WEBVTT 00:01.580 --> 00:02.690 Prof: Good morning. 00:02.690 --> 00:07.090 The title of today's lecture is "Exploring Special Subjects 00:07.092 --> 00:08.912 on Pompeian Walls." 00:08.910 --> 00:11.910 And that's exactly what I'm going to do today, 00:11.910 --> 00:17.000 to explore a number of scenes: a frieze of figures, 00:17.000 --> 00:22.380 a landscape scene, portraits on Pompeian walls, 00:22.380 --> 00:24.890 and also still life painting. 00:24.890 --> 00:28.210 And we're going to look at them both in the context of the 00:28.210 --> 00:31.710 architectural style walls that we've been discussing thus far 00:31.706 --> 00:33.936 this term, especially the Second, 00:33.935 --> 00:38.115 Third, and Fourth Styles, but we'll also look at them as 00:38.120 --> 00:40.810 interesting in their own right. 00:40.810 --> 00:44.550 We ended last time with a discussion of Fourth Style Roman 00:44.553 --> 00:47.653 wall painting, and I want to show you again 00:47.647 --> 00:50.897 what I consider the quintessential Fourth Style 00:50.895 --> 00:51.455 wall. 00:51.460 --> 00:54.850 It's the Ixion Room in the House of Vettii, 00:54.846 --> 00:59.596 in Pompeii, and you see it here once again in all its garish 00:59.603 --> 01:00.413 glory. 01:00.409 --> 01:02.889 It's an amazing painting. 01:02.890 --> 01:06.390 We talked about the fact that it is a kind of compendium of 01:06.394 --> 01:08.454 all the styles that went before. 01:08.450 --> 01:11.170 We described, for example, 01:11.173 --> 01:15.333 the socle, which attempts to imitate 01:15.331 --> 01:20.491 marble incrustation in paint, which of course makes reference 01:20.485 --> 01:22.915 to the First Style of Roman wall painting. 01:22.920 --> 01:27.280 We talked about the fact that the Second Style elements could 01:27.275 --> 01:31.415 be seen in the substantial columns that are located in the 01:31.415 --> 01:34.365 second tier, or in the main tier of the 01:34.370 --> 01:37.530 painted wall -- columns that support a lintel 01:37.533 --> 01:39.713 above and a coffered ceiling. 01:39.709 --> 01:42.669 We see those here; we see them over here as 01:42.669 --> 01:45.979 well--those, again, elements of the Second Style. 01:45.980 --> 01:49.550 We talked about the Third Style features in this particular 01:49.551 --> 01:53.091 painting, the mythological landscape in 01:53.086 --> 01:57.466 the center that has a frame, a black frame around it, 01:57.465 --> 02:00.865 to make it abundantly clear that this is not a window to 02:00.870 --> 02:04.770 something else but rather meant to look as if it is a flat panel 02:04.772 --> 02:09.102 painting hanging on the wall-- Third Style element. 02:09.098 --> 02:11.458 Over here, another Third Style element, 02:11.460 --> 02:15.180 the floating mythological figure, in the center in this 02:15.179 --> 02:18.339 case, of a white panel with a border 02:18.339 --> 02:22.339 that is made up of floral or vegetal motifs-- 02:22.340 --> 02:24.380 again elements of the Third Style. 02:24.378 --> 02:27.538 With regard to Fourth Style, the introduction of 02:27.544 --> 02:30.384 architecture, once again, on either side of 02:30.375 --> 02:32.795 the main panel in the main zone. 02:32.800 --> 02:37.140 These are not representations of complete buildings but 02:37.135 --> 02:38.925 rather, as we discussed, 02:38.925 --> 02:42.185 fragments of buildings depicted in illogical space, 02:42.190 --> 02:46.380 and then in the uppermost tier we see the architectural cages 02:46.375 --> 02:50.065 that we also described as characteristic of the Fourth 02:50.072 --> 02:50.772 Style. 02:50.770 --> 02:52.340 So all of these elements, as I said, 02:52.340 --> 02:55.120 a compendium of all of these painting styles, 02:55.120 --> 03:00.000 all in one place, is where Roman painting ends up 03:00.003 --> 03:04.993 right before the destruction of Mount Vesuvius. 03:04.990 --> 03:08.550 We also have looked--in fact, I want to return at the 03:08.552 --> 03:12.122 beginning of today's presentation to the Villa of the 03:12.116 --> 03:13.826 Mysteries in Pompeii. 03:13.830 --> 03:15.590 We've looked at it twice already. 03:15.590 --> 03:18.810 We looked at it from the standpoint of its architectural 03:18.806 --> 03:19.506 evolution. 03:19.508 --> 03:23.108 We looked at the two phases, first and second phases, 03:23.113 --> 03:27.413 of the Villa of the Mysteries, and you'll remember the plan. 03:27.408 --> 03:32.108 This is the second phase plan, which I show to you again, 03:32.108 --> 03:37.138 and you'll recall the design of the villa, where you enter at 03:37.143 --> 03:38.153 the top. 03:38.150 --> 03:40.910 You enter into the peristyle, then into the atrium, 03:40.912 --> 03:44.972 then into the tablinum; this unusual sequence of rooms 03:44.966 --> 03:48.086 that is more in keeping with villa design, 03:48.091 --> 03:51.751 according to Vitruvius, than to house design. 03:51.750 --> 03:56.480 And we looked at a room, a Second Style wall painted 03:56.484 --> 04:01.134 room, called Cubiculum 16, and I can show you where 04:01.126 --> 04:04.186 Cubiculum 16 is on this plan. 04:04.189 --> 04:05.539 You see it right over here. 04:05.538 --> 04:09.128 And you'll remember that this was an outstanding example of 04:09.127 --> 04:11.847 mature Second Style Roman wall painting -- 04:11.848 --> 04:15.058 this idea of opening up the wall illusionistically. 04:15.060 --> 04:17.990 Remnants of the First Style wall still here. 04:17.990 --> 04:19.780 That wall is dropped down. 04:19.778 --> 04:24.308 We do have substantial columns, with projecting entablatures, 04:24.305 --> 04:27.465 a coffered ceiling above and, in this case, 04:27.471 --> 04:30.641 a lintel, and then an arcuated lintel; 04:30.639 --> 04:33.809 all of these elements typical of the Second Style, 04:33.810 --> 04:37.430 and especially the opening up of the wall to see a vista that 04:37.425 --> 04:40.055 lies beyond, in this case a tholos or 04:40.055 --> 04:43.665 round shrine, surrounded by blue sky. 04:43.670 --> 04:47.910 So quintessential Second Style, in Cubiculum 16. 04:47.910 --> 04:52.510 The room that I want to turn to today, also in the Villa of the 04:52.512 --> 04:54.222 Mysteries, is Room 5. 04:54.220 --> 04:56.110 Room 5 is located over here. 04:56.110 --> 04:59.970 You see it right to the right of the tablinum, 04:59.970 --> 05:04.750 and close to the southern side, close to the great bay window 05:04.747 --> 05:09.447 that was added in Phase Two to provide magnificent views out 05:09.446 --> 05:10.796 over the sea. 05:10.800 --> 05:12.990 Room 5, it's a plain rectangular room, 05:12.994 --> 05:16.084 or so it looks in plan, fairly large in scale--not as 05:16.077 --> 05:18.507 large as the atrium but fairly large. 05:18.509 --> 05:22.149 And while the plan is on the screen, 05:22.149 --> 05:25.759 I just want to point to the entranceway, 05:25.759 --> 05:28.519 to the room, this very small entranceway 05:28.523 --> 05:30.943 here-- it's actually very important in 05:30.942 --> 05:34.232 terms of our decoding of these paintings that we find in 05:34.232 --> 05:36.682 there-- this small entranceway. 05:36.680 --> 05:39.880 And then what you see in plan here are actually windows, 05:39.880 --> 05:41.860 rather than additional doorways. 05:41.860 --> 05:45.380 And we're going to see that the designer of this particular 05:45.375 --> 05:46.675 room, the painter, 05:46.682 --> 05:49.832 took the corners, took the location of the door 05:49.834 --> 05:52.374 and also the corners of the room, 05:52.370 --> 05:56.240 and the location of the windows, into great 05:56.240 --> 06:01.400 consideration when he painted the scenes on this wall. 06:01.399 --> 06:05.689 This is a view of Room 5 as it looks today. 06:05.689 --> 06:11.439 It's often also referred to as the room with the Dionysiac 06:11.437 --> 06:16.067 Mystery Paintings, mystery paintings that we'll 06:16.074 --> 06:20.314 see feature the god of wine, Dionysus. 06:20.310 --> 06:23.270 You can see from looking at this general view that the 06:23.266 --> 06:25.326 paintings are quite well-preserved. 06:25.329 --> 06:28.829 We'll see that they cover all four walls of the room, 06:28.827 --> 06:32.457 except for the space--except for where the windows are, 06:32.458 --> 06:33.398 obviously. 06:33.399 --> 06:37.139 And you can also see that this is like nothing we've looked at 06:37.137 --> 06:40.437 thus far this semester, in that what we have here are a 06:40.440 --> 06:43.980 series of very large, monumental figures that seem to 06:43.975 --> 06:47.405 walk around the room in a kind of procession, 06:47.410 --> 06:53.390 and you see those extremely well here. 06:53.389 --> 06:57.299 With regard to the style of wall that it is, 06:57.300 --> 07:01.740 I show you another view over here where you can see those 07:01.737 --> 07:06.487 same large figures walking from the doorway along the side of 07:06.492 --> 07:07.922 the left wall. 07:07.920 --> 07:11.850 But you can also see the design of the wall as a whole, 07:11.850 --> 07:14.780 and if you look at it carefully you will note that the figures 07:14.783 --> 07:16.573 are, of course, placed against these 07:16.574 --> 07:17.424 large red panels. 07:17.420 --> 07:21.630 Between those red panels, what look -- they're clearly 07:21.629 --> 07:25.759 not columns, but kind of like flat pilasters here; 07:25.759 --> 07:29.599 that resting on a socle, down below; 07:29.600 --> 07:34.680 and then above, a meander pattern frieze; 07:34.680 --> 07:39.570 and above that another, a course that represents, 07:39.569 --> 07:44.059 in paint, what looks like variegated marble -- 07:44.060 --> 07:46.890 variegated marble, the implication being again it 07:46.891 --> 07:50.551 would have been very expensive to bring from somewhere else. 07:50.550 --> 07:53.200 So as we look at this, we think, "Well it's kind 07:53.202 --> 07:54.992 of like a First Style wall." 07:54.990 --> 07:59.240 But you can see that it's not a relief wall, it's not built up 07:59.240 --> 08:02.860 in stucco, it's flat, because it was done entirely in 08:02.862 --> 08:03.562 paint. 08:03.560 --> 08:05.770 And yet, as you look at these very large figures, 08:05.769 --> 08:10.649 you see that they are standing on a ground line that projects 08:10.649 --> 08:14.949 into the spectator's space, and that suggests to us that 08:14.947 --> 08:18.997 what we are dealing with here-- if we have to categorize this 08:18.995 --> 08:21.645 and put it into First, Second, Third, 08:21.649 --> 08:26.269 or Fourth Style -- we're going to call it a Second Style Roman 08:26.266 --> 08:28.396 wall painting, because it has, 08:28.401 --> 08:30.411 again, residual from the First Style, 08:30.410 --> 08:33.480 but it's done entirely in paint, but it has this 08:33.484 --> 08:35.844 projecting element at the bottom, 08:35.840 --> 08:40.230 this baseline on which the figures stand and on which the 08:40.229 --> 08:41.639 figures process. 