MentorName: School:J. William Fulbright College, University of Arkansas Classification: GradePoint Average Area of Study: ClassicalStudies, Art History Title of Project: Public andPrivate: Differentiation in SubjectMatter of Wall Painting in the PompeianDomus Project Summary: In A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius eruptedsuddenly, leaving the southernItalian seasidetown of Pompeii coveredin ash. While manyof its inhabitantsfled, otherswere killed by a mixture of pumice and poisonousgases. While tragic, the burial of Pompeii providesa wealth of infonnation aboutRoman life, althoughthe early excavationsof the town were lamentablyunscientific. Pompeii becamea Roman colony after the Social War of the 90s B.C., and subsequentlybecame thoroughly Romanized. Pompeii is renownedfor its many eleganthouses, called domus(Latin, pl. houses),occupied both by native Pompeiansand wealthy Romans. Excavationshave revealed many wall paintings, remarkablywell-preserved by the volcanic ash,in all four of the establishedstyle classifications. Many questionsabout their meaningand social purposehave beenraised. By focusing my investigationon differencesin the fresco subjectmatter, I hopeto underscore a distinction between public and private domestic space. Specifically, I will focus on decorationin the tablinum and ala. hypothesizethat the contenthere is different than that of the peristylium. I will draw from publishedcatalogs, scholarly books, and articles as aids to my analysis. Also, intend to travel to Pompeii and relevant surrounding sites such as Herculaneum and Oplontis. Assessing the architecture and decorationof the domus,in situ, is essentialto understandinghow the Romans public andprivate space. understood Public and Private: Differentiation in Subject Matter of Wall Painting in the Pompeian Domus In ancientRome, freeborn members of the patricianclass were expectedto inhabit a home indicative of their rank, and their decorativehabits were imitated by wealthy freedmen. As a Romancolony, Pompeii adoptedthe samesystem. Most of theseelegant domusdisplay remarkablywell-preserved wall art in the form of frescoes. In this project, I will primarily addressthe urban domus,a housewithin thecity. But I will also include a few examplesof the villa, a houselocated outside the city. JohnClarke, professorof art history at the University of Texas,describes the Romandomus as the hub of social,political, andbusiness activities. Ancient Romans conceptualized'public' and 'private' differently than the modernindividual, who considershis workplaceto be the centerof his public life, andhis home to be the center of his private life. This distinction was not applicableto Romanaristocracy. mstead,it was crucial to the statusof a Romanpublic figure to havelarge numbersof peoplevisit his house for the purposeof conductingbusiness. Romanhouse decoration played a major role in establishingthe Romansense of self. If researchedproperly, the subjectmatter of thesefrescoes can reveal much about Pompeians'daily lives. Wallace-Hadrill refersto the Romandomus as a 'powerhouse,'a place from which the dominusruled his world. In theory,the decorationof the domus shouldindicate what kind of a man the dominus(master of the household)was. By looking at thesewall paintings,we are able to get a senseofms status,and eventhe numberof visitors he receivedeach day. 1 The generallayout of the patrician domusin the 1st centuryB.C. was as follows. In the front half of the domus,a door facing the streetopened up into thefauces (entryway). An axis ran from thefaucesthrough the atrium (main entrancehall). This axis continuedfrom the atrium into the tablinum, or main receptionspace. For example, when a client would visit his patron's domusduring the morning customof sa/ulanD,he would enterthrough thefauces, having a clear line of sight down the fauces-atrium- tablinumaxis. Arrangedaround the peristylium were triclinia, or dining areas. Cubicula (bedrooms)flanked both sidesof the atrium. Also, two alae (small, open rooms) flanked the atrium. The back half of the domuswas centrally focusedon an open-air,colonnaded garden,called the peristylium. The idealized layout mentionedabove is highly important in that it reveals concepts of ideal domestic living; however, it must be noted that due to often irregular land plots in Pompeii, eachdomus I studywill not fall within this ideal plan. ResearchOverview My researchaddresses the following major questions: First, what is different about the 2ndstyle architectural illusionist schemesfound in more 'public' atria and tablina versusthe more 'private' triclinia and cubicula? Second,did the myths depicted in 3rdand 4th style central paintings in the more 'public' tablina and alae differ from thosein the more 'private' tric/inia and cubicu/a? What do the resultsmean