Græco-Roman Painted Decoration
In the luxurious life of the Romans colour
No. 32. Graeco-Roman Hall in house of Sallust, Pompeii.
decoration played a conspicuous part, as is evidenced in the painted work of Herculaneum and Pompeii. In this, which is generally known as the Græco-Roman period, the interiors were decorated with paintings, the general scheme being based on an architectural setting, the wall areas being divided into bays by slender columns, sometimes by pilaster panels, with plinth, or dado, frieze, and cornice, the prevailing colours being red, buff and black.
No. 33.
The decoration of the frieze in many instances suggested openings, through which distant vistas could be seen. The bays or spaces between the apparent dividing supports were further decorated with small panel pictures with frames; generally the supports were united by festoons or scrolling detail, the whole expressed by painting in colour without actual relief.
The use of glass for glazing windows was employed in the later period; that the Romans were expert workers in glass can be verified by the examples in the National collections.
No. 34.
For artificial lighting of interiors oil lamps were customary, which were boat shape in form, sometimes used in groups or clusters suspended from branching stems or supported on tripod standards. These were invariably in cast bronze, though terra-cotta was also used, but in either material were extremely beautiful in form and detail.
In any attempt to review the past, it is difficult to visualise the actual life at the back of the pageantry, with which we are naturally prone to be obsessed, in history as written; but the exhibits of the various domestic appliances of the Roman period at the British Museum are of considerable interest, and a scrutiny of these cannot fail to bring the individual to a closer understanding of the times and people.
At Byzantium or Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, a distinct style developed out of a curious mingling of the characteristics of East and West; and it was marked particularly by a grafting of earlier Greek detail on to simplified Roman forms.
The establishment in 330 A.D. of Byzantium or Constantinople as the Eastern capital of the Roman Empire and the recognition by the state of Christianity resulted in a great change in architecture and the associated crafts. Prior to this the early Christians had been compelled to hold their meetings secretly, and when this was no longer necessary they at first utilised for their public worship the existing Basilicas or public halls. Later on churches were built, the plan being arranged in the form of a Greek cross (e.g., with equal arms), surmounted by a central dome.