08:41.639 --> 08:44.909 So a Second Style Roman wall painting with monumental 08:44.909 --> 08:45.539 figures. 08:45.538 --> 08:48.388 And those monumental figures tell a story, 08:48.389 --> 08:51.449 and it's a very interesting, very intriguing, 08:51.446 --> 08:53.736 very mysterious story indeed. 08:53.740 --> 08:56.830 And it is from the mystery scenes here, by the way, 08:56.827 --> 08:59.727 that the Villa of the Mysteries got its name. 08:59.730 --> 09:03.610 This is a view over here, an excellent view of the small 09:03.610 --> 09:07.490 doorway that you need to take to enter into the room. 09:07.490 --> 09:11.410 And as you enter into the room and you make a sharp left-- 09:11.408 --> 09:13.908 well first, of course, you enter in the room and you 09:13.913 --> 09:15.783 get a glimpse of the entire space -- 09:15.778 --> 09:18.488 but as you turn to your immediate left, 09:18.490 --> 09:21.360 you begin with the beginning of the story. 09:21.360 --> 09:24.900 And the artist again has orchestrated this in such a way 09:24.902 --> 09:27.352 as to make it look like this woman, 09:27.350 --> 09:30.150 who is standing here, has actually entered through 09:30.153 --> 09:34.413 the doorway of the room, and is now beginning to process 09:34.409 --> 09:38.889 from that doorway, along the side of the room. 09:38.889 --> 09:43.519 If we look at the woman, we see that she is wearing 09:43.519 --> 09:46.759 quite a heavy garment, over here. 09:46.759 --> 09:50.379 But it's a very jaunty representation of this woman, 09:50.376 --> 09:54.126 because you can see she has her right hand on her hip, 09:54.134 --> 09:55.984 in an interesting way. 09:55.980 --> 09:59.630 And then, most interesting of all, is the fact that she wears 09:59.625 --> 10:02.655 a veil over her head, and it's a kind of diaphanous 10:02.663 --> 10:04.673 veil, as I think you can see. 10:04.668 --> 10:07.298 It's over her head, protects her hair, 10:07.301 --> 10:11.001 and then it wraps around her--she wraps it around her 10:10.998 --> 10:11.708 chest. 10:11.710 --> 10:15.860 She's holding one corner of it, with her left hand, 10:15.863 --> 10:19.023 and the rest cascades down her back. 10:19.019 --> 10:23.069 The artist has paid a great deal of attention to that veil, 10:23.071 --> 10:27.191 because he wants to identify her for us, and to tell us that 10:27.192 --> 10:28.522 she is a bride. 10:28.519 --> 10:32.039 Brides were often depicted with voluminous veils, 10:32.044 --> 10:34.474 like that, as you see her here. 10:34.470 --> 10:37.870 And she is a bride--as we're going to find out as we 10:37.874 --> 10:40.634 interpret these scenes-- she is a bride, 10:40.634 --> 10:42.964 probably a young Pompeian woman, 10:42.960 --> 10:46.760 who is about to enter- who is about to participate in these 10:46.764 --> 10:49.854 religious rites that are going to allow her-- 10:49.850 --> 10:53.230 it's kind of like a fraternity or sorority initiation that 10:53.226 --> 10:56.416 she's about to undergo: let's say a sorority initiation 10:56.424 --> 10:59.884 that she's about to undergo, because she's about to go 10:59.884 --> 11:03.324 through something that's going to enable her ultimately to 11:03.317 --> 11:06.687 enter into a mystical marriage with the god of wine, 11:06.690 --> 11:08.640 Dionysus. 11:08.639 --> 11:10.229 She enters here. 11:10.230 --> 11:13.010 Then she comes upon two other figures. 11:13.009 --> 11:15.999 There's a seated woman, as you can see, 11:15.995 --> 11:19.055 who holds in her left hand, a scroll. 11:19.058 --> 11:22.838 She has her right hand on the shoulder of a little boy. 11:22.840 --> 11:26.490 Note that the little boy is completely naked and completely 11:26.489 --> 11:29.069 oblivious to the fact that he is naked. 11:29.070 --> 11:31.780 He holds in his hand a scroll, which he has-- 11:31.778 --> 11:33.818 another scroll--which he has unfurled, 11:33.820 --> 11:36.740 and it looks as if he is--well there's no question, 11:36.740 --> 11:40.330 he's very intent on looking at the text on that scroll-- 11:40.330 --> 11:44.300 and it looks as if he is reading from the text of that 11:44.303 --> 11:44.983 scroll. 11:44.980 --> 11:47.930 And we interpret that scroll, or we interpret his 11:47.926 --> 11:52.856 participation in this scene, as probably the fact that he is 11:52.859 --> 11:56.809 reading the liturgy, the liturgy that has to do with 11:56.812 --> 12:00.302 this cult of Dionysus and with the mystical marriage of women 12:00.304 --> 12:01.764 with the god Dionysus. 12:01.759 --> 12:04.469 It's a wonderful depiction of that boy. 12:04.470 --> 12:09.690 And I also show you here the rest of that particular side of 12:09.687 --> 12:10.657 the room. 12:10.658 --> 12:12.898 We're going to look at all the figures in order, 12:12.899 --> 12:16.139 but I just wanted you to get a sense of the rest of the wall as 12:16.144 --> 12:18.194 it unfurls -- this left wall as you first 12:18.187 --> 12:19.117 come into the room. 12:19.120 --> 12:22.120 And I wanted to point out, using this image, 12:22.120 --> 12:26.480 that again about how sophisticated this particular 12:26.475 --> 12:28.885 artist was, because he takes into 12:28.894 --> 12:31.074 consideration, as I mentioned before, 12:31.072 --> 12:34.202 the corners of the room, and they become part of the 12:34.195 --> 12:34.845 narrative. 12:34.850 --> 12:37.390 As you can see here, there's an empty space, 12:37.389 --> 12:40.539 but the story line, as we'll see, 12:40.538 --> 12:45.308 continues across the corner, and the figures over here 12:45.307 --> 12:49.497 interact with the figures on the other side of the bend in the 12:49.500 --> 12:51.240 wall, in again a very, 12:51.241 --> 12:54.121 very sophisticated and interesting way, 12:54.120 --> 12:55.630 and we'll follow that through. 12:55.629 --> 12:58.299 Before we do though, I just want to show you a head 12:58.298 --> 13:01.588 detail of the seated woman, to give you a sense of the 13:01.585 --> 13:04.045 extraordinary talent of this artist, 13:04.048 --> 13:07.298 whose name, unfortunately, has not come down to us. 13:07.298 --> 13:10.338 We see this head here, and you can see the way in 13:10.342 --> 13:14.092 which the artist has captured the moment: what this woman is 13:14.085 --> 13:16.445 going through, what she's thinking about. 13:16.450 --> 13:17.340 She's seated. 13:17.340 --> 13:21.640 She's listening to the liturgy that's being spoken by this boy. 13:21.639 --> 13:25.819 You can see that the artist has paid a great deal of attention 13:25.817 --> 13:29.857 to her eyes, which are wide open and very nicely painted. 13:29.860 --> 13:32.070 But one gets the sense, or at least I get the sense as 13:32.068 --> 13:35.048 I look at this, that she is not only wide eyed 13:35.048 --> 13:38.118 at what's going on, but you also have a sense that 13:38.120 --> 13:39.530 she's kind of almost jaded. 13:39.529 --> 13:40.949 She's kind of seen it all. 13:40.950 --> 13:45.260 She has a sense of what the moment is and what is about to 13:45.264 --> 13:45.874 occur. 13:45.870 --> 13:50.120 Notice also the way in which her lips are slightly parted, 13:50.120 --> 13:52.060 and especially the hair. 13:52.058 --> 13:54.768 The artist, as we'll see, who was responsible for 13:54.774 --> 13:58.114 painting this--and it may have been more than one artist; 13:58.110 --> 14:01.300 it may have been a designer who worked with obviously others in 14:01.299 --> 14:01.969 a workshop. 14:01.970 --> 14:04.720 But whether it's a single individual or several, 14:04.720 --> 14:10.640 it is very clear that this person or persons have a very 14:10.642 --> 14:15.722 good sense of what hair, real hair, is actually like. 14:15.720 --> 14:20.780 It's the same as I mentioned when we talked about the 14:20.775 --> 14:24.935 gardenscape of Livia, and I said that that artist had 14:24.937 --> 14:28.597 clearly looked at nature and was actually depicting what he saw 14:28.595 --> 14:30.065 and knew about nature. 14:30.070 --> 14:32.330 Here is somebody, I believe, who has really 14:32.330 --> 14:35.130 looked at human beings, who has really looked at the 14:35.125 --> 14:37.165 way in which hair grows from the scalp, 14:37.168 --> 14:40.518 because you can see the way in which he has shown that hair 14:40.524 --> 14:43.584 growing from the scalp, and he understands that when 14:43.576 --> 14:45.506 you part your hair in the middle, 14:45.509 --> 14:49.459 there may be a certain part of the scalp that you actually see 14:49.456 --> 14:52.486 through the hair, and he has represented that 14:52.488 --> 14:54.418 extremely realistically here. 14:54.418 --> 14:59.528 So although we don't know the name of this particular artist, 14:59.530 --> 15:04.640 we can acclaim his talent here, as we look at details such as 15:04.642 --> 15:05.752 this one. 15:05.750 --> 15:09.290 The story continues from the boy reading the liturgy to the 15:09.291 --> 15:10.941 figure that you see here. 15:10.940 --> 15:13.080 It is a figure, again, of a woman. 15:13.080 --> 15:15.310 She is holding some kind of a dish, 15:15.308 --> 15:18.478 and she has on that dish probably--it's very hard to 15:18.479 --> 15:22.739 identify exactly what's there-- but she has probably some items 15:22.740 --> 15:25.810 that have something to do with this cult, 15:25.808 --> 15:29.428 with this mystical marriage of these Pompeian women with 15:29.433 --> 15:30.163 Dionysus. 15:30.158 --> 15:36.148 She is dressed in--she has a light colored top and a purple-- 15:36.149 --> 15:38.069 there's a lot of purple in this scene-- 15:38.070 --> 15:41.930 a very vividly purple skirt, as you can see down here. 15:41.928 --> 15:45.988 She is the first woman of the group to wear a laurel wreath 15:45.990 --> 15:48.230 over her head, as you can see. 15:48.230 --> 15:50.770 And she and all of them, by the way, wear bracelets. 15:50.769 --> 15:53.569 You can see bracelets around her lower arm. 15:53.570 --> 15:56.880 Some of them wear these arm bracelets up higher on their 15:56.883 --> 15:58.453 arms, as we'll also see. 15:58.450 --> 16:01.430 And she's one of the only figures that actually looks out 16:01.432 --> 16:02.712 at us, the spectators. 16:02.710 --> 16:04.940 She really is basically confronting us. 16:04.940 --> 16:08.820 We link eyes with her when we look at this particular 16:08.822 --> 16:11.782 painting, and the artist is obviously 16:11.784 --> 16:16.304 trying to establish fairly early on a connection between the 16:16.299 --> 16:19.819 viewer and what is happening in this scene. 