Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pompeii
Pompeii
- Initially, Pompeii was studied aesthetically only no attention to its spacing overall!
- Unlike Romans, Pompeiians encountered no political, etc. obstacles to luxury!
- Around 100 BC, Pompeiians were rich, there was lots of trade and connection with
the Hellenistic world showed in town because of the proliferation of private homes,
etc.!
!
- Theaters!
- Most public buildings from Sammite era reflected the Pompeiians desire to be
influenced by the Greeks!
- Most boys and men of Oscan Pompeii participated in athletic training (amphitheater
activities) !
- Temples with Dionysis and Zeus found Greek monuments in Pompeii placed
close to each other!
- Amphitheater was on the outskirts of Pompeii, with contrasts with most Hellenistic
towns were the gymnasiums and theaters were in the center of the town!
!
- Tombs!
- Lots of self promotion on tombs to commemorate whoever was buried!
- Stories about actual person + other people in his/her life!
!
Foss & Dobbins Pompeian Women!
- Women of Pompeii were privileged members of the upper class, slaves in big
households and businesses, and/or freedwomen working long hours!
!
- Women and the Family/ Economy!
- Birth of a girl/ girls were cherished in Roman families (as opposed ____)!
- Death of a girl was a horrible event!
- Terms coniunx, uxor, and concubina used to describe relationships between men and
women!
- Most important role of a woman was to become a mother and produce an heir!
- Most women inherited money or earned money through work!
- Often charged with managing the domestic budget!
- It was common for women to sell property, build tombs, etc. and some influenced
political campaigns with their support!
- More wealthy women influenced politics through money and gift-giving, and there was
a big emphasis on a patron-client relationship!
- Well connected women were able to participate in religious rituals, but normal women
were in charge of religious life in their families!
!
!
!
!
- Etruscan Art!
- Succesfully mined iron, tin, copper, and silver!
- Villages that were agriculturally based gave way to big trading cities!
- Elite had a taste for luxurious Etruscan art!
-Etruscan Temples!
!
- Temples honoring Etruscan gods vs. Greek gods were very different!
- Stone gable-roofed temples with wood columns and tile- covered wood roofs
!
!
!
- Sculpture!
- Verism subjects were mostly men of advanced age!
- Most subjects had power in the Republic of Rome!
- Big desire to illustrate Roman ancestry, so lost of portraits of important figures in
the Republic be can to show up on coins, buildings, etc.!
- Architecture in Pompeii!
- Streets heavily flagstoned (pavements, sidewalks)!
- Big parts of life:!
- Forum!
- Pompeiian Painting!
- Houses and villas were adorned with frescoes/ wall paintings!
- First style (Masonry style)!
- Style was to basically imitate costly marble panels with painted stucco!
- Second style!
- Basically to dissolve a rooms confining walls and create 3-d illusions of grandeur!
- almost the opposite of First style!
- Third Style!
- Artists no longer tried to replace walls with 3-d structures, but covered walls with
linear designs on one-color backgrounds!
- Fourth style!
- Taste for illusionism returned (landscapes, views, people, etc.)!
!
!
- Frescoes are considered as actual parts of walls, whereas they are portrayed as
individual pieces in museums why?!
!
- Other Aspects that influenced Fresco placement!
- The environment of a building/room, length of time that people would spend in the
room, etc. influenced the type of fresco on the walls.!
- Walls showed the purpose of the room leisure was associated with leaves/ocean
frescoes!
- Floor to ceiling con sited of peristyle walls with different animals, minerals, and
foods importance?!
- Some rooms had mixture of both people and divine beings depicted obviously
were a big part of Pompeiian life.!
!
A Basic Feel of: Christensens Piece on Hellenistic Floor Mosaics!
- Main Points!
- Proliferation of floor mosaics in House of the Faun originally started showing up in
Italy following their expansion in Hellenistic palaces and homes of the elite.!
- Originally constructed with two atria and a single peristyle in Doric order. all info
discerned from ruins??!
- The paper basically discusses the appearance of Hellenistic mosaics first in the
House of the Faun followed by an analysis of their role in palaces and elite
residences.!
!
- Interesting aspects of The House of the Faun!
- At north end of atrium is a dancing bronze faun origin of the houses name!
- House was designed to allow guests passing through the house to have different
points of view for the mosaics.!
- (Not related to the House of the Faun, but space theory is the study of how certain
placement of furniture allows entrance/exit into rooms)!
- Tells a lot about the activities that occurred/ what was allowed in the rooms.!
- Author ends with analysis of the meaning of mosaics!
- To impress, to announce the purpose of certain rooms, etc.