Painting in Ancient Rome

[guy]

Here’s an interesting article on painting projects in Ancient Rome:

Quote

 

A cautionary house-painting tale is shared by the first-century B.C. author Vitruvius, who tells of the folly of Faberius, one of Julius Caesar’s scribes. Faberius had a taste for red and, to paint his colonnaded courtyard on Rome’s Aventine Hill, he went for the more expensive option—cinnabar—over cheaper red ocher. “Faberius would likely have been a freed slave, so this would have been a case of the sort of conspicuous consumption that Pliny the Elder would later deplore,” Becker says. Vitruvius warns that using cinnabar in open spaces where it will be exposed to sunlight or moonlight destroys the color—which is exactly what happened in Faberius’ courtyard. His prized peristyle turned black after just 30 days, “on which account he was obliged to agree with the contractors to lay on other colors,” writes Vitruvius.

Working with chemists including Ruth Beeston of Davidson College and Greg Smith from the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Becker is currently analyzing pigments found in the shop to identify their composition. This might, in turn, help reveal where they came from. “There isn’t any evidence of manufacturing in the shop,” Becker says, “so I’m assuming the pigments were processed elsewhere.”

 

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/544-2403/digs/12134-dd-italy-roman-painting

Edited February 19 by guy