With a profusion of bright colours and
vivid
architectural elements, this fresco
from
Paestum, the greatest city of Magna
Graecia
stands as an enduring tribute to the
detail,
naturalism ad adaptability with which
the
ancient Greeks approached their fine
arts.
This tall pentagonal composition
features
vivid pigments for greatest effect,
with clear
bold fields of colour that intersect
each other
with clearly defined linear
boundaries. The
use of these fields of colour makes
for an
instantly legible and appreciable
vignette.
A luxuriantly leaved palmette fills
the top
half of the relief. Some of the leaves
stretch
up vertically, others undulate to the
sides,
and two long vine-like extremities
course
out to the edge of the triangular top.
Below
the palmette, a strong line of red
pigment
separates the leaves from a band of
egg-
and-dart moulding, which has been
painted
in red and bright cerulean blue
pigments.
Below the moulding, a procession takes
place: a dark-skinned youth, sitting
proudly
astride a horse, rides across the
scene from
left to right. A faithful long-limbed
hunting
dog follows behind him, and to his
right, a
fair-skinned goddess beckons the youth
onwards. With her fine features,
elegant
robes and patera cradled in her arm,
she is
Persephone, goddess of the bountiful
harvest and queen of the underworld
realm,
Hades.
Persephone, after being abducted by
the
king of the underworld Hades, was
later
released thanks to her mother Demeter.
On
releasing her, Hades gave her a
pomegranate. When she later ate it, it
bound her to the underworld, where she
had
to stay there one-third of the year,
while
she spent the rest with her mother.
This
myth is a symbol of the budding and
dying
of nature.
These figures have been painted with
passion, but also economy, so that
their
spare forms remain apprehensible even
from
a distance. Both collected and
exuberant,
the youth, the horse, the dog, and the
goddess are outstanding examples of
the
artistic style of Magna Graecia and
Paestum
in particular.
The southern regions of Italy, well
watered
by rivers, fertile with pleasant
terrain for
cities and harbours, attracted the
wandering
Greeks of the Aegean from the days of
ancient Mycenae. The islands of the
Aegean
archipelago were small, resource-poor
and
often crowded. For the able sea-faring
Greeks, the plains of southern Italy
and
Sicily offered pasture, resources and
respite
from their travels. By the middle of
the first
millennium BC, Magna Graecia, as it
became
to be known, contained some of the
most
lavish cities in the ancient world.
Cities such
as Sybaris were known for their
wealth, and
the Sicilian city of Agrigento built
beautiful
temples in the Classical style. But
for all of
their wealth and graceful
architecture, none
of the cities of Magna Graecia
approached
Paestum in its size, wealth or
architecture.
By the early 5th century BC, the
Italian
peninsula was becoming Roman, as the
last
of the tyrannical kings was expelled
and the
Republic founded. However, the south
was
still very much Greek and the economic
and
political security of Magna Graecia
and its
kings remained secure. Paestum,
originally
founded under the name ‘Poseidonia’,
was
still the jewel of these Greek cities,
renowned for its monuments and for its
distinctive artistic style.
While its temples were clearly
modelled on
the temple of Zeus at Olympia, the
decorative arts of Paestum are
distinctively
local. The fresco is a prime example
of its
local style. Bright colours, clear
forms and
deliberate registered compositions
define the
fresco style of Paestum. The inclusion
of a
pomegranate, a classical motif of
great
durability, links the painting to the
one from
the Spina-Gaudo necropolis outside the
ancient city. Another relief featuring
the
Charon again from the same necropolis
and
now in the Museo Archeologico
Nazionale di
Paestum, presents a similar triangular
inclusion.
For further bibliographical
references:
Bennet M. and A. Paul, Magna Graecia:
Greek art from South Italy and Sicily,
Cleveland, 2002; Hafner, G. Art of
Rome,
Etruria and Magna Graecia, New York,
1969;
Napoli, M. Paestum, Novara, 1970.
Hinks, r.P. Catalogue of the Greek
Etruscan
and
Roman Paintings and Mosaics in the
British
Museum, London 1933; Ling, R. Roman
Painting,
Cambridge 1991; Le Peinture de Pompei.
Temoignages de l'art romain dans la
zone
ensevelie par Vesuve en 79 ap. J-C.
Vols I
and II,
Paris 1993; Pompei, Pitture e Mosaici
Vol
VIII,
Rome 1988; Schwinzer, E. Schwenbende
Gruppen
in der pompejianischen Wandmalerei,
Wurzburg
1979.