Painting in ancient Rome

Painting in ancient Rome is a still poorly understood topic in the history of painting, as its study is hampered by the scarcity of relics. Much of what we know today about Roman painting is due to a natural tragedy. When the volcano Vesuvius erupted in AD 79 it buried two thriving cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum. Much of the population perished, but the buildings were partially preserved under the ashes and hardened lava, and with them their decorative wall paintings. From the study of this remaining collection, it has been possible to form a very suggestive panorama of the fertile and diverse artistic life of Ancient Rome between the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire, but this body of works is actually only a tiny fraction of the great quantity of painting produced in the entire Roman territory in the course of its long history, and precisely because this fraction is very rich, the loss of more significant and abundant testimonies from earlier and later periods, in techniques other than fresco and from other Romanized regions besides Campania is regrettable.^[1]

Rome from its inception had been an avid consumer and producer of art. Beginning its history under Etruscan rule, it developed an art that was largely indebted to them, which was in turn a derivation of archaic Greek art. As soon as it gained its independence, it came into direct contact with Hellenistic-Classical Greek culture, and began to assimilate its principles into all artistic fields, including painting. It became customary to copy famous works and to vary on Greek techniques and themes, and, according to reports, production was enormous, so was the import of originals, and Greek paintings were highly coveted prey in the wake of military conquests. Because of this continuity, much of what we know about Greek painting is owed to Rome, since no more than a handful of originals of this culture remained on its own territory. However, what was imported or produced by the Romans in imitation of the Greeks was also almost completely lost, as was their original production. We can still see some sparse and fragmentary frescoes scattered throughout the area formerly dominated by the Romans, but were it not for the preservation of Pompeii and Herculaneum in such good condition, whose murals are numerous and of great quality, the idea we have today of the painting of both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome itself would have to be based almost solely on literary descriptions.^[2]

Roman painting had a significant influence on the evolution of Western painting. Its tradition re-emerged at various moments in history over many centuries, being especially important in the gestation of Paleochristian, Byzantine, and Romanesque art, and providing much input to the painters of the Renaissance, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism.^[3][4] Today the study of Roman painting is still in progress; several books and articles have been published on the subject,^[5] but a compendium on the Roman world published in 2001 by Oxford University considered Roger Ling's Roman Painting (1991) to be the only extensive and serious study available written under up-to-date criteria, and so much remains to be uncovered and understood in terms of uses and meanings. However, multiplying archaeological excavations and improved analytical methods promise to bring more data to a field of great artistic, historical, and social interest.^[6]