| Paintings and mosaics in Pompeii and Ercolano: |
Brawl in the Amphitheatre
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 This
fragment with its renowned portrayal of the brawl in the
amphitheatre was part of a frieze which was flanked by panels
showing scenes of gladiatorial combat, and came from the western
wall of the peristyle of a house whose conditions were so
dilapidated and lacking in details as to make identification of
the owner impossible. Given the unprecedented subject matter,
its reference to Republican Age triumphal painting of which we
only have the words of Pliny and Livy to go by, and the echo
which rang out in later friezes on the winding pillars depicting
real places and monuments seen from above, it would have been
interesting to know more about the commissioner who wanted the
ugly scene of rivalry between two neighbouring provincial towns
to be remembered for so long.
Tacitus (Ann. XIV, 17) reminds us of how in 59 A.D. a pointless
brawl broke out between Pompeians and Nucerines during a
gladiatorial show offered by Livineius Regolus in the Pompeian
Amphitheatre; the brawl degenerated rapidly so much so that
there were many dead and injured, above all among the Nucerines.
The Senate consequently decided it was appropriate to ban such
events for ten years, and unlawful associations were dissolved,
with Lineius and trouble-makers being sent into exile. This
fresco clearly portrays the crucial moment of the clash, when
the brawl on the terraces and in the arena spills over to near
the walls and the palaestra, a large enclosure containing the
swimming-pool. There are frequent duplications of figurines
representing a character running away with uplifted arms, or
brandishing a sword, or lying on the ground wounded. In the
foreground of the piazza, though, we can still see the ineffable
activity of the refreshment-vendors who have set out their
stalls among the trees and who do not seem to have been drawn
into the affray.
Reproduction of the places, seen from above, is painstakingly
faithful and no detail has been omitted: from the city walls
with its towers, to the amphitheatre's velarium, the porticoes
on the southern and eastern sides of the palaestra, and the
stairs leading up to the summa cavea which bestows upon the
Pomepeian amphitheatre its umistakeable air. The monument's
perspective has been deliberately misrepresented in order to
facilitate a total view of what has been mentioned so far, while
the velarium itself, which has been raised so as to reveal the
terraces, is draped rather unrealistically from the nearby city
walls. Two inscriptions are clearly legible on the palaestra
wall:
D. Lucretio fel(i)citer
and in Greek script
Satri(o) Oualenti O(g)ousto Ner(oni) phelikit(er),
identified by a number of inscriptions as being entertainment
managers around the time of Nero.
It worth noting how landscape details such as the small trees
inthe foreground amongst which we see pairs of female figures
strolling happlily around are very similar to those that can be
found in idyllic and sacred landscape painting of the
Hellenistic tradition; furthermore how, on the other hand, the
characters are all of the same size, with no consideration given
to perspective or illusion, despite the fact that these were key
features of Hellenistic painting. In other words, we are dealing
here with a typical piece of "popular art", that is to say an
artistic exhibit which despite displaying mastery of techniques
relating to contemporary "courtly" painting, actually promotes
its realistic and expressive features for maxium immediate
impact.
Bibliography: PPM I, p.80 fig.6a-b; T. Frölich, Lararien- und
Fassadenbilder in der Vesuvstädten, 32 Erg.heft, 1991, pp.
241-247; Zevi 1991, p. 269
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Fonte: MANN
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