16:19.820 --> 16:22.630 The beginning of another scene here, with a series of 16:22.634 --> 16:25.884 women--and I have a better view of it here--where you can see 16:25.881 --> 16:27.291 what's happening next. 16:27.288 --> 16:31.118 Here we have three women who are standing at some kind of a 16:31.115 --> 16:33.055 table, and one of the women, 16:33.056 --> 16:36.506 the woman on the right, has a pitcher from which she's 16:36.509 --> 16:38.299 pouring some kind of liquid. 16:38.298 --> 16:42.068 Whether it's water or wine or what, we're not absolutely sure. 16:42.070 --> 16:45.230 It might well be wine, given that this is the 16:45.234 --> 16:46.964 Mysteries of Dionysus. 16:46.960 --> 16:48.500 She may be pouring wine. 16:48.500 --> 16:51.770 But whatever it is, it has been interpreted as a 16:51.769 --> 16:55.349 purification scene, in which something--and we 16:55.345 --> 16:59.905 can't see what it is that's underneath this purple piece of 16:59.908 --> 17:04.548 cloth that one of the women is holding up and revealing. 17:04.548 --> 17:09.758 They are purifying that or either an object or a series of 17:09.757 --> 17:11.947 objects on this table. 17:11.950 --> 17:14.410 It's a wonderful depiction of these three women, 17:14.410 --> 17:17.620 one woman holding the edge of the table over here, 17:17.618 --> 17:21.388 and looking to her compatriot who is pouring the liquid on 17:21.385 --> 17:22.175 this side. 17:22.180 --> 17:26.050 And a real tour de force--it's not so easy to depict a figure 17:26.045 --> 17:30.035 from the rear and make it work, but this artist has done so. 17:30.038 --> 17:34.118 A very monumental woman, seated on a wonderful throne 17:34.119 --> 17:38.279 here, with a purple hem, as you can see down below. 17:38.279 --> 17:41.159 But look at the way he's depicted her garment. 17:41.160 --> 17:44.610 It's tight in some places and molds her body, 17:44.608 --> 17:46.568 and cascades in others. 17:46.568 --> 17:49.368 She's also wearing a scarf that's tied back behind her 17:49.372 --> 17:52.442 head, and she too wears a laurel wreath over that scarf. 17:52.440 --> 17:55.110 This woman has a laurel wreath as well. 17:55.109 --> 17:57.559 So they're purifying; as part of this rite, 17:57.560 --> 17:58.820 they are purifying. 17:58.818 --> 18:03.078 Women, three women, are participating and purifying 18:03.076 --> 18:05.626 this object or objects here. 18:05.630 --> 18:09.320 This woman has her--she's not really looking as you--well she 18:09.320 --> 18:12.520 isn't looking at what she's doing, as you can see. 18:12.519 --> 18:15.639 She's doesn't seem to be watching the purification, 18:15.640 --> 18:19.060 but rather is looking at this fellow over here, 18:19.058 --> 18:21.508 and given what he looks like, I guess that's not surprising. 18:21.509 --> 18:23.179 Her glance is caught by him. 18:23.180 --> 18:24.450 Now who is he? 18:24.450 --> 18:28.810 He is what we call a Silenus, S-i-l-e-n-u-s, 18:28.813 --> 18:33.383 and a Silenus is an older satyr, s-a-t-y-r. 18:33.380 --> 18:34.510 Who were the satyrs? 18:34.509 --> 18:40.969 The satyrs were the compatriots of Pan, P-a-n; 18:40.970 --> 18:42.540 compatriots of Pan. 18:42.538 --> 18:45.908 And so a young Satyr grows up into an old Silenus, 18:45.911 --> 18:49.831 and you see that Silenus here, and he's a very interesting 18:49.833 --> 18:50.593 figure. 18:50.588 --> 18:53.128 You can see that he's completely naked, 18:53.134 --> 18:55.814 and in fact, well there are naked men and 18:55.814 --> 18:58.364 naked woman in this, as we'll see. 18:58.358 --> 19:02.068 But it's interesting to see which ones are and which ones 19:02.073 --> 19:02.673 aren't. 19:02.670 --> 19:06.350 He is, and you can see that this great purple mantle that he 19:06.346 --> 19:09.526 had draped around his body has completely, or almost 19:09.526 --> 19:11.206 completely, fallen off. 19:11.210 --> 19:13.750 He is playing a lyre, as you can see here, 19:13.752 --> 19:16.982 and probably singing, along with his lyre playing. 19:16.980 --> 19:19.060 And not only has his garment fallen off, 19:19.058 --> 19:21.928 but you can see that he is not--one foot is on the 19:21.934 --> 19:25.044 pedestal, on which the--or on a base, 19:25.044 --> 19:30.124 on which the pedestal that supports the lyre is located. 19:30.118 --> 19:33.398 But another leg has slipped off that pedestal. 19:33.400 --> 19:34.760 Why is that? 19:34.759 --> 19:35.879 He's quite tipsy. 19:35.880 --> 19:40.170 We know that the Silenuses and the satyrs did a lot of 19:40.173 --> 19:42.933 drinking, very serious drinking. 19:42.930 --> 19:46.840 He has clearly imbibed, and he is not very much in 19:46.843 --> 19:49.403 control of himself any longer. 19:49.400 --> 19:53.000 So he's probably pretty oblivious to the fact that his 19:52.998 --> 19:57.338 clothing has fallen off and that he too has slipped off the base, 19:57.343 --> 19:58.433 as he sings. 19:58.430 --> 20:03.170 So it's not surprising that this woman casts her glance 20:03.174 --> 20:06.344 towards the goings on next to her. 20:06.338 --> 20:11.318 Here are the--I mentioned the satyrs, and we see two of the 20:11.315 --> 20:15.085 young satyrs right next to that older man. 20:15.088 --> 20:20.918 And the satyrs again are associated with Pan. 20:20.920 --> 20:25.200 And goats are also associated with Pan, and you can see one of 20:25.202 --> 20:27.522 them is feeding the goats here. 20:27.519 --> 20:29.849 These young boys--and it's true of the men too; 20:29.848 --> 20:33.938 I neglected to mention it--all have sort of Pan or animal ears, 20:33.940 --> 20:37.900 as you can see very clearly here, the pointed animal ears. 20:37.900 --> 20:40.030 And this one is playing a flute. 20:40.029 --> 20:44.199 So one playing a flute, one feeding the goats, 20:44.200 --> 20:49.390 both of them seated on a kind of rocky area over here. 20:49.390 --> 20:52.500 This figure is of particular interest. 20:52.500 --> 20:56.630 It's a woman clothed with a white garment that is 20:56.631 --> 20:57.751 sleeveless. 20:57.750 --> 21:02.280 She has one of these bracelets on the upper part of her arm. 21:02.278 --> 21:05.898 It is clear that she is afraid and she is fleeing from 21:05.900 --> 21:06.720 something. 21:06.720 --> 21:10.120 You can see that she holds up her left hand, 21:10.121 --> 21:14.391 she holds up her left hand, as if she is trying to ward 21:14.393 --> 21:16.533 something horrific off. 21:16.528 --> 21:19.828 And you can see that she is -- by the way, 21:19.828 --> 21:21.748 while she's holding up her hand to ward it off, 21:21.750 --> 21:24.100 you can see that she's absolutely mesmerized by 21:24.095 --> 21:25.875 whatever it is that she's seeing. 21:25.880 --> 21:29.180 Her eyes are staring straight ahead-- 21:29.180 --> 21:32.690 wide eyed, staring straight ahead--to look at whatever it is 21:32.693 --> 21:37.663 that is on one hand fascinating, and on the other horrific. 21:37.660 --> 21:41.190 She is clearly in a rush, because you can see that the 21:41.186 --> 21:45.176 purple mantle that she wore has been caught in the breeze; 21:45.180 --> 21:48.830 as she tries to escape, the breeze is caught in that, 21:48.828 --> 21:52.378 and it almost serves the purpose of a kind of parachute 21:52.377 --> 21:56.517 that's about to rescue her from whatever it is that she has seen 21:56.517 --> 21:58.617 and that has frightened her. 21:58.618 --> 22:01.528 We are now at the first corner of the room. 22:01.528 --> 22:05.818 So again, the artist has taken the corner into consideration 22:05.817 --> 22:09.817 and created this dramatic interaction between this woman 22:09.816 --> 22:14.096 and whatever it is that she's afraid of on the other side of 22:14.104 --> 22:15.344 the corner. 22:15.338 --> 22:18.618 And before I show that to you, I just wanted to show you a 22:18.618 --> 22:21.868 close-up of her face, to again give you a sense of 22:21.867 --> 22:24.897 how talented, how extraordinarily gifted this 22:24.903 --> 22:27.333 artist was in capturing the moment, 22:27.328 --> 22:30.728 in capturing the feelings that this woman must have been going 22:30.731 --> 22:31.291 through. 22:31.288 --> 22:35.148 Once again, the very wide eyes, fascinated by what she sees, 22:35.147 --> 22:36.977 but seemingly all knowing. 22:36.980 --> 22:39.670 She's seeing something that she doesn't quite expect, 22:39.670 --> 22:42.600 but you get the sense that perhaps she did know all along 22:42.597 --> 22:45.367 that she was going to see something of this nature. 22:45.368 --> 22:48.618 The parted lips, once again, and the expert way 22:48.623 --> 22:52.943 in which the artist has shown the way hair naturally grows out 22:52.938 --> 22:58.028 of the scalp of the head, again achieved magnificently in 22:58.032 --> 22:59.762 this head detail. 22:59.759 --> 23:04.189 Now the object of her fear is what we now see over here. 23:04.190 --> 23:07.850 Here again we see the corner itself, an empty red space, 23:07.846 --> 23:10.036 the woman fleeing on this side. 23:10.039 --> 23:12.399 What is she fleeing from; what is she afraid of? 23:12.400 --> 23:16.840 This horrific mask that is being held by one of the satyrs. 23:16.838 --> 23:19.398 We see another set of two young satyrs here, 23:19.400 --> 23:24.040 and an old Silenus again, and one of the satyrs holding 23:24.040 --> 23:29.000 up this horrible mask, and that seems to be what has 23:29.003 --> 23:33.763 put fear into the eyes of this particular woman. 23:33.759 --> 23:36.919 With regard to the scene of the satyrs, 23:36.920 --> 23:39.700 you can see that--the Silenus and the satyrs-- 23:39.700 --> 23:43.290 the Silenus is seated on some kind of marble block, 23:43.289 --> 23:44.829 as you can see here. 23:44.828 --> 23:47.608 He looks very similar to the one that we saw before. 23:47.608 --> 23:52.138 An older man with those animal ears, as you can see, 23:52.138 --> 23:55.068 one of the satyrs holds a mask. 23:55.068 --> 24:00.018 All of these figures, by the way, do not have 24:00.022 --> 24:02.502 any--are semi-naked. 24:02.500 --> 24:05.070 You can see that they have bare chests, in all cases, 24:05.073 --> 24:08.293 and the mantle's only covering the lower parts of their bodies. 24:08.288 --> 24:11.628 And the Silenus, while looking back toward the 24:11.634 --> 24:16.094 woman, is holding a large cup from which one of the satyrs is 24:16.093 --> 24:17.063 drinking. 24:17.058 --> 24:20.348 It's a kind of--I always think of this as a kind of Mory's 24:20.351 --> 24:23.061 cup--and you see that the Silenus is holding it, 24:23.064 --> 24:25.494 the younger satyr is drinking from it. 24:25.490 --> 24:30.430 So again, this has a lot to do with drinking and getting drunk, 24:30.430 --> 24:36.080 this mystery and--at least from the male point of view, 24:36.078 --> 24:38.778 because it actually seems to be the men who are drinking, 24:38.779 --> 24:40.789 and not the women who are drinking, 24:40.789 --> 24:42.809 in this particular instance. 