The Art and Architecture of Ancient Pompeii

Jan 26, 20146 min read

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Published: Jan 26, 2014

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Pompeii, located near the Apennine Mountains and modern-day Naples, Italy, was a thriving Roman city when it was buried in ash in 79 AD by the eruption of nearby volcano Mount Vesuvius. It had been settled agriculturally as early as the Iron Age in the 8th century BC, but humans didn't start making actual structures there until the Samnites built city walls in the 6th century BC. They became allies of Rome in 338 BC, and after a few wars, officially became part of the Roman Empire in 89 BC. From then until the eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii was a thriving and relatively peaceful city (“Visiting Pompeii”).

Society in ancient Pompeii was much like that of ancient Rome. They had an amphitheater that predated Rome’s Coliseum but was very similar in that it housed sporting events that could last days and draw citizens not just from the city, but from many other towns in the area as well. In AD 59, such a huge riot broke out between the fans from Pompeii and some fans from nearby Nuceria that the Roman emperor at the time, in conjunction with his senate, opted to shut down the amphitheater for ten years as punishment. This event is reflected in “Brawl in the Pompeii Amphitheater,” a wall painting from house I,3,23 created sometime around 60-79 AD (“Daily Life in Pompeii”).

Pompeii - Temple of Apollo by kerrybush42

The architecture of Pompeii drew heavily on influences from Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans. The buildings were built at different times and under the supervision of different people, making it quite unique and varied. Many of the larger buildings – the Temple of Zeus and the Temple of Apollo (above), the basilica, and the Stabian Baths, for example – were built during the prosperous period when Samnites ruled the city. After the city was annexed by the Romans, the amphitheater, the odeion, the Forum Baths, and the Temples of Jupiter and Venus were built. Emperor Augustus added the Temple of Fortuna Augusta, the Eumachia, the macellum, the great palaestra, and the Central Baths during his rule (Tran Tam Tinh, et al.).

First 20style 20wall 20painting 20in 20the 20f by kerrybush42

Even more varied than the architecture was the art. There were four styles of Roman painting found in Pompeii. The First Style, known as Incrustation, was found very notably in the Samnite House. Heavily influenced by the Greeks, their trading partners, the painters who worked with Incrustation attempted to mimic marble by molding the plaster on the wall into raised backs. They usually divided it into three horizontal and very colorful panels, such as in the aforementioned Samnite House, above (“Four Styles”).

Dionysiac Mystery Frieze Second Style Wall Pa by kerrybush42

Architectural, the Second Style, was used to open up the space of the relatively small houses in Pompeii. Painters of the Second Style would use illusion, perspective, and shading to make the rooms seem larger than they actually were. They would paint entire second rooms on walls and often included little details like famous paintings of the day to make them appear more realistic (“Four Styles”).

The Third Style was called Ornamental and rejected intricate and detailed illumination in favor of smaller, more decorative pieces that would often sit alone in the middle of a section of wall. Large columns were painted to separate the sections out, and the pieces would be placed in the center, similar to modern-day art galleries (“Four Styles”).

Intricate was the name of the fourth and final style. This style fails to resemble believable space; it revives the decorative detail of the Third Style, but instead of focusing on perspective, it focuses exclusively on that detail, as you can see above. There were a lot of geometric forms, and many of the simplistic elements of the Third Style could be found in abundance (“Four Styles”).

Pompeii is considered by many to be a living city. Although its original residents are long gone, the city still teaches new things to people from all over the world every single day (Fig. 17). When I visited Pompeii, I was struck by the sense of history that reverberated throughout the entire city. I could feel that I was in an ancient place, somewhere that has seen more than I could ever imagine. I suppose that’s the draw of Pompeii: The knowledge that you are in a place with such an incredibly long, intricate, and fascinating story that it would never be possible to tell it all. Visiting places such as this is the closest thing humans have to time travel.