Painting Styles in Ancient Rome

Painting styles in ancient Rome were bright and colourful and the techniques with which the colours  were applied were quite complex. Studies started in the 18^th century, primarily on the basis of findings in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Rome, have allowed a general subdivision of Roman wall painting into four broad styles. These styles were not executed in strict chronological order but they do allow a means of categorizing these artworks.

The four styles of ancient Roman painting: Illusion and Abstraction

Roughly speaking the first two styles were elaborated during the Republican period (up to Julius Caesar and a little before the birth of Christ). The third style was developed at the advent of the empire – at the very end of the first century BC. The fourth style began about a century later.

All four styles have a rigid geometry as a base. This construction is rendered explicit through representation of architectural motifs such as columns, pediments and so on. Figurative elements are then included within the architectural superstructure as if they were themselves paintings framed by columns, brickwork and friezes.

The first and second styles attempt to create illusion whilst the third and fourth move towards abstraction.

The first style of ancient Roman painting

As might be expected, what has been categorised as the first style includes frescoes aimed at mimicking the effect of precious marbles and other materials and surfaces which themselves might have been used to form the wall surface. A sort of cheaper way of creating the colourful and sumptuous interiors of marbles and precious stones.

The second style: breaking away from the physical surface into illusion

The “second style” includes the creation of illusionary spaces and areas. Columns and walls leading to open spaces with false doors, windows, sky, gardens and buildings receding into the distance. As has already been mentioned it is interesting and surprising to note how three dimensional tromp l’oeil effects were relatively common in Ancient Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire this artistic concept disappears right up to its rediscovery in the Renaissance.

The third style

As with modern painting, realist tromp-l’oeil evolved towards increasingly “abstract” concepts of the same theme. The “third style” reduces the columns and false architectural structures to simplified compositional devices which frame what we would nowadays refer to as “figurative paintings” of landscapes and still life.

Fourth style ancient Roman painting: Back to the physical surface

The fourth style is the last, more than anything because the eruption of mount Vesuvius buries Pompeii and puts a stop to the source material rather than putting a stop to artistic production! With the fourth style the painter lets loose with a myriad of decorative motifs laid out in rectangular structures and framing smaller panels which we, the modern onlookers, might well have painted on a canvas and hung.

These “canvases” are generally framed by larger rectangular sections of white wall, itself framed by patterns, chains of leaves dotted with small figurines, birds and jars which have all escaped the formal world and became decorative pattern. The “canvases” mentioned above might indeed be painted on a separate panel in a workshop so as to enable greater care of execution. The panel would then be inserted and walled into the appropriate section of the overall composition and the edges rendered invisible.

The wall surface of the fourth style thus becomes a physical surface again. Rather than an illusion it becomes a support for the decorative medium (like the canvas of a painting).

It is interesting to note how the pictorial discoveries of the fourth style were to be used again and again. Quite recently, for example, during the industrial revolution to decorate mass produced consumables such as ceramics. The Romans who were so keen on mass decoration would have loved this and in fact did something quite similar themselves with pottery.

From Nero’s Golden House to the Catacombs

A particularly impressive example of the fourth style is to be found in Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden House) which was innovative in terms of construction techniques and architecture as well as painting and sculpture. Lavish sums of money were spent to assemble the best of the best.

Elements of the fourth style, possibly inspired by the Domus Aurea are then found in the Christian burial areas and the Catacombs of the third and fourth centuries. Clearly these are of lesser technical quality than the sumptuous paintings of the emperor’s palace but there is a clear link from the fourth style through to an approach which aims at visual impact through chromatic effects.

Our modern word “grotesque” stems from the Renaissance discovery of buried roman villas, such as the Domus Aurea and the opportunity to visit the newly found paintings deep in the dug out grottoes. These acted as inspiration for artists of the time and aptly contributed to a rebirth of art and culture the renaissance is known for. 

 Art in ancient Rome: | Art in Ancient Rome – Introduction | The decadence of classical art | Foreign influence | The Greek revolution | Painting and Frescos | Painting Styles | Drawing | Mosaics | Glass, Pottery and other wares | Sculpture | Architecture | Literature and Theatre |