Fig. 262.—Distribution of colors in the section of wall represented in [Fig. 261].
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In view of all the circumstances, we are probably safe in concluding that the Incrustation Style originated in Alexandria, in the third century B.C. From Alexandria it spread to other cities of the East and West, stucco being used in imitation of marble, where marble could not be procured; scanty remains similar to those at Pompeii, and of approximately the same period—the second century B.C.—have been found at Pergamon, on the island of Delos, and lately in Priene. This style represents for us the wall decoration of the Hellenistic age. It is characterized by the same poverty of form and obvious striving after simplicity which we have noticed in the architecture of the Tufa Period. The projecting cornice above the body of the wall is always of the same type; yet the second century B.C. enjoyed a rich heritage of architectural forms, and lack of variety in this and other details of ornamentation was due, not to dearth of materials, but to the prevailing taste.

The earliest known example of the decoration of the second or Architectural Style, is on the walls of the Small Theatre, which was built soon after 80 B.C. The style remained in vogue till the middle of the reign of Augustus; it may be loosely characterized as the wall decoration of the first century B.C. It shows an interesting development from simpler to richer and more complex forms. The more elaborate and finished designs are not so well exemplified at Pompeii as in Rome, where two beautiful series have been found, both dating from the earlier part of the reign of Augustus. One series is in the so-called house of Livia or Germanicus on the Palatine. The other was found in a house on the right bank of the Tiber, excavated in 1878; the paintings were removed to the new Museo delle Terme. The specimen shown in [Plate XII], however, is from a Pompeian wall; the room in which it was found opens off from the peristyle of a house in the fifth Region (V. i. 18).

The oldest walls of the second style closely resemble those of the first, with this characteristic difference: the imitation of marble veneering is no longer produced with the aid of relief; color alone is employed, upon a plane surface, as in the cella of the temple of Jupiter ([Fig. 20]). The earlier division of the wall into three parts is retained, but the painted cornice, no longer restricted to the dentil type, appears in a variety of forms. The base also is treated with greater freedom. Frequently it is painted in strong projection, as if the rest of the wall above it were further from the eye, while upon the shelf thus formed are painted columns reaching to the ceiling and seemingly in front of the main part of the wall; such columns and pillars, with Corinthian capitals, are seen in [Plate XII], at the right and the left.

PLATE XII.—SPECIMEN OF WALL DECORATION. SECOND OR ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

Thus the designs of this style at first comprised only simple elements, a wall made up of painted blocks or panels with a dado painted in projection supporting columns that seemed to carry an architrave on which the ceiling rested; there is an excellent example in the house of the Labyrinth, on the walls of a room at the rear of the garden. But the designs gradually became more complex, partly through the differentiation of the simple elements, partly through the introduction of new motives, until a complete architectural system was developed. This system differs from that of the fourth style, which is also architectural, in that it adheres in the main to actual or possible structural forms, while those of the fourth style are fantastic in their proportions and arrangement.

In this process of development two clearly defined tendencies become manifest, one affecting the treatment of the upper division of the wall, the other the elaboration of a characteristic motive which now first appears, a framework for the principal painting; for architectural designs are well adapted for the display of pictures, and wall paintings now begin to have a prominent place in Pompeian decoration.