24:42.808 --> 24:46.108 It's a wonderful--let me also show you a detail of the young 24:46.105 --> 24:49.445 satyr drinking out of the cup, and you can see how gifted 24:49.448 --> 24:51.348 again this particular artist is. 24:51.348 --> 24:53.728 I don't think this artist always gets the hands right. 24:53.730 --> 24:54.650 He tries. 24:54.650 --> 24:56.620 They're sometimes a little bit awkward, 24:56.618 --> 25:00.018 but on the other hand he really has made an effort to show the 25:00.019 --> 25:02.749 way in which hands and fingers grip something, 25:02.750 --> 25:05.670 both from the bottom and also from the top. 25:05.670 --> 25:07.600 He's very good with the eyes. 25:07.598 --> 25:10.958 Again you get--it's just wonderful the way he has 25:10.955 --> 25:15.215 achieved showing this satyr on one hand greedily drinking from 25:15.221 --> 25:17.361 the cup, but at the same time with one 25:17.362 --> 25:20.462 eye--you can see one eye, and that one eye is very much 25:20.461 --> 25:22.551 on what it is that he's doing. 25:22.548 --> 25:25.058 He's looking at that liquid quite intently, 25:25.060 --> 25:27.690 as he drinks it, and I think that's very well 25:27.692 --> 25:28.772 achieved here. 25:28.769 --> 25:33.229 And again this extraordinary way in which the artist has 25:33.232 --> 25:37.862 depicted the hair of this young man as it grows out of his 25:37.857 --> 25:38.667 scalp. 25:38.670 --> 25:42.000 Particularly talented; you don't see that very often 25:41.999 --> 25:43.309 in Roman painting. 25:43.308 --> 25:47.458 The center--we're now on the back wall; 25:47.460 --> 25:49.430 we've turned the corner, it's the back wall, 25:49.434 --> 25:52.104 the wall that you face when you come into the room and look 25:52.099 --> 25:52.559 ahead. 25:52.558 --> 25:56.188 And we see that the scene that follows the Silenus and the 25:56.188 --> 25:59.688 satyrs with the mask is the scene that you see here, 25:59.690 --> 26:03.720 and it is the most important scene in the painting, 26:03.720 --> 26:08.110 because it is a scene that represents Dionysus himself, 26:08.108 --> 26:12.758 this man with whom all of these Pompeian women are anxious to be 26:12.755 --> 26:16.225 initiated into his rites, and to enter into mystical 26:16.234 --> 26:17.274 marriage with him. 26:17.269 --> 26:20.749 Here he is, and he is wasted, clearly. 26:20.750 --> 26:22.190 Look at him. 26:22.190 --> 26:25.370 Despite the fact that he's about to enter into marriage 26:25.371 --> 26:28.911 with all these attractive young women, he's completely out of 26:28.906 --> 26:29.316 it. 26:29.318 --> 26:32.958 He is lying in the lap of Ariadne, his mortal lover; 26:32.960 --> 26:34.320 you see her here. 26:34.318 --> 26:37.528 And look at his eyes, they're sort of rolled up into 26:37.532 --> 26:38.922 the top of his head. 26:38.920 --> 26:44.570 He couldn't possibly support himself, without Ariadne's help. 26:44.568 --> 26:48.218 His arms are outstretched behind him; 26:48.220 --> 26:51.910 in fact, she has to put her arm around his chest in order to 26:51.913 --> 26:52.793 protect him. 26:52.788 --> 26:56.138 And I think it's interesting to see the way in which women are 26:56.144 --> 26:59.174 represented as protective beings, in these paintings. 26:59.170 --> 27:02.410 The woman earlier on who puts her hand around the boy who's 27:02.413 --> 27:07.003 reading from the liturgy, and now Ariadne who drapes her 27:07.003 --> 27:10.233 arm around Dionysus: Dionysus, 27:10.230 --> 27:11.530 the god of wine. 27:11.528 --> 27:15.428 You can see again that he had a mantle--and that's about it--on, 27:15.429 --> 27:17.099 but that is slipping off. 27:17.098 --> 27:20.768 And you can also see that he's so drunk that although he's kept 27:20.767 --> 27:23.367 one sandal on, he's lost the other sandal. 27:23.368 --> 27:24.838 You can see his bare foot over here. 27:24.838 --> 27:26.188 You're looking at the bottom of the foot. 27:26.190 --> 27:28.090 That sandal is gone, and if you look for it, 27:28.086 --> 27:31.186 you can find it; here it is, it has fallen off 27:31.185 --> 27:34.125 and it is located closer to Ariadne. 27:34.130 --> 27:38.520 Look also at the staff that Dionysus usually carries: 27:38.515 --> 27:41.295 the thyrsus, t-h-y-r-s-u-s, 27:41.298 --> 27:44.248 the thyrsus of Dionysus. 27:44.250 --> 27:47.590 It's there and it helps to identify him, 27:47.586 --> 27:51.776 as does the ivy wreath that he typically wears. 27:51.779 --> 27:55.029 Note the yellow ribbon that is tied around the thyrsus. 27:55.029 --> 27:57.949 But one wonders how that thyrsus is being 27:57.951 --> 28:00.801 supported, because you can see I guess 28:00.797 --> 28:04.717 it's just leaning slightly against the chair on which 28:04.721 --> 28:08.651 Dionysus sits, but one wonders how it is being 28:08.647 --> 28:09.557 supported. 28:09.558 --> 28:13.378 But it crosses his body here, and is meant again as an 28:13.384 --> 28:16.564 identifying attribute for the god of wine. 28:16.558 --> 28:21.378 The fact that we see Dionysus in this state and also on the 28:21.376 --> 28:26.606 lap of Ariadne is interesting, especially the lap of Ariadne. 28:26.608 --> 28:28.828 Because again, she was his mortal--she herself 28:28.830 --> 28:30.460 was a mortal--his mortal lover. 28:30.460 --> 28:33.420 And I think one of the ways of interpreting this as-- 28:33.420 --> 28:37.920 a scene like this--seeing that Dionysus could unite with a 28:37.921 --> 28:42.741 mortal woman gave hope to the women of Pompeii who were hoping 28:42.739 --> 28:46.609 to be initiated into this mystical religion, 28:46.608 --> 28:50.478 and to embark on a mystical marriage with Dionysus. 28:50.480 --> 28:53.600 This gave them hope that if another mortal woman was allowed 28:53.604 --> 28:56.044 to enter into a relationship with Dionysus, 28:56.038 --> 29:01.978 then they too would be able to follow in Ariadne's footsteps. 29:01.980 --> 29:07.080 And so this is a very important message, I think, 29:07.078 --> 29:13.448 of hope to those women who were hoping to become initiates of 29:13.452 --> 29:16.112 this particular cult. 29:16.108 --> 29:19.308 The next scene that we see is also a very interesting scene 29:19.309 --> 29:20.799 and a very important one. 29:20.798 --> 29:24.768 It's the one that comes right to the right of the scene of 29:24.768 --> 29:26.368 Dionysus and Ariadne. 29:26.368 --> 29:30.768 And we see here the discovery of the most important cult 29:30.769 --> 29:34.369 object in this scene, which is the phallus. 29:34.369 --> 29:36.979 We see a woman kneeling. 29:36.980 --> 29:43.660 Her arms are wonderfully depicted, as they seem to barely 29:43.664 --> 29:50.714 touch whatever it is that lies beneath this purple cloth. 29:50.710 --> 29:55.770 We see down below a basket that is certainly the basket in which 29:55.766 --> 29:59.636 the phallus, the secret ritual--the most 29:59.644 --> 30:05.694 important but secret ritual item in the Dionysiac religion-- 30:05.690 --> 30:07.380 was kept. 30:07.380 --> 30:10.730 And there's been a lot of speculation, what was behind the 30:10.728 --> 30:11.608 purple cloth. 30:11.609 --> 30:13.479 Is it an erect phallus? 30:13.480 --> 30:15.720 Very possibly, that's exactly what it is, 30:15.720 --> 30:18.300 that would have been kept again in this basket, 30:18.297 --> 30:19.807 but is underneath here. 30:19.808 --> 30:23.878 Although the speculation has been so wild that we even have a 30:23.882 --> 30:27.482 scholar who has written an article suggesting that the 30:27.480 --> 30:31.350 profile of this particular cloth here is so similar to the 30:31.348 --> 30:35.558 profile of Mount Vesuvius that what we have here is a reference 30:35.557 --> 30:39.767 instead to Mount Vesuvius and to the fact that this scene takes 30:39.767 --> 30:41.597 place in Pompeii. 30:41.599 --> 30:43.129 It's a very intriguing idea. 30:43.130 --> 30:46.740 I can't imagine that it's correct, but nonetheless it 30:46.738 --> 30:51.038 gives you some sense of the kind of scholarship and some of the 30:51.040 --> 30:55.760 speculation there has been about what is actually going on here. 30:55.759 --> 31:00.169 But it seems to be the covering, in this particular 31:00.169 --> 31:04.929 case, and possibly about to reveal the secret--the most 31:04.930 --> 31:08.370 important secret item in this cult. 31:08.368 --> 31:13.008 Over here we see another fascinating figure. 31:13.009 --> 31:14.839 We've gotten to another corner and we can see that she 31:14.843 --> 31:16.473 straddles the empty red space in that corner. 31:16.470 --> 31:20.050 A figure of a woman who is winged; 31:20.048 --> 31:23.248 the only winged figure that we see in these scenes. 31:23.250 --> 31:27.010 You can see her large outstretched wings behind her. 31:27.009 --> 31:28.919 She is naked from the waist up. 31:28.920 --> 31:31.850 She's wearing a fantastic skirt--I love this skirt-- 31:31.848 --> 31:37.388 with purple around the waist and purple at the hem, 31:37.390 --> 31:39.510 and then a wonderful--it flips out, 31:39.509 --> 31:42.619 it's brown, and it flips out, and it matches these great tall 31:42.623 --> 31:44.003 boots, brown boots, 31:43.999 --> 31:45.589 that she also wears. 31:45.588 --> 31:48.958 And she's sort of on her tippy-toes as she herself puts 31:48.959 --> 31:52.139 up one of her hands, perhaps again to ward something 31:52.140 --> 31:53.560 off; we don't know what. 31:53.558 --> 31:55.388 But with the other hand what's most important, 31:55.390 --> 31:58.040 she has her hand behind her back and she's about to bring a 31:58.035 --> 31:59.955 whip, which you can see, 31:59.957 --> 32:03.587 down on the back of one of the initiates. 32:03.588 --> 32:06.798 And as we look across the corner--again the artist 32:06.798 --> 32:10.788 masterfully taking the corner into consideration in his design 32:14.200 --> 32:18.870 we see the way in which that whip is about to come down on 32:18.869 --> 32:23.459 the back of one of these initiates who's kneeling and has 32:23.459 --> 32:27.719 her head in the lap of a woman who protects her. 32:27.720 --> 32:28.520 Here is the scene. 32:28.519 --> 32:31.709 So again we see the figure, the winged figure with the 32:31.708 --> 32:32.128 whip. 32:32.130 --> 32:36.560 We see the object of the whipping, this initiate here. 32:36.559 --> 32:38.129 She is kneeling. 