquities were quick to hide from the public's eyes, locking them in a secret office.
The secret office, or gabinetto segreto, was originally housed in the Herculaneum Museum in Portici. Access to it was carried out exclusively with the special written permission of the king. But, as you know, prohibitions only fuel interest, so images of frescoes and copies of exhibits that fell under the ban were produced inside the office and distributed among the French elite.
After being transferred from Portici to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the collection briefly became available to the public without any restrictions. This continued until King Francis I in 1819 paid a visit to the museum, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Hastily dismissed the family, the outraged king immediately ordered the collection to be locked in a special room, where only men of "mature age and established moral principles" could see it. Women and children were strictly forbidden to enter there.
Over the next 200 years, the secret museum remained largely closed, opening its doors briefly only a few times. Even as it opened in the sex-revolutionized 60s, it retained the same entry restrictions. It was only in 2000 that the collection finally became publicly available for both men and women.
The Museum of Modern Art in Casoria (province of Naples, Italy), located 17 km from Vesuvius, recently opened an unusual exhibition of erotic works dedicated to ancient Pompeii. The creative team acted as photo models and created a series of compositions in which they replaced some of the characters of the "brothel murals" ancient city destroyed by a volcanic eruption almost two thousand years ago.
Museum director Antonio Manfredi says the Ministry of Culture tried to censor the exhibition. But, thanks to the attraction of media attention and wide public outcry, the exposition "ErotiCAM Cabinetto Segreto II" fully corresponds to the original idea. Although at the entrance there is an inscription "Censored" (censored - English).
Some critics say the work featured on ErotiCAM is so naturalistic that it could be classified as pornography. Others believe that we are talking about erotic art in the original sense of the term. In any case, they argue, there is no more pornography in the updated frescoes than in the frescoes of ancient Pompeii.
Through the efforts of contemporary artists, men, women, hermaphrodites and animals from the 21st century appeared on the frescoes of the 1st century. Some models depicted mythological characters and Roman gods.
To create these works, in addition to professional models posed by artists, writers and musicians from different countries World: Veronica Bayer, Manuel Werner Brouwer, Anton Fink, Patrik Gerdenitz, Petra Holasek, Patricia Joseph, Hermann Nietzsch, Conchita Verst, Ronald Zettl, Claudia and Daniel Feierl - from Austria, Betty B - from Great Britain, Antonio Manfredi, Alberto Del , Caterina Flor Gumpel, Maria Laura Matei and Maoro Paparo Filomarino are from Italy. Some of them have already gained worldwide fame, some are just starting their creative way... For the most explicit compositions, anonymous models from the "adult industry" posed.
The most famous among the photo models was the 90-year-old chemist and writer Karl Jerassi - the creator of the first birth control pills, whose name can be found in all modern encyclopedias (including the Jewish one, since he grew up in a Jewish family of immigrants from Austria and Bulgaria).
The organizers of the exhibition do not hide the fact that shocking for them is a way of survival: the state does not finance the Museum of Contemporary Art in Casoria, and the museum has to exist exclusively through private donations and ticket sales.
"Brothel frescoes" of ancient Pompeii
Pan and Goat is a figurine found among the ruins in Pompeii. British museum
NEWSru.co.il editors would like to thank the press secretary of the Museum of Modern Art in Casoria Graziella Melania Geraci for the photos provided