The slabs of colored marble in the Incrustation Style are represented by panels for pictures or ornamental forms of all shapes and sizes; and the architectural designs, so simple at the beginning, have by almost imperceptible changes and additions become decorative patterns so varied and intricate that taken by themselves they give no hint of their origin.
PLATE XIII.—SPECIMEN OF WALL DECORATION. FOURTH OR INTRICATE STYLE
CHAPTER LV
THE PAINTINGS
The hanging of pictures upon the walls seems not to have been in vogue at Pompeii during the period to which the remains belong. The system of decoration left no room for framed paintings, and no traces of any such have been discovered. The paintings which have been preserved at Pompeii, not merely the small groups and single figures introduced to enliven the design, but the large compositions as well, all formed a part of the wall decoration.
The number is relatively large. In the catalogue by Helbig, published in 1868, there are nearly two thousand entries, including a few paintings from Herculaneum and other Campanian sites. The supplement compiled by Sogliano in 1879 records more than eight hundred pictures brought to light in the preceding decade. We are probably safe in estimating the whole number of Pompeian paintings still in existence, or known from description, as about thirty-five hundred.
In all this wealth of examples, however, it is not possible to find any evidence of a progressive development either in composition or in technique. There are indeed slight differences, mainly in regard to technical handling and color scheme, which distinguish the paintings found in the decoration of the third style from those of the other two styles in which paintings appear; but, on the other hand, the distinction between those of the second and those of the fourth style is much less marked.
The period from 80 B.C. to 79 A.D. was as little creative in the field of painting as in that of sculpture. No new types appear, no improvements are worked out; the painter, as the sculptor, was an eclectic, who drew upon the creations of the past as suited his fancy, and contented himself with copying or imitating. In the adaptation of paintings to decorative use the artist reproduced either entire compositions or single motives which seemed to answer his purpose. The general preference was for paintings of the Hellenistic age, after the death of Alexander; yet examples of earlier styles are occasionally found, as the Sacrifice of Iphigenia ([Fig. 156]) and the dramatic scene in which Orestes and Pylades appear before King Thoas ([Fig. 182]).