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Although these is evidence that the Romans
painted on portable panels, the majority of
painting from the Roman era that survives today
has come down to us in the form of frescos. The
interiors of Roman villas were often composed of
sparsely furnished, windowless rooms. Wall
paintings were used to open up and enliven these
dark, dreary spaces with colorful decorative
motifs and architectural elements that appeared
to look out onto pastoral landscapes. The fresco
technique practiced during the Classical era has
been described in the histories of Vitruvius and
Pliny the Elder. First, the wall was prepared by
applying multiple coats of mortar (a mixture of
lime and sand) followed by one to three coats of
lime mixed with finely powdered marble. The
colored pigments were applied directly to the
plaster while the wall was still damp, forcing the
artist to complete the specific area being painted
before the wall dried.
This lively fragment from a fresco would have
once decorated a wall in the home of a wealthy
citizen or in a public building. Only a tantalizing
portion of a larger composition that would have
once covered an entire wall, we wonder what the
completed fresco might have looked like. In
what remains, we find Pan carrying Eros on his
back, against a bright ochre-colored
background. The dark-skinned Pan holds a
sprig of green ivy leaves in his right hand. He
features a shaggy beard and the hoofed legs of a
goat. Youthful Eros, the god of love, rides on
Pan’s back with his wings outstretched, carrying
a staff in one hand and supporting himself with
the other. He wears a wreath in his long, wavy
hair while red and white drapery falls over his
thigh.
This gorgeous fragment attests to the
remarkable skills of Roman painters, an
important facet of Roman art that was relatively
unknown until discovery of Pompeii and
Herculaneum where a plethora of perfectly
preserved frescos were uncovered. While the
sculptures of the Classical era are among the
most recognizable works of art in the world, it is
through frescos like this one that we can now say
with certainty that the painters of Rome were as
accomplished as their sculptor counterparts.
- (X.0139)
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