32:38.130 --> 32:41.450 She is in the lap, in part, of a woman who seems 32:41.452 --> 32:44.282 to protect her, or try to protect her. 32:44.279 --> 32:47.459 The woman who is trying to protect her, her eyes are very 32:47.461 --> 32:47.861 wide. 32:47.858 --> 32:51.608 She is staring up at the winged figure, imploringly it seems, 32:51.608 --> 32:53.728 almost imploring her, "Please, 32:53.733 --> 32:56.113 enough, enough, please stop." 32:56.108 --> 33:01.138 And she is very nurturing to the young girl who is undergoing 33:01.138 --> 33:04.828 this initiation, as she pats her on the head, 33:04.827 --> 33:06.837 as you can see here. 33:06.838 --> 33:10.448 An incredible view of this woman, the way in which the 33:10.450 --> 33:14.130 upper part of her body is exposed for the whipping, 33:14.130 --> 33:17.340 the rest of it covered in a voluminous purple mantle, 33:17.339 --> 33:19.029 as you can see here. 33:19.028 --> 33:26.288 Also figures to her right, a naked woman who is placed in 33:26.292 --> 33:29.152 front of, interestingly, 33:29.153 --> 33:33.063 a very heavily clothed woman, in a dark garment, 33:33.057 --> 33:36.447 which only serves to accentuate the lightness of this woman's 33:36.451 --> 33:36.961 flesh. 33:36.960 --> 33:40.340 This sort of contrast or tension between clothed and 33:40.336 --> 33:44.106 unclothed also seems to play a very important part in this 33:44.109 --> 33:45.699 particular painting. 33:45.700 --> 33:49.010 But this woman is incredible. 33:49.009 --> 33:51.739 Again, the artist has enjoyed trying to represent figures from 33:51.739 --> 33:53.439 the rear, as well as from the front. 33:53.440 --> 33:58.910 And you see he has also shown her on her tippy-toes, 33:58.910 --> 34:02.040 as she is--well she has cymbals above her head and she's 34:02.039 --> 34:04.959 crashing those cymbals, and then she is dancing on her 34:04.960 --> 34:07.280 tiptoes, down here. 34:07.278 --> 34:11.568 But it's an incredible feat because she also has this gold 34:11.565 --> 34:15.845 mantle that is over her shoulder and between her legs, 34:15.849 --> 34:19.659 and somehow she's keeping this mantle balanced as she is 34:19.664 --> 34:22.584 dancing and as she is playing her music. 34:22.579 --> 34:26.009 And then there's another thyrsus of Dionysus that 34:26.005 --> 34:28.945 seems to be located-- that is located between these 34:28.952 --> 34:31.352 two women, and one wonders again how in 34:31.349 --> 34:34.449 the world that thyrsus is being held up, 34:34.449 --> 34:40.109 as this woman is participating in this dance and music-making 34:40.110 --> 34:42.470 over here at the right. 34:42.469 --> 34:45.069 To get back to this figure, I just want to show you a 34:45.070 --> 34:47.570 detail, because I think in this detail 34:47.567 --> 34:50.387 you really get, almost more than anywhere else 34:50.389 --> 34:53.809 in this painted frieze, the extraordinary talent of 34:53.806 --> 34:55.586 this particular artist. 34:55.590 --> 34:59.760 Here the artist gets these hands really right. 34:59.760 --> 35:02.870 You can see this, the limp hand of the woman 35:02.867 --> 35:05.467 being whipped almost says it all-- 35:05.469 --> 35:09.369 it's an incredible detail--as does the more nurturing hand of 35:09.367 --> 35:12.027 the woman who is trying to protect her. 35:12.030 --> 35:15.390 And I think you can get a sense of what she must be going 35:15.389 --> 35:19.349 through by the way in which the artist has represented her face. 35:19.349 --> 35:22.199 He has cast her eye--her eyes are--this is one of the only 35:22.199 --> 35:24.539 closed eyes; it may be the only closed eye 35:24.541 --> 35:26.721 in the scene-- her eye is closed, 35:26.717 --> 35:29.507 or almost closed, and it is sunken, 35:29.505 --> 35:33.005 it seems to be sunken in a darkness here, 35:33.010 --> 35:36.920 that gives you some sense of the pain that this woman must be 35:36.920 --> 35:40.050 going through: pain that she obviously feels, 35:40.050 --> 35:41.410 however, is worth it. 35:41.409 --> 35:44.489 And look also at the way in which the hair has been depicted 35:44.494 --> 35:44.864 here. 35:44.860 --> 35:48.500 You really get the sense of sweat drenched hair, 35:48.500 --> 35:51.930 of this woman again who's going through what is almost certainly 35:51.927 --> 35:54.157 the most difficult moment in her life, 35:54.159 --> 35:58.739 but one that she hopes is going to be well worth it, 35:58.739 --> 36:00.319 at the end of the day. 36:00.320 --> 36:05.140 It's an incredible detail, I think. 36:05.139 --> 36:07.839 After that scene, there is a window, 36:07.840 --> 36:10.610 and then at the very end of that wall-- 36:10.610 --> 36:14.410 we're now facing the room on the right wall of the room-- 36:14.409 --> 36:18.059 there is one last corner, and we see here what is 36:18.056 --> 36:21.246 represented across that one last corner. 36:21.250 --> 36:25.740 It is a very young woman, seated on a kind of a throne 36:25.737 --> 36:26.327 here. 36:26.329 --> 36:29.179 She has an attendant standing next to her, 36:29.179 --> 36:32.489 and then there's a small winged cupid at the left, 36:32.489 --> 36:35.339 and then across the corner we see another cupid, 36:35.340 --> 36:38.250 standing on a base, leaning on a pedestal, 36:38.250 --> 36:42.750 winged again, his head resting on one of his 36:42.748 --> 36:45.818 hands, and he is looking across the 36:45.820 --> 36:49.430 corner at what is going on, on the other side. 36:49.429 --> 36:52.259 And he looks very, very admiring. 36:52.260 --> 36:53.730 And in fact whom is he admiring? 36:53.730 --> 36:57.240 He's admiring another one of these young initiates, 36:57.239 --> 37:01.069 a young woman who seems to be readying herself to become a 37:01.074 --> 37:03.614 bride, who's getting ready for her 37:03.610 --> 37:04.470 initiation. 37:04.469 --> 37:08.989 She wears a glorious golden garment that is wrapped, 37:08.985 --> 37:12.875 and wrapped around her waist is a purple tie, 37:12.880 --> 37:17.130 a purple ribbon or tie, as you can see here. 37:17.130 --> 37:20.560 She is again accompanied by another woman, 37:20.559 --> 37:23.149 an attendant, and the two of them together 37:23.153 --> 37:27.383 are actually fixing her hair, to get her ready again for her 37:27.376 --> 37:30.196 mystical marriage-- I have a detail of her to show 37:30.199 --> 37:30.969 you in a moment. 37:30.969 --> 37:34.359 And then this wonderful anecdotal detail here, 37:34.362 --> 37:37.532 where we see the other cupid, winged again, 37:37.527 --> 37:41.897 holding up a mirror in his hand, a rectangular mirror. 37:41.900 --> 37:43.360 And if you look very, very closely-- 37:43.360 --> 37:46.510 and you can study this detail on your own as well-- 37:46.510 --> 37:50.230 if you look very closely you can see that there is a 37:50.230 --> 37:54.170 reflection of the young woman's face in that mirror. 37:54.170 --> 37:58.390 So a lot of attention being paid to the readying of this 37:58.385 --> 38:01.985 woman, to be a bride, to enter into the mystical 38:01.989 --> 38:04.059 marriage with Dionysus. 38:04.059 --> 38:06.919 And we see a detail here where we can see her; 38:06.920 --> 38:11.400 see how pretty she is; see how her--again the artist 38:11.396 --> 38:16.086 has shown this extraordinary ability to depict hair as it 38:16.085 --> 38:19.345 really is, growing out of her scalp. 38:19.349 --> 38:22.149 You can see the part of her hair, the scalp showing through, 38:22.150 --> 38:24.240 the way in which the hair grows from that. 38:24.239 --> 38:27.589 And then you can see that not only is she working on arranging 38:27.585 --> 38:30.215 it, but she's getting help from the attendant. 38:30.219 --> 38:33.639 The attendant also has a section of her hair in her hand, 38:33.635 --> 38:37.225 and the two of them together are trying to get her ready for 38:37.233 --> 38:38.823 her mystical marriage. 38:38.820 --> 38:39.930 Her arm is up. 38:39.929 --> 38:43.199 You can see both of her bracelets: one around her wrist, 38:43.201 --> 38:46.771 and then another bracelet up on the upper part of her arm. 38:46.768 --> 38:52.078 Then we have another window, and then the last figure that 38:52.081 --> 38:57.391 we see is this woman here, a woman who is seated on a very 38:57.393 --> 38:59.353 elaborate throne. 38:59.349 --> 39:01.679 She too is veiled. 39:01.679 --> 39:05.709 She has again a combination gold and purple garment: 39:05.713 --> 39:08.643 bracelets, she's wearing bracelets. 39:08.639 --> 39:09.989 But she is veiled. 39:09.989 --> 39:13.949 So again the implication is she too is a bride. 39:13.949 --> 39:15.629 She seems very placid. 39:15.630 --> 39:18.550 She seems somehow a little bit older than some of the other 39:18.547 --> 39:18.997 brides. 39:19.000 --> 39:22.290 And what has been speculated--she's very pensive; 39:22.289 --> 39:26.409 you can see she leans her chin on one of her hands. 39:26.409 --> 39:32.149 She seems to be sitting there, right at again the doorway of 39:32.148 --> 39:33.218 the room. 39:33.219 --> 39:36.679 She seems to be seated there, basically surveying everything 39:36.684 --> 39:38.744 that's happening in front of her. 39:38.739 --> 39:40.379 And because she looks a little bit older, 39:40.380 --> 39:41.850 because she looks a little bit wiser, 39:41.849 --> 39:45.609 because she is looking out at the panorama of what's happening 39:45.608 --> 39:47.888 in front of her, it has been speculated, 39:47.893 --> 39:51.513 and I think quite convincingly, that the woman we see here is 39:51.505 --> 39:54.005 probably the matron of the house -- 39:54.010 --> 39:59.170 probably the wife of the man who owned and built the Villa of 39:59.170 --> 40:04.040 the Mysteries in Pompeii, who was herself an adherent to 40:04.041 --> 40:08.061 the cult of Dionysus, and has set aside this secret 40:08.061 --> 40:12.331 room in her house for the cult of Dionysus in which she can 40:12.326 --> 40:16.586 help initiate other young women into this mystery cult. 40:16.590 --> 40:19.990 Just one, a couple of quick words about religion and cults 40:19.994 --> 40:21.254 during this period. 40:21.250 --> 40:24.340 The Roman religion was the Roman state religion. 40:24.340 --> 40:27.860 Everyone essentially adhered to the Roman state religion, 40:27.858 --> 40:31.628 which was very closely allied with the government of Rome. 40:31.630 --> 40:37.000 So Church and State very closely allied in Roman times. 40:37.000 --> 40:39.490 But as time went on, a number of religions had 40:39.489 --> 40:42.919 emanated from other parts of the Empire, especially the Eastern 40:42.920 --> 40:43.530 Empire. 40:43.530 --> 40:46.220 The cult of Dionysus, the cult of the Egyptian 40:46.217 --> 40:48.127 goddess Isis, began to take hold, 40:48.126 --> 40:49.736 both for men and women. 40:49.739 --> 40:52.949 Women had a particular predilection for the Egyptian 40:52.952 --> 40:56.422 goddess Isis and for the Dionysiac mystery religions. 