Notwithstanding the lack of color in our illustration, the divisions of the wall are plainly seen—a dado, painted yellow; a relatively low middle division, the upper edge of which is set off by a projecting cornice; and an upper part reaching from the first cornice, which appears in three sections on account of the doors, to the second. The surface of the main part of the wall is moulded in stucco to represent slabs or blocks with bevelled edges, which are painted in imitation of different kinds of marble. Above the high double doors opening into rooms connected with the atrium, frames of lattice-work for the admission of air and light have been assumed in our restoration.
The dado in the Incrustation Style is generally treated as a separate member; in rare instances the imitation of marble blocks is extended to the floor. It has a smooth surface and is painted a bright color, usually yellow; there is no suggestion of the practice of later times, which gave a darker color to the base than to the rest of the wall. This independent handling is undoubtedly to be explained as a survival from a previous decorative system, in which the lower part of the wall, as at Tiryns, was protected by a baseboard; the conventional yellow color with which it is painted, as in the case of the lower stripe of the Doric architrave in the house of the Faun ([p. 51]), is a reminiscence of the use of wood. The upper edge of the dado was ordinarily distinguished by a smooth, narrow projecting band or fillet.
The blocks moulded in slight relief upon the main part of the wall are of different sizes. In our illustration we see first a series of three large slabs, which are painted black. Above these are three narrow blocks of magenta. The rest present a considerable variety of size and color, until we reach those just under the cornice, which again are all of the same shade, magenta.
The cornice in this style is always of the Ionic type, with dentils. In many cases, as that of the bedroom in the house of the Centaur, it serves as an upper border for the decoration, the wall above being unpainted. Sometimes, however, the imitation of marble is carried above the cornice, the wall surface being divided to represent smoothly joined blocks without bevelled edges, or painted in plain masses of color separated by a narrow white stripe, as in the atrium of the house of Sallust. Above these brilliant panels we see in [Fig. 261] a second cornice of simple design; the wall between this cornice and the ceiling was left without decoration.
Fig. 261.—Wall decoration in the atrium of the house of Sallust. First or Incrustation Style.
This system made no provision for paintings; their place was taken in the general scheme of decoration by elaborate mosaic pictures upon the floor. The taste of the age evidently preferred representations in mosaic; otherwise the painting of pictures upon the walls, which was brought to so high a degree of perfection by Polygnotus and his contemporaries, would not have been abandoned.
The Incrustation Style, as exemplified at Pompeii, is in a secondary stage; it must have been worked out originally in genuine materials, at a time when walls were actually veneered, to a certain height, with slabs of various kinds of marble, cut and arranged to represent ashlar work; above the cornice marking the upper edge of the veneering, the surface was left in the white. The use of different varieties of marble points to an active commercial intercourse between the countries about the Mediterranean Sea, such as first became possible after the conquests of Alexander. So characteristic a style, requiring the use of costly materials, could only have been developed in an important centre of wealth and culture.