in the contextof Roman society? I will collect numerical data from the invaluable Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici encyclopedia. After transferring this infomlation onto large maps of Pompeii, I will detenninewhether a topographiccorrelation exists between the location of a room and 2 the mythsused in its decoration. Emulating Riggsby's approachto researchingthe cubiculum, I will search for passagesin classical literature that mention the tablinum and ala. And for the analyticalcomponent, I will explain the numbers,and relatethem to daily Pompeianlife. I hypothesizethat there is a contrastin the subjectmatter of the public and private zones of the house. I think this will be true for 2nd,3fd, and 4thstyles, althoughthe ways in which they differ would changefrom style to style, due to the inherentcharacteristics of eachstyle. One would expectthis hypothesisto be true, based on the writings ofWallace-Hadrill and Clarke,however, no systematicstudy has been done at this point. Weekly research a2enda I will work for 12.5 hours a week for 16 weeks. I will begin working January 1 st andend May 1st. A typical week would consistof the following: 3 hourswriting thesis drafts, 5 hours using the Pompei: PilluTe e Mosaici series to collect data, 3 hours reading important scholarlyworks that have shapedthe field, and 1.5hours working on Pompeian maps. This would vary from week to week, dependingon the actualdistance to my thesis defensedate. For instance,in April, I will no longer spendtime writing drafts, collecting data, or reading scholarlyworks. Instead,I would devoteall the researchtime to implementingfinal edits to my thesisand constructinga PowerPointpresentation. Monthly research af!enda In January, I will finish my assessmentof 2ndstyle atria, tablina, and alae. In addition, I will read Roman Painting by Roger Ling. After this, I will begin to write tl1e backgroundinfoImation sectionof my honorsthesis. This sectionis meantto give a history of Pompeian excavationand the researchthat hasbeen done in the field so far. I 3 will draw from the works of JohnClarke, Andrew Wallace-Radrill, Andrew Riggsby, EugeneDwyer, and TheodorKraus, as well as primary sourceslike Vitruvius and Petronius. Taking inspiration from Andrew Riggsby's approachto the cubiculum,I will searchfor classicalliterary passagesthat mentionthe tablinum and ala, using the Tufts University PerseusProject, TLL (Latin Thesaurus),and TLG (GreekThesaurus). During February, I will complete my assessmentof3rd and 4th style tablina and atria. At this point, all datawill be collected,and I will divide the raw infonnation into categories for analysis, including the total tablina and alae, the proportion of 2nd,3rd, and 4thstyle decorations, and the specific myths used. I will break down these numbers into more refined categories,such as the numberof alae that depict Venusand the numberof tablina that createthe illusion of the infinite continuumof space,and so on. On the weekend of February 9ththrough 11 th, will travel to the Metropolitan Museumof Art in New York so that I can view the 3Mstyle ttesco ttom a cubiculumttom the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase,and the reconstructed2nd style cubiculumfrom the HousesofP. Fannius Synistorat Boscoreale.Viewing thesefrescoes in personwill give me a more thorough understandingof the spatial impact theseworks have on the viewer. Moving into the analytical componentof my research,March will be devotedto developingthe numbersI have gatheredfrom the encyclopediainto applicablestatistics. I will then situatethe resultsin the contextof currentresearch on domesticspace and decorationin Pompeii. I will draft the main body of my thesis in March. Using the LexiconIconographicum Mythologiae Classicae,I will trace additionalexamples of the most popular mythological sceneson Pompeianwalls. I would use LIMC to detennineif certainmythological subjectmatter on the walls might also show up on pottery and 4 sculpture of the same period. Around mid-March, I will make large copies of detailed mapsof ancientPompeii, and then mark out the data I have gatheredin order to seeif a topographiccorrelation exists. During springbreak, I will travel to Pompeii to view the houses. I will also visit nearbyHerculaneum and Oplontis;other relevantcities preserved by the Vesuvius eruption. And finally, in the first week of April I will write the conclusion section of my thesis. After this, I will consult with my mentorto makefinal edits. Subsequently,I will develop a PowerPoint presentation to include the following infontlation: history of ancientPompeii, history of Pompeian excavation,styles of frescoes,the current statusof the field, numerical data on the rooms I have chosen,and conclusions. I will defendmy thesis between April 16thand 25th. Conclusion SURF