40:56.420 --> 40:59.160 And initially, because they were not accepted 40:59.161 --> 41:01.801 by the state-- the only religion that was 41:01.802 --> 41:05.152 considered legitimate was the Roman state religion-- 41:05.150 --> 41:09.080 since they weren't accepted by the state-- 41:09.079 --> 41:12.249 and this included Christianity--these religions 41:12.248 --> 41:16.748 had to be celebrated in, or the rites had to be done in 41:16.746 --> 41:17.446 secret. 41:17.449 --> 41:21.209 And so we see underground rooms, underground buildings 41:21.208 --> 41:24.918 being built for this purpose-- I'll show you one a bit later 41:24.916 --> 41:28.136 in the course-- but we also see rooms in houses 41:28.143 --> 41:31.443 being set aside for these kinds of rites. 41:31.440 --> 41:33.390 And that seems to be what happened here. 41:33.389 --> 41:34.929 The woman of the house, the matrona, 41:34.929 --> 41:38.249 the materfamilias of this particular family, 41:38.250 --> 41:39.950 who lived in the Villa of the Mysteries, 41:39.949 --> 41:44.309 has set aside Room 5 as this secret chamber in which she can 41:44.307 --> 41:48.577 practice the Dionysiac rituals, and she can also encourage 41:48.581 --> 41:52.801 other women, in Pompeii, to partake of those 41:52.795 --> 41:54.265 same rituals. 41:54.268 --> 41:59.148 I put on your Monument List, you'll see an image, 41:59.150 --> 42:03.180 a drawing of all of these scenes that I've now gone 42:03.181 --> 42:05.351 through, in order, and I think it's 42:05.347 --> 42:07.607 helpful for you to have that as a reference, 42:07.610 --> 42:12.700 just to be able to follow along again the narrative and where 42:12.695 --> 42:17.015 each of the scenes that we've described comes up. 42:17.018 --> 42:20.598 And then just one last view of the room as a whole. 42:20.599 --> 42:24.539 I bring it back because I just wanted to end our discussion of 42:24.541 --> 42:28.291 this particular monument with the point that this is really 42:28.289 --> 42:32.039 quite unique in terms of the paintings that we've seen thus 42:32.038 --> 42:35.168 far this semester; that is, to have a painting 42:35.166 --> 42:38.546 with such monumental figures that tells the story that this 42:38.554 --> 42:40.194 particular painting does. 42:40.190 --> 42:44.080 And it's such a famous set of paintings that I think because 42:44.077 --> 42:46.957 people know it so well, they think, "Well that 42:46.963 --> 42:49.533 must be comparable to other things from Roman times." 42:49.530 --> 42:51.800 But this is the only painting that we have like this. 42:51.800 --> 42:54.130 It doesn't mean that there might not have been others, 42:54.130 --> 42:57.520 but I think it probably means that there weren't a lot of 42:57.523 --> 42:59.353 others, that this was truly an 42:59.353 --> 43:03.083 exceptional work of art, that is preserved in the Villa 43:03.083 --> 43:05.293 of the Mysteries at Pompeii. 43:05.289 --> 43:10.409 I want to show you in the half an hour that remains a number of 43:10.409 --> 43:13.499 other paintings, in much less detail, 43:13.501 --> 43:17.311 but paintings that also are of special subjects, 43:17.309 --> 43:19.909 that also belong to Second, Third or Fourth Style walls, 43:19.909 --> 43:22.909 and are particularly interesting in a variety of 43:22.911 --> 43:23.361 ways. 43:23.360 --> 43:27.890 The first of these is also mythological in subject matter. 43:27.889 --> 43:30.679 I'm going to show you the so-called Odyssey paintings. 43:30.679 --> 43:32.649 We're moving back to Rome. 43:32.650 --> 43:36.450 These are located in a house on the Esquiline Hill, 43:36.445 --> 43:39.935 one of Rome's original Seven Hills, in Rome. 43:39.940 --> 43:42.980 And while--I think I neglected to give you a date for the 43:42.980 --> 43:45.260 Mystery paintings, but those are 60 to 50, 43:45.259 --> 43:47.489 and these paintings are a little bit later, 43:47.489 --> 43:51.179 50 to 40 B.C. 43:51.179 --> 43:55.679 They are also extremely interesting, because they seem 43:55.679 --> 44:00.349 to represent scenes from the tenth and eveventh books of 44:00.347 --> 44:02.637 Homer's Odyssey. 44:02.639 --> 44:06.299 And Vitruvius, the architectural theorist, 44:06.300 --> 44:10.280 writing in the age of Augustus, Vitruvius tells us that the 44:10.275 --> 44:13.975 Greeks were particularly interested in representing the 44:13.978 --> 44:16.788 wanderings of Odysseus in landscapes. 44:16.789 --> 44:19.679 So he tells us--that's very important for us to know because 44:19.682 --> 44:22.432 it means that the Greeks painted paintings like this, 44:22.429 --> 44:26.889 illustrations of Odysseus' wanderings. 44:26.889 --> 44:31.729 And yet we see one of these paintings in this house on the 44:31.726 --> 44:35.796 Esquiline Hill in Rome, between 50 and 40 B.C. 44:35.800 --> 44:42.210 Books X and XI focus on Odysseus' coming upon the 44:42.206 --> 44:46.096 Laestrygonians-- I put that name on the Monument 44:46.099 --> 44:48.109 List for you-- the Laestrygonians, 44:48.106 --> 44:51.556 and what happens when he meets the Laestrygonians. 44:51.559 --> 44:54.199 And we see one of the scenes here. 44:54.199 --> 44:57.699 We see, in fact, that several scouts, 44:57.699 --> 45:01.949 working for Odysseus, get off their boats on an 45:01.945 --> 45:07.575 island and they come across this beautiful young woman who has 45:07.577 --> 45:10.497 just fetched-- you can see she's holding a 45:10.501 --> 45:12.781 pitcher-- she has just fetched water from 45:12.775 --> 45:15.145 a well, and she's walking down this 45:15.146 --> 45:18.836 mountain and she comes upon these scouts of Odysseus. 45:18.840 --> 45:21.590 And being a friendly sort, she says to them: 45:21.588 --> 45:25.228 "I'd like to invite you back to my father's house for 45:25.233 --> 45:26.323 dinner." 45:26.320 --> 45:29.600 Well her father is a man-eating giant, as are the other 45:29.597 --> 45:30.627 Laestrygonians. 45:30.630 --> 45:34.670 And the scouts fall for it, and they come with her to meet 45:34.673 --> 45:38.723 her father, and the father immediately cooks up one of the 45:38.719 --> 45:40.209 three for dinner. 45:40.210 --> 45:48.980 And various other adventures happen on this island, 45:48.980 --> 45:52.810 but what's particularly interesting for us is the fact 45:52.813 --> 45:57.663 that these scenes again are from a well-known work of literature. 45:57.659 --> 46:02.849 But the figures are very small in relation to the landscape. 46:02.849 --> 46:05.489 It's clear that the artist, whether originally Greek 46:05.494 --> 46:08.404 artists were particularly interested in the landscape and 46:08.398 --> 46:11.198 the telling of a narrative across that landscape, 46:11.199 --> 46:14.329 a landscape that is magnificently rendered, 46:14.329 --> 46:16.569 as you can see, by these artists. 46:16.570 --> 46:18.250 There are a number of scenes still preserved. 46:18.250 --> 46:22.580 After that dinner, by the way, where one of the 46:22.579 --> 46:27.199 scouts gets consumed, after that the Laestrygonians 46:27.204 --> 46:32.344 decide that they don't want any more of Odysseus and his crew. 46:32.340 --> 46:35.220 And they take boulders, as you can see in this scene 46:35.217 --> 46:37.577 here, and they begin to attack the 46:37.583 --> 46:40.513 ships of Odysseus, destroying most of them, 46:40.510 --> 46:44.350 and only the one with Odysseus himself is able to escape, 46:44.349 --> 46:46.609 and he makes his way, at that point, 46:46.610 --> 46:52.720 to another island, to meet up with the enchantress 46:52.722 --> 46:53.722 Circe. 46:53.719 --> 46:56.419 So we see all of this very carefully described here. 46:56.420 --> 46:59.070 But as we look at these scenes, I think we're particularly 46:59.065 --> 47:00.415 struck-- or at least I'm particularly 47:00.422 --> 47:01.982 struck, and I would imagine you'll 47:01.976 --> 47:04.546 share this-- by the interest of this artist 47:04.548 --> 47:06.358 in depicting the landscape. 47:06.360 --> 47:09.320 We have an artist again, whether it's the original Greek 47:09.320 --> 47:11.820 artist, but certainly copied here by an 47:11.815 --> 47:14.895 artist in Rome, we see an incredible interest 47:14.900 --> 47:17.430 in landscape, by someone who is clearly not 47:17.427 --> 47:20.917 only looking at earlier models, but looking at landscape 47:20.923 --> 47:25.063 itself, and is very interested in depicting all kinds of 47:25.057 --> 47:27.987 anecdotal details: inlets of water, 47:27.989 --> 47:31.349 as you can see here; rocks and the way in which the 47:31.353 --> 47:35.343 rock is cast in shadow on one side and is lighted on the 47:35.336 --> 47:38.016 other; the way in which branches bend, 47:38.021 --> 47:42.221 both when people pull on them, or when they are buffeted by 47:42.224 --> 47:46.154 the breeze or by the wind, as you can see with that tree 47:46.146 --> 47:48.336 at the uppermost part of the peak. 47:48.340 --> 47:51.580 So again the artists here are particularly interested in 47:51.581 --> 47:53.881 nature and in the display of nature, 47:53.880 --> 47:59.460 and in that way very comparable to what we saw in Livia's 47:59.461 --> 48:03.551 gardenscape at the Villa at Primaporta. 48:03.550 --> 48:08.050 I mentioned already that it is believed that these paintings on 48:08.050 --> 48:12.410 the Esquiline Hill are based on Hellenistic Greek models that 48:12.405 --> 48:15.305 probably were made in about 150 B.C. 48:15.309 --> 48:19.489 So a copy, and in that regard should strike you as very much 48:19.492 --> 48:22.322 the same trend, as we've seen so often in the 48:22.315 --> 48:26.465 beginning of this semester, of the Romans looking back and 48:26.471 --> 48:30.281 admiring Greek art, and incorporating it -- a kind 48:30.277 --> 48:33.507 of Hellenization of Roman art and architecture, 48:33.510 --> 48:37.630 because of this reverence and because of this incorporation of 48:37.625 --> 48:40.185 earlier Greek scenes and prototypes. 48:40.190 --> 48:41.740 And so we see that here. 48:41.739 --> 48:45.579 And there are three reasons that scholars believe that what 48:45.579 --> 48:49.749 we're looking at here is based very closely on a Greek model. 48:49.750 --> 48:53.070 One of those is that passage in Vitruvius that I already 48:53.065 --> 48:53.785 mentioned. 48:53.789 --> 48:56.939 Vitruvius tells us that the Greeks were particularly 48:56.940 --> 49:00.460 interested in representing scenes from the Odyssey against 49:00.460 --> 49:02.130 a landscape background. 49:02.130 --> 49:07.240 So that certainly tells us that it's likely these are based on 49:07.240 --> 49:09.420 earlier Greek originals. 49:09.420 --> 49:11.970 The second has to do--you've probably noticed this-- 49:11.969 --> 49:15.479 with the fact that many of the figures in these paintings are 49:15.476 --> 49:18.126 labeled, and those labels are--if you 49:18.125 --> 49:23.035 look very closely you will see-- in Greek, and not only are they 49:23.036 --> 49:26.426 in Greek, but some of the words are 49:26.425 --> 49:27.615 misspelled. 