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The Wall-Decoration of the Cubiculum of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor Near Bos- Coreale in Its Relation to Ancient Stage-Painting

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The Wall-Decoration of the Cubiculum of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor Near Bos- Coreale in Its Relation to Ancient Stage-Painting THE WALL-DECORATION OF THE CUBICULUM OF THE VILLA OF P. FANNIUS SYNISTOR NEAR BOS- COREALE IN ITS RELATION TO ANCIENT STAGE-PAINTING BY H. G. BEYEN In my review of Mrs. Williams-Lehmann's book on the wall- paintings of this villa 1) the limited space did not leave me an opportunity to argue with the authoress on the question whether the wall-decoration of the cubiculum shows the influence of Greco- roman stage sets. In fact Mrs. Lehmann is convinced that the many authors (including myself) who believe in this influence are quite wrong and that the prospects are nothing but a representation of a luxurious Roman villa 2). She even tries to ridicule the thesis of her "adversaries". As the more general question of the interre- lation between Greco-Roman scene-painting and Roman wall- painting is an important one, it seems justified to consider it some- what more closely. It must be stressed at once that the opinions of those who believe in the existence of ancient scene-painting on Roman wall-painting vary considerably. So, in my opinion, Mr. A. Little in his last article on the subject goes somewhat too far 3). It would therefore be wrong to regard these authors as a homo- geneous group. As I have treated the subject fully in my Wand- dekoration (I, 143-2o8), I shall summarize my arguments brought forward there and add some new ones. (i) The influence of ancient scene-painting on other "genres" of ancient painting is conspicuous. Ancient perspective originated, as its name aX1)voyp/X<PL/Xproves, from scene-painting. In suggesting space scene-painting already took the lead at the time of Aeschylus 1) Ph. Williams-Lehmann, Roman Wall Paintings from Boscoreale in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1953. See Mnemos. IV 9 (1956), 356-8. 2) Op. cit., 90 ff. 3) A. M. G. Little, A Roman Sourcebook for the Stage, A.J.A. 60 (1956), 27 ff.. 148 when, according to Vitruvius VII, ?<?/?o, Agatharchus painted a scaena for the great dramatist. A treatise by the painter on this subject was followed by scientific treatises on (central) perspective by Anaxagoras and Democritus 1). In the days when Plato was startled by illusionistic painting, called axlocypocytoc by him, this way of suggesting space flourished particularly in scene-painting 2). Undoubtedly Plato (Rep. 365c) thinks of scene-painting when he calls a pretence of virtue a axcaypacpiav His words are: 7rPo6upa viv xai x6xx(p 7tEPL axtaypoty EMV 7tEpL- When I want to be mock-virtuous, "I must draw a portal (facade) and a mathematical figure (or: a mere decoration, like a screen) 3) in a circle round myself which will be like an illusionistic painting of virtue". The cannot but be identified with the ciycinus mentioned twice by Vitruvius in his theory of central perspective in scene-painting and in architectural painting 4). The scene-painter described it "round him" on the vertical plain on which he is going to paint his vista. The 7cp60up<xmust be the "façade" (the scaenae frons in a wider sense) covering reality (the itself), which we still find in a modernized form in the Villa of Fannius Synistor 5). We may safely assume that this leading position of scene-painting in suggesting space continued during the Hellenistic period. Easel- painting certainly followed to some extent, though somewhat reluctantly 6). When at the beginning of the first century B.C. wall-painting revived in Italy in a peculiar, illusionistic form (the so-called i ) See Wanddekoration I, p. 1 58fi. ; Arch. Anz. 54, 1939, col. 58ff. ; Klassieke en Nieuwere Schilderkunst, 1956, p. 69 ff. 2) On Plato and the art of his time, lately: B. Schweitzer, .PJa<oMund die bildende Kunst der Griechen, Tübingen 1953 (bibliography on p. gI ). A. W. Byvanck, Meded. Kon. Akad. v. Wetensch., afd. Letterk. N.R. 1 8 : 1 6 (1955). 3) ???,a sometimes means "a pretence".-For the use of as a mathematical figure cf. Resp. 51oc.-Protogenes wrote nept YPOC50LX?qxat ax1JILŒ.T(J)V(Suidas s.v.). 4) Vitruvius de Arch. VII, Praefatio, II, 2; H. G. Beyen, Wanddeko- ration I, 157 f.; A.A. 54, 1939, col. 58 ff. 5) Williams-Lehmann, pl. 18, i9; Beyen, Wanddek. I, fig. 57, 58; 22, 23. 6) Beyen, Bull. Antieke Beschaving 27 (1952), 1 ff. (6 f.). .
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