| Paintings and mosaics in Pompeii and Ercolano: |
The Portraits
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This is not the appropriate forum for a debate on the problem
regarding portrait-painting in the ancient world through various
artistic manifestations, and we are taking for granted the
distinction between the "typological" portrait (in other words
where the subject is recognisable by means of some special
feature which labels him/her as belonging to a given category
which would be clear from the context of the picture) on the one
hand, and on the other hand the "physiognomical" portrait (that
is to say where not only is physical similarity important, but
also penetration of the psychological dimension). It must be
said, therefore, that compared to the vast number of sculptured
portraits that have been conserved, the number of painted ones
from the ancient world, given the fragility of their backings,
is extremely limited. And so nothing has survived from the Greek
portrait painters, who counted among their number famous names
such as Protogenes and Apelles, while from Roman times we can
glean information from portraits done on glass, from those
funerary portraits from the Fayyum, and of course from frescoes,
above all from the numerous examples around Vesuvius, although
in all these cases we are dealing with special backing supports,
and quite different from those used by the grand masters.
The painted portrait was usually carried out on painted boards
and was much appreciated, probably because of the ease with
which it could be transported; names of famous portrait painters
are well-known to us through Cicero and Pliny; above all that of
a woman, Iaia of Cyzico, who was said to be so highly-thought of
because of the speed and precision of her work (she had painted
a self-portrait from her reflection in the mirror and had also
carried out a large picture of an old woman in Naples) that she
managed to earn more than the most sought-after portrait
painters of the day, such as Sopolis and Dionysios.
The Roman habit of preserving and handing down to posterity the
memory of their forefathers' deeds was a ius in its own right,
and was originally limited to patricians who jealously protected
it by exhibiting in their halls imagines maiorum, thereafter
extended to include anyone who had occupied a curule position.
Portraits in wax gave way to those in bronze and in marble,
while following two basic patterns: one which was more or less
classicist tending towards the idealisation and typification of
the character, while the other was more realistic and life-like
in which a physical portrait of the character was often
accompanied by a psychological profile. This phenomenon was also
present in painting although as far as frescoes were concerned
the idealised type prevailed over the realistic type, which
included Roman-age Egyptian pieces such as the well-known "Fayyum
portraits" whose origins were not limited, however, to that
area. This was a full-face type of portrait, done during
lifetime, and was placed over the face of the mummy amidst the
bandages. Extant examples have been traced to between the 2nd
and the 4th centuries A.D., on the basis of hairstyles and
clothing.
Towns around Vesuvius, on the other hand, have yielded an
impressive quantity of medallions bearing single of paired busts
of personalities, wall-paintings mainly done on tablina and alae,
and sometimes in vestibules or halls. The figures are shown in
profile or frontally, and rarely with any distinguishing
features or physiognomy, so much so that the young girl with the
golden hairnet, ink-pen and waxed tablets (cat. 00), far from
being considered as a portrait of a young lady from Pompeii has
actually been identified as the poetess par excellence Sappho.
We know that on the symmetrical panelling on the same wall there
is a painted pendant, a medallion depicting a young man with a
scroll (cat.00), possibly the most successful of these portraits.
The face of the old bearded man with large dark eyes (cat. 00)
might be considered realistic, although it also responds to
typological criteria. In sum, these portraits tend to differ
from mythological representations because the characters herein
depicted are lacking distinctive features, but if we removed
these features from the pairs such as Dionysus and the Maenad (amongst
which Cat. 00), or Paris and Love, or Heracles and Omphale (the
garland of vine-leaves, the thyrsus, the cantharus, the Phrygian
cap, the club, the leontè, etc.) we would find ourselves faced
with equally unknown "types".
The picture of Terentius Neo and his wife should be treated
separately. The shape is not that of a medallion, and its size,
quite different from that of the accessory paintings to be found
on the side panelling, makes it more like a real painting, or at
least in the absence of any information regarding the size of
panel paintings in the ancient world, this is what we presume.
The characters behave in the same way as is normal for portraits,
and yet the result is quite different. While we cannot detect
the presence of any posing behind the medallions and paintings
of Bacchian characters, at most a painter who is copying a
successful model for the umpteenth time, here we can detect the
existence of a self-conscious middle-class couple from the
provinces who have had portraits done of themselves as
intellectuals. And this comparison is encouraged by the type
behaviour and details which are in common with those on genre
face-medallions; in this case, then, we can comfortably say that
we are dealing with a physiognomical portrait.
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Fonte: MANN
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