49:27.619 --> 49:29.059 So since those words are misspelled, 49:29.059 --> 49:32.059 it has been speculated--and I think again quite convincingly-- 49:32.059 --> 49:35.989 that those who are misspelling them don't really know Greek, 49:35.989 --> 49:39.099 and may be Roman artists, who are not familiar with that 49:39.101 --> 49:41.431 language, are copying it and making 49:41.434 --> 49:43.094 mistakes in the process. 49:43.090 --> 49:47.180 So that also suggests to us that earlier Greek models are 49:47.184 --> 49:50.844 being looked at, absorbed, and even copied here. 49:50.840 --> 49:53.670 But most interesting of all, for us aficionados of the 49:53.673 --> 49:57.623 Second Style, is the fact that very 49:57.617 --> 50:03.397 careful--the archaeologists, who have looked at these with 50:03.403 --> 50:05.973 great care, have determined that the 50:05.972 --> 50:10.612 landscape scenes that we've studied are continuous beneath 50:10.608 --> 50:13.398 the columns, that when they copied these, 50:13.402 --> 50:15.962 they copied-- perhaps they had a scroll that 50:15.963 --> 50:18.843 they had from somewhere else, a Greek scroll, 50:18.844 --> 50:22.134 that came from a library that had images on it, 50:22.130 --> 50:24.450 and they unfurled that scroll and they copied it here. 50:24.449 --> 50:27.459 They did that first, they copied--so we had a 50:27.458 --> 50:31.468 continuous landscape scene, and it was only after that 50:31.465 --> 50:35.745 landscape scene was painted that the artists went back and 50:35.753 --> 50:38.013 painted the columns on top. 50:38.010 --> 50:42.340 They put these Greek paintings, or copies of these Greek 50:42.344 --> 50:45.264 paintings of Odysseus' wanderings, 50:45.260 --> 50:49.010 based on this Greek prototype of the mid-second century B.C., 50:49.010 --> 50:55.340 they put it into a Roman context by providing these 50:55.342 --> 51:00.032 Second Style columns or pilasters-- 51:00.030 --> 51:01.950 pilasters, I believe--pilasters, 51:01.951 --> 51:05.791 by creating these Second Style pilasters and making this into a 51:05.793 --> 51:09.143 vista or panorama that would have been seen through the 51:09.141 --> 51:12.751 window, in a sense, of a Second Style 51:12.753 --> 51:13.703 painting. 51:13.699 --> 51:19.469 So it's a Romanization of an original Greek painting, 51:19.469 --> 51:23.309 in an extraordinary way that tells us a good deal about how 51:23.309 --> 51:27.279 the Romans were thinking about these Greek prototypes at this 51:27.280 --> 51:28.870 particular juncture. 51:28.869 --> 51:32.499 I showed you last time the Villa at Oplontis, 51:32.500 --> 51:37.210 the Caldarium 8, and we looked at the soffit of 51:37.213 --> 51:41.033 Caldarium 8, and we saw these floating 51:41.034 --> 51:44.404 mythological figures, and we saw women in niches with 51:44.398 --> 51:45.408 shells at the top. 51:45.409 --> 51:48.239 And I pointed out to you, at that time, 51:48.237 --> 51:51.957 that we also have a number of small panel pictures, 51:51.960 --> 51:55.980 representing still lives, with fruit and the like. 51:55.980 --> 52:01.120 And these in a sense get lost in the overall scheme of these 52:01.117 --> 52:03.287 Second, Third, and Fourth Style walls, 52:03.293 --> 52:06.773 but they're very interesting, if we look at them in greater 52:06.771 --> 52:07.361 detail. 52:07.360 --> 52:11.710 And I want to show you just two examples today. 52:11.710 --> 52:15.150 This is a--it's blown up, obviously, way beyond the size 52:15.146 --> 52:18.766 that it was--but it gives you some sense of what these look 52:18.771 --> 52:19.961 like in detail. 52:19.960 --> 52:24.970 It's a still life painting that comes from the Villa of Julia 52:24.972 --> 52:29.152 Felix, in Pompeii, which dates to around 50 B.C. 52:29.150 --> 52:33.850 And it probably--we do believe that it is a detail from a 52:33.851 --> 52:35.531 Second Style wall. 52:35.530 --> 52:39.460 And we look at that detail here, and we see that these-- 52:39.460 --> 52:41.890 for those of you who enjoy modern art, 52:41.889 --> 52:44.889 for example, I think you'll agree that this 52:44.885 --> 52:48.235 is- tends to be as modern as Roman Art gets, 52:48.239 --> 52:52.199 because we see it has a very contemporary appearance, 52:52.199 --> 52:55.139 I think, this particular still life painting. 52:55.139 --> 52:59.439 We see that the artist has shown a striking penchant for, 52:59.440 --> 53:04.400 or a sensitivity for composition, for light, 53:04.400 --> 53:08.500 the way in which light falls on objects that are made of 53:08.496 --> 53:11.766 different materials, be it metal or stone. 53:11.768 --> 53:14.568 The artist has shown that kind of sensitivity, 53:14.570 --> 53:16.970 I think, here, as well as to composition, 53:16.969 --> 53:20.139 the way in which a group of objects are composed in 53:20.143 --> 53:22.053 relationship to one another. 53:22.050 --> 53:24.940 If we look at this painting, I think we'll agree it's quite 53:24.942 --> 53:25.842 a tour de force. 53:25.840 --> 53:29.180 We see some interesting things, which are not that easy to 53:29.184 --> 53:29.834 decipher. 53:29.829 --> 53:31.899 We see over here, for example, 53:31.896 --> 53:35.816 a cloth with fringe that hangs on a nail on the wall. 53:35.820 --> 53:39.230 We see over here, also hanging on the wall, 53:39.228 --> 53:40.688 four dead birds. 53:40.690 --> 53:45.900 We see a plate, an oval plate of what seem to 53:45.904 --> 53:47.094 be eggs. 53:47.090 --> 53:51.570 We see a pitcher over here, which again looks like a metal 53:51.567 --> 53:55.807 pitcher, bathed in light on one side, with a handle. 53:55.809 --> 53:59.429 And then we see here what looks like some kind of a beaker, 53:59.431 --> 54:02.801 with something that may have been used to stir whatever 54:02.804 --> 54:04.184 liquid was inside. 54:04.179 --> 54:07.059 All of this on a stone pedestal. 54:07.059 --> 54:11.569 And then leaning against that stone pedestal we see one of 54:11.568 --> 54:14.808 these clay vessels, which seems to have an 54:14.811 --> 54:17.661 inscription on that clay vessel. 54:17.659 --> 54:20.289 So what is this still life painting? 54:20.289 --> 54:24.329 Is it just meant to be a mix of objects that would be found in 54:24.333 --> 54:25.993 the kitchen of a house? 54:25.989 --> 54:27.949 Or is it something more than that? 54:27.949 --> 54:29.939 Do these have meaning beyond that? 54:29.940 --> 54:31.960 Is there some religious symbolism here, 54:31.963 --> 54:32.713 for example? 54:32.710 --> 54:36.010 This is not easy to decipher, and no one really has done that 54:36.010 --> 54:38.000 satisfactorily, up to this point, 54:37.998 --> 54:41.348 but it's something that one would want to keep in mind, 54:41.349 --> 54:44.789 as one thinks about the meaning of these still life paintings. 54:44.789 --> 54:47.259 And keep in mind again, if you think back to a room 54:47.264 --> 54:49.594 like the Ixion Room, there are a number of these 54:49.590 --> 54:51.770 small panel paintings in the Ixion Room. 54:51.768 --> 54:54.358 When you look at the room as a whole, these are not easy to 54:54.360 --> 54:54.630 see. 54:54.630 --> 54:58.580 They're so small that they're lost in the overall scheme. 54:58.579 --> 55:01.259 So you'd really have to go up very close to these, 55:01.260 --> 55:03.160 if you could even reach them, if they're way up in the top it 55:03.155 --> 55:04.965 would be difficult, but if they're down below, 55:04.967 --> 55:06.407 go up close, look at them, 55:06.409 --> 55:09.959 and try to figure out for yourself exactly what is going 55:09.958 --> 55:10.668 on here. 55:10.670 --> 55:12.960 Another one from, in this case, 55:12.956 --> 55:16.176 from Herculaneum, which is not so ingeniously 55:16.177 --> 55:20.137 called Still Life Painting with Peaches and Glass Jar-- 55:20.139 --> 55:22.899 but that's very descriptive, that's exactly what it 55:22.902 --> 55:25.122 depicts-- which is later in date, 55:25.119 --> 55:29.139 around 62 to 79, and probably was a panel in 55:29.135 --> 55:34.135 either a Third or a Fourth Style Roman painting. 55:34.139 --> 55:37.489 We see two tiers here. 55:37.489 --> 55:40.789 We indeed do see peaches, and the artist again has really 55:40.789 --> 55:42.909 looked at peaches to depict this-- 55:42.909 --> 55:46.509 shows the peaches on the vine, with the leaves, 55:46.510 --> 55:49.230 as you can see here--and wants to make sure that we know what a 55:49.226 --> 55:52.586 peach looks like inside, as well, so has cut a section 55:52.585 --> 55:55.885 off one of these and shows the pit inside, 55:55.889 --> 55:59.939 just to make sure that we get a full sense of how peaches grow, 55:59.940 --> 56:04.350 and of what happens when you open a peach. 56:04.349 --> 56:06.639 And then down here, below, a glass vase, 56:06.639 --> 56:09.739 and you can see that the artist has filled that vase halfway 56:09.735 --> 56:12.185 with water, so that he can explore the 56:12.188 --> 56:16.468 effects of light on that water, and the reflection of that 56:16.472 --> 56:19.062 water on the glass vase itself. 56:19.059 --> 56:22.579 So clearly again artists that--there may be other reasons 56:22.583 --> 56:25.543 that they juxtaposed these particular items, 56:25.539 --> 56:29.079 reasons that may be beyond our comprehension today. 56:29.079 --> 56:34.009 But while they may do that for ritual or other reasons, 56:34.010 --> 56:36.340 they also are clearly very concerned with just exploring 56:36.335 --> 56:38.705 composition, light, and so on and so forth, 56:38.713 --> 56:43.153 as I said before, which is a very modern thing to 56:43.150 --> 56:43.580 do. 56:43.579 --> 56:47.639 We also see among the paintings that I've called "Special 56:47.641 --> 56:49.241 Subjects" today, 56:49.239 --> 56:52.099 genre scenes, scenes that represent daily 56:52.099 --> 56:54.459 life in Pompeii or Herculaneum. 56:54.460 --> 56:57.080 I'll show you just one of those here. 56:57.079 --> 57:01.129 It is a painting of--it's usually called Painting of a 57:01.125 --> 57:04.155 Magistrate Distributing Free Bread, 57:04.159 --> 57:08.969 and it comes from House VII.3.30 in Pompeii, 57:08.969 --> 57:12.579 a wall painting from VII.3.30 in Pompeii -- 57:12.579 --> 57:14.929 dates to around A.D. 70. 57:14.929 --> 57:17.869 And what's depicted here--whether the magistrate is 57:17.865 --> 57:20.915 distributing free bread or it's bread being sold, 57:20.920 --> 57:25.420 we're not absolutely sure--but what you can see here is piles 57:25.422 --> 57:29.932 and piles of round breads that are being distributed to those 57:29.927 --> 57:33.077 who stand in front of the bread stand. 