Pic o' the Day #1318- Sunday Style Supplement (a day late!)

As I said a few posts ago, I'm not going to go deep on the painting styles of Pompeii just yet, but here's a little teaser for when I do. The Fourth Style is sometimes known as the Baroque or Intricate period of Roman painting. As it was the last period of art before Vesuvius buried Pompeii (in 79 AD), it is found in many places in the Bay of Naples. Although the styles continued to evolve in other parts of the Roman Empire, by far the largest bulk of our knowledge comes from this area that was so well preserved under the tons of ashes left by the volcano. 

One of the easy ways to recognize work that was done in this late style is what are sometimes called "Embroidery" style borders: simple but precise one or two colored strips with repeating elements that are usually quite abstract. Here's a few examples from my trip last summer.

"Embroidery" border in the baths area of the Villa San Marco at Stabia

Another pattern from the same room

corner detail from the House of the Gilded Cupids in Pompeii

Pic o' the Day #1317- Happy Friday!

Detail of a decorative column used as a panel division in the Villa Arianna at Stabia. Very delicate and refined work.

Pic o' the Day #1316- Buried Treasures

One of my favorite things about travel is the unexpected find. Go out to see the antique Roman ruins at Stabia and stumble across a beautiful (though dilapidated) Stile Liberty house while wandering through the funky town of Castellamare di Stabia.  I don't know any details about this one; it's probably done around 1910, give or take a few years.

You could easily walk right by this one and not even notice it was there. I almost did!

Nice tile detail over the central axis entry

Interesting inversion of a Corinthian capital

Butterfly bracket support

Pic o' the day #1315- "Sit Down! You're blocking the view!"

In the world of Roman painting, there are four periods, or styles, which are used to guess at the age of the decorations. They were originally delineated and described by the German archaeologist August Mau, 1840 – 1909, who ran the digs at Pompeii and published numerous illustrations of what they found to raise money to continue the projects.

Page from Mau, Pompeii, It's Life and Art.  You can view and download this entire book here

I won't go into detail on the styles right now (save that for another post!) but just skip ahead to the third and fourth styles, which were the last to be used before Vesuvius blew and encapsulated everything for 1700 years. In the third and fourth styles there is often found a division of the visual spaces into tiers both vertical and horizontal that seem to some (including me) to be a reflection of the scenae frons, which was the vertical stage front of Roman theaters.

Model of the scenae frons at the Theater of Marcellus in Rome. Actors could appear on all levels, creating a very dynamic staging. Imagine if they'd had spotlights!

Here's a couple of shots of murals in Stabia and Oplontis. It is easy to see how they relate to the stage front, with their protruding balconies and numerous openings. In addition, the dramatic poses of figures framed by these kinds of murals, as well as depictions of the masks of classical dramas would seem to be clear reference to the stage.

Mural in the Villa of Arianna at Stabia.  Notice the mask from the drama sitting on the white balcony area at right.

Mural in the Villa of Poppaea at Oplontis has architecture that is similar to what one finds on the scenae frons. This mural would actually be considered to be in the second style, with a hearty trompe l'oeil emphasis that was later generally dropped.

Here is how an artist has interpreted the decor of the House of Augustus (Rome) in terms of a small stage front. From Thomas Gordon Smith's Vitruvius on Architecture (Monacelli, 2004)

Pic o' the Day #1314- Back to Grandma's

Here are some shots of another antique house with an all over pattern that very much resembles wallpaper patterns of many centuries later. This was of course not printed but entirely hand painted by skilled craftsmen. (They didn't even have paper  to speak of at that time, let alone printing technology.)
It is one of many very fine rooms at the Villa Adriana (or Arianna) in Stabia, which was once hanging on a seaside cliff, but is now about a quarter mile inland due to the shoreline being extended by volcanic debris.

This villa must have belonged to a very wealthy person, with mosaic floors, the deep red socle with golden decorations in a refined style, and the upper portion covered in carefully painted ornaments. The ceiling also would have been painted and/or covered with plaster ornament.

The panel at the bottom center is a digital replacement for the real one, which was removed and sent to Napoli in the 1750's, when these sites were first being uncovered. Even though the photo is a bit jarring, I still prefer it to a blank panel.

Decorations in the overall pattern include birds, flowers, shields and figures

detail of one of the figures

Pic o' the Day #1313- Details, Details

I've been noticing lately how much mileage the Roman painters of antiquity got out of their details. Quite often, the rich decoration of the walls of the antique houses consists of nothing more than colored panels limited by filigreed edges. Of course, the central panels could be more elaborate landscapes or figure paintings, but even those are mostly small centers in large panels, and it is the refined detail of the borders that give the feeling of luxury and richness to these interiors. Here's a small gallery of images of details I took at Stabia last summer.

Wall around the peristyle of the Villa San Marco at Stabia. Not really that much detail on them, but what is there shows great finesse.

Example of a divider based on a candelabrum style design

Details such as this candelabrum supporting a garland of leaves give a rich feeling to the division of panels, with a minimum of paint and time. 

Clever and unrealistic architectural supports are a hallmark of the third and fourth styles, and were harshly criticized by both Vitruvius and Pliny.

I don't even know what this is supposed to represent (lamp? musical instrument?) but the style is so attractive it doesn't really matter.

Border with a peacock feather accent. 

Even when a figure panel was included on the walls (like this beautiful painting of Perseus slaying Medusa), they are often very small by comparison to the size of the panels that divide the walls.

Pic o' the Day #1312- Refreshing change at Stabia

After a frustrating day of multiple closures at Pompeii, we took a train down to the sleepy little town of Castellammare di Stabia to see two villas that are open to visitors there. You can read about the whole day on my earlier post. It was such a pleasure to see this villa, one of the earliest digs (starting in 1750) in the Bay of Naples. Being in the earliest days of exploration, it was pilfered, with the finest paintings and furnishings removed for the pleasure of the Bourbon king who ruled the area at the time, and then reburied, only to be re-excavated more gently in the 1950's. We were the only visitors at that time, and had free rein to wander and click to my heart's content. Here's a couple of shots showing the level of skill and detail that went into this sumptuous seaside palace.

Lower wall area of the atrium of the Villa San Marco at Stabia shows a creature with horses forelegs and a fishy tail, representing some type of water deity.  

Corner of a room in the Villa San Marco at Stabia

Day 29- Stabia in the back, Pompeii (Say it out loud, you'll get it)

(Originally posted on facebook July 10, 2013)

After our disappointing day at the mostly shuttered ruins of Pompeii yesterday, we headed out to unknown quarters, the recommended but remote ruins of Stabia Castellamare, sort of the Malibu of Pompeii, where wealthy people built their palatial retreats on a bluff overlooking the sea. Just as at Pompeii and Herculaneum, the sea is now a good half mile further out due to volcanic and river deposits etc., but it is still very clearly seen from the yards of the two villas we were able to visit there. In fact, there is a great view of the whole Bay of Naples from the houses, which are nestled up against the hills that continue out to the Sorrentine Peninsula. 

delicious looking gardens abound in the area of Castellamare

The overall feeling there today was very tropical, from the warm air and afternoon rain, to the loud and warm people, who seemed to be more comfortable in the heat, unlike their northern neighbors, who run for shade during the middle of the day. As we got off the train in town, we sat down to peruse the computer map I had saved from earlier. A short, very friendly woman asked us some mostly unintelligible questions and then kept beckoning us to follow her. I could tell she had some kind of speech impediment, but it wasn't till later that I realized that she was deaf, which explained her touching us to get us to look at her so she could lip read. It was feeling a bit strange, and I could understand about one word in ten, but she lead us straight to the water fountain by the stadium, which was on the way to the Villa site, and then she turned off with some friends after friendly kisses and hugs. 

So we kept on through the thronged streets, passing lovely fish stalls and fresh fruit markets, on out to the edge of the small town, then up the street with a small sign for the site. Houses all had amazing gardens, and as we got further up the street, they turned to orchards with gardens interspersed, all full to bursting with produce: tomatoes everywhere, long purple eggplants, flowering zucchini, plums, peaches, and all kinds of citrus, including the local giant lemons, which are the size of footballs. There were a couple of tiny fruitstands where we bought some delicious peaches- I'm lamenting that my picture taking seems to be so focused on art only- these stands were so classic.

Approach to the Villa San Marco leaves you scratching your head saying, "did I read that sign correctly?"

After about 20 minutes on the road, we spotted the entry to the Villa San Marco, walking down a dirt road that led past a field of produce to a funky little assembly of shacks and farmhouses, four or five lazy dogs lying around, and a small, barely visible sign pointing to the entrance. A nice lady came out to ask us to sign the guest book (they didn't want out tickets at all) and she pointed us down the hill to the entrance.

After you pass the ramshackle entrance area, you walk down the entry of the Villa. 

This house was LARGE! And residential feeling. Unlike most of Pompeii, the house's walls have been completed back to their original height and roofed, which gives you a much better feeling for what the spaces were like, and it protects the walls (and us) from (some) of the damaging effects of exposure. We were the only ones at the site, which was also very nice. An employee came and monitored us for about 5 minutes, then she disappeared. We were free to roam anywhere that wasn't cordoned off, which was very nice. You really get a sense of how nice this house must have been, with pleasant sea breezes and a very large central swimming pool surrounded by trees (about which they know exactly how big and placement by the plaster replacement technique I mentioned yesterday). There was an outrageously nice bath area that had Marianne really pining for a spa day, which we have not managed to figure out here.

Pool area of the Villa San Marco, where we sat and ate lunch with nobody but the ghosts of 2,000 year old residents.

After about an hour here, we headed out for the other site, the Villa Arianna, about twenty more minutes down the road. They have located and mapped about 6 large villas in the area, but these two are the only ones open to the public at present. The entry to Arianna was similar to San Marco (ie- subtle!) and the house was too. Very large rooms with spectacular views. Not quite as homey feeling as San Marco, but really special. Both houses were decorated mostly with fourth style decorations, which are somewhat sparser, but the feeling overall is quite rich and varied. 

Part of the bath complex at the Villa San Marco.

Unfortunately they were also both part of the earliest explorations of the area under the Bourbon rulers in the 18th century, who had the rude habit of removing fresco bits for display elsewhere- most are now in the Archeological Museum in Naples. They have replaced the missing bits in many of the spaces with photo reproductions, which while not as good as the real thing, are certainly better than nothing at all. 

Awesome "wallpapered" room at the Villa Adriana. The panel at bottom was removed to the Archeological Museum in Naples, but at least you get some idea of the look from the copy placed there.

Still, there's plenty to see, and the lack of crowds and barriers made it really pleasant. As we were exploring Arianna, the daily rainstorm with lightning was clearly visible to the east of Mt Vesuvius, and we contemplated hanging around the villa for it, but decided instead to hoof it for the train. Fortunately, the road we were on makes a loop, so we came back into town from a different side, and since the rain wasn't really coming down hard, we decided to find the beach area. Wound through the town, which is very plain jane, and ended up on the "beach", an esplanade area with a wide, trash strewn bit of dirt and grass leading to the waters edge. Don't know why it's so unkempt- it's a pretty bay in general, and the water looks relatively clean and very calm, but nobody seems to care for it at all. Further south you can see Sorrento perched on the hill, to the north you can see Naples and the islands of Procida and Ischia. It looks like there was once a street car along the esplanade, but it is obviously dead for some time. On the way back to the train station spotted an overgrown Stile Liberty mansion with butterfly capitals and beautiful wrought iron balconies. These art nouveau houses just seem to pop up in strange places like little bits of frosting on the cake!

Detail of Stile Liberty balcony of a house we stumbled upon in the town of Castellamare.

Came back on the train and picked up our usual eat-in groceries: a bag of arugula, tomatoes, beets (cooked ones in a pouch- we both love beets), some kind of roasted veggies to put in the salad, some cheese for me, some beans, bread, and a bit of dark chocolate with hazelnuts (yum!) Later we'll still manage to stuff in a gelato somehow.

Back for the passegiata in Pompeii. I think he's thinking "maybe if I wear camouflage, no one will recognize me!"

Struggling tonight with figuring out where we're going to stay when we get back to Rome tomorrow- it's hard because we're really on a tight budget and we've been waiting til the last minute because of schedule details. My band was supposed to play a gig on Thursday night, but because the standby flight we were going to try for looks too full to get on, we backed out of it, so now I think we're trying to stay here one more week to get in those last details in Roma and the surrounding area.