57:33.079 --> 57:35.229 And I can show you a detail also of the same, 57:35.226 --> 57:37.706 where you can get a better sense of the shape of the 57:37.713 --> 57:38.253 breads. 57:38.250 --> 57:43.160 You remember the petrified bread that we looked at from 57:43.163 --> 57:48.443 Pompeii, and the division into shapes that make it resemble 57:48.440 --> 57:49.350 pizza. 57:49.349 --> 57:53.159 The same kinds of breads can be seen here, and it's that bread 57:53.161 --> 57:56.601 that is being distributed to these people down below. 57:56.599 --> 58:01.369 While this painting comes from a house, and it may have just 58:01.371 --> 58:05.981 referred to the particular profession of someone who lived 58:05.983 --> 58:07.443 in that house. 58:07.440 --> 58:09.880 But paintings like this we believe-- 58:09.880 --> 58:12.070 and it may or may not have been the case with this one-- 58:12.070 --> 58:15.530 could also have--were also used as shop signs, 58:15.530 --> 58:18.530 to advertise what was being sold in one of those 58:18.534 --> 58:22.964 tabernae, that often opened off houses in 58:22.961 --> 58:26.901 places like Pompeii and Herculaneum, 58:26.900 --> 58:30.340 and that may have been the case here as well. 58:30.340 --> 58:34.570 Just a few words about what we might call history painting, 58:34.572 --> 58:35.962 among the Romans. 58:35.960 --> 58:39.700 This is a fascinating and very famous painting of the 58:39.699 --> 58:41.569 Amphitheater at Pompeii. 58:41.570 --> 58:43.530 You see it on the left-hand side of the screen. 58:43.530 --> 58:49.370 It comes from House I.3.23 in Pompeii, and dates to between 59 58:49.365 --> 58:50.605 and 70 A.D. 58:50.610 --> 58:54.490 And it purports not only to represent the Pompeii 58:54.494 --> 58:57.614 Amphitheater, which I remind you of here, 58:57.605 --> 59:01.235 and you'll recall the very distinctive staircase of the 59:01.237 --> 59:04.927 Amphitheater at Pompeii, and you can see how carefully 59:04.929 --> 59:08.679 that is rendered here by the artist to make sure that we know 59:08.677 --> 59:11.547 this is indeed the Amphitheater at Pompeii. 59:11.550 --> 59:15.250 It purports to represent a very famous historical event, 59:15.250 --> 59:18.790 at least in terms of local history, 59:18.789 --> 59:22.709 and that is a brawl that broke out between the Pompeians and 59:22.708 --> 59:26.688 another group of individuals who lived in the area called the 59:26.693 --> 59:30.403 Nucerians, N-u-c-e-r-i-a-n-s. 59:30.400 --> 59:32.930 The Pompeians and the Nucerians, a brawl broke out 59:32.934 --> 59:33.714 between them. 59:33.710 --> 59:38.030 You can see that brawl being represented in the oval arena 59:38.032 --> 59:38.642 there. 59:38.639 --> 59:42.919 The brawl was so serious that the local magistrates decided to 59:42.920 --> 59:46.220 punish both the Pompeians and the Nucerians, 59:46.219 --> 59:48.429 and they did something quite extraordinary, 59:48.429 --> 59:52.179 and that is that they decided to close down the Amphitheater 59:52.179 --> 59:56.039 in Pompeii, for ten years: count them. 59:56.039 --> 59:59.799 Can you imagine the city of Pompeii without an amphitheater 59:59.802 --> 1:00:00.842 for ten years? 1:00:00.840 --> 1:00:04.120 That was a very brutal punishment. 1:00:04.119 --> 1:00:07.479 But it seems to have happened, and it is memorialized, 1:00:07.478 --> 1:00:10.518 that very event is memorialized in this painting, 1:00:10.521 --> 1:00:12.361 in this house at Pompeii. 1:00:12.360 --> 1:00:14.670 This painting is also very valuable-- 1:00:14.670 --> 1:00:16.340 I think I've mentioned this to you before-- 1:00:16.340 --> 1:00:20.480 is also very valuable, not only for showing us the 1:00:20.478 --> 1:00:23.508 shape of the amphitheater-- which, of course, 1:00:23.505 --> 1:00:24.515 as you know, still survives-- 1:00:24.518 --> 1:00:28.558 the oval shape and the seating, but for a detail that doesn't 1:00:28.556 --> 1:00:31.016 still survive, and that is the awning. 1:00:31.018 --> 1:00:33.358 I mentioned to you that in amphitheater design, 1:00:33.360 --> 1:00:36.180 they put poles at the very uppermost part of the 1:00:36.179 --> 1:00:39.309 amphitheater, and they were able to put an 1:00:39.307 --> 1:00:44.107 awning on those poles to protect people in inclement weather. 1:00:44.110 --> 1:00:48.280 And we see the representation, our only preserved 1:00:48.279 --> 1:00:52.709 representation in paint, of one of these awnings. 1:00:52.710 --> 1:00:56.570 So again, it is very valuable in terms of helping us 1:00:56.570 --> 1:00:59.070 understand amphitheater design. 1:00:59.070 --> 1:01:01.640 The last two paintings I want to show you today are both 1:01:01.641 --> 1:01:04.161 portrait paintings, and you have to think of these 1:01:04.157 --> 1:01:06.777 portrait paintings, like the mythological panel 1:01:06.784 --> 1:01:09.634 pictures, as paintings that were inserted 1:01:09.628 --> 1:01:13.328 into walls, inserted into probably mostly 1:01:13.333 --> 1:01:16.793 Third and Fourth Style Roman walls. 1:01:16.789 --> 1:01:21.499 And when those treasure hunters hit Pompeii and Herculaneum, 1:01:21.500 --> 1:01:23.180 these were the ones they went to first, 1:01:23.179 --> 1:01:27.269 and they cut a fair number of these out of their original 1:01:27.268 --> 1:01:29.748 contexts and made off with them. 1:01:29.750 --> 1:01:32.510 But some of them fortunately have found their way into, 1:01:32.505 --> 1:01:35.105 especially into the Naples Archaeological Museum. 1:01:35.110 --> 1:01:36.950 This is the first one that I want to show you, 1:01:36.949 --> 1:01:42.009 an absolutely fetching portrait of a young woman from Pompeii, 1:01:42.010 --> 1:01:46.480 that dates to around the middle of the first century A.D., 1:01:46.480 --> 1:01:49.930 that is, 45 to 50 A.D. 1:01:49.929 --> 1:01:53.689 And we see it here, and it's an incredible painted 1:01:53.688 --> 1:01:58.518 portrait by clearly once again a very talented artist who's done 1:01:58.521 --> 1:02:02.281 an extraordinary job of capturing this woman. 1:02:02.280 --> 1:02:05.930 It's a very appealing portrait. 1:02:05.929 --> 1:02:10.049 We see her, she's a quite attractive young woman, 1:02:10.047 --> 1:02:13.217 with wide, sort of hazel colored eyes, 1:02:13.222 --> 1:02:16.312 sharp, straight brows, straight nose, 1:02:16.313 --> 1:02:18.633 sort of Cupid's lips. 1:02:18.630 --> 1:02:21.710 As you can see down below, the hair is magnificently 1:02:21.706 --> 1:02:22.366 rendered. 1:02:22.369 --> 1:02:26.729 You can see that she has a bevy of corkscrew curls. 1:02:26.730 --> 1:02:29.760 Those in the front, toward the front of her face, 1:02:29.764 --> 1:02:32.614 are highlighted, and match very well the color 1:02:32.608 --> 1:02:33.618 of her eyes. 1:02:33.619 --> 1:02:39.119 She wears gold hoop earrings that also mimic the curlicues of 1:02:39.119 --> 1:02:40.219 her locks. 1:02:40.219 --> 1:02:43.139 And then you can see also that she wears something that appears 1:02:43.141 --> 1:02:44.841 to have been fashionable to wear, 1:02:44.840 --> 1:02:48.830 among Roman and Pompeian women, and that is a gold hairnet, 1:02:48.829 --> 1:02:53.639 at the very apex, which adds shine and glimmer to 1:02:53.637 --> 1:02:56.877 the hair; but also you can see the hair 1:02:56.882 --> 1:02:58.732 beneath it through that. 1:02:58.730 --> 1:03:04.120 Down below you can see she wears a green garment and a sort 1:03:04.115 --> 1:03:08.385 of purple or brownish mantle over her shoulder, 1:03:08.387 --> 1:03:12.007 and she holds a stylus to her lips. 1:03:12.010 --> 1:03:18.620 And she has in her other hand, as you can see, 1:03:18.619 --> 1:03:22.349 a tablet, in front of her, and it is clear, 1:03:22.349 --> 1:03:24.049 as she puts that stylus to her lips, 1:03:24.050 --> 1:03:25.980 she is deep in thought, very pensive, 1:03:25.980 --> 1:03:30.210 figuring out what it is that she's going to write on her wax 1:03:30.211 --> 1:03:32.881 tablet, because these were wax and they 1:03:32.875 --> 1:03:35.005 would write into the wax tablets. 1:03:35.010 --> 1:03:38.830 Because she is caught in this moment of deep thought, 1:03:38.833 --> 1:03:42.363 a number of scholars have suggested that she must 1:03:42.362 --> 1:03:45.232 represent the Greek poetess Sappho; 1:03:45.230 --> 1:03:48.640 which is why I've put that painted portrait of Sappho on 1:03:48.644 --> 1:03:49.954 your Monument List. 1:03:49.949 --> 1:03:52.059 But you can see I've put Sappho in quote marks. 1:03:52.059 --> 1:03:55.999 I think this is almost certainly not Sappho. 1:03:56.000 --> 1:03:58.950 It is probably a Pompeian woman, and she may not be 1:03:58.952 --> 1:04:02.202 thinking about the poetry that she's about to write, 1:04:02.199 --> 1:04:05.909 but perhaps the shopping list that she's putting together 1:04:05.905 --> 1:04:10.005 before she makes her way down to the central market of the city 1:04:10.010 --> 1:04:12.900 of Pompeii, or sends her slave to go down 1:04:12.898 --> 1:04:15.798 to the central market of the city of Pompeii. 1:04:15.800 --> 1:04:18.920 But it may also be that she was literate, and that she wants to 1:04:18.916 --> 1:04:21.126 underscore the fact that she was literate. 1:04:21.130 --> 1:04:25.370 It may also be that this was just a set way of representing 1:04:25.365 --> 1:04:27.845 women in portraiture in Pompeii. 1:04:27.849 --> 1:04:31.599 Because this is not the only portrait we have of a woman with 1:04:31.601 --> 1:04:34.981 her stylus to her lips and her tablets in her hands. 1:04:34.980 --> 1:04:38.540 Here's another portrait that we have, also from Pompeii, 1:04:38.539 --> 1:04:41.839 with a woman represented in exactly the same way. 1:04:41.840 --> 1:04:49.210 This portrait is from House VII.2.60, and dates to around 62 1:04:49.210 --> 1:04:50.710 to 79 A.D. 1:04:50.710 --> 1:04:54.450 -- the portrait of a woman, and presumably her husband by 1:04:54.445 --> 1:04:55.175 her side. 1:04:55.179 --> 1:04:57.159 She again has the stylus to her lips; 1:04:57.159 --> 1:04:59.469 she has the tablet down below. 1:04:59.469 --> 1:05:05.219 You can see that he holds a scroll, which has a red place 1:05:05.221 --> 1:05:07.071 marker up above. 1:05:07.070 --> 1:05:10.670 So this portrait of the two of them may either allude to the 1:05:10.668 --> 1:05:13.778 fact that they are both literate, that they can both 1:05:13.780 --> 1:05:14.940 read and write. 1:05:14.940 --> 1:05:18.630 It's also possible that the scroll that he holds may 1:05:18.630 --> 1:05:21.090 indicate that he's a magistrate. 1:05:21.090 --> 1:05:24.360 Or lastly, and one of the more popular solutions, 1:05:24.364 --> 1:05:27.574 is that this may--he may be holding the marriage 1:05:27.570 --> 1:05:30.710 certificate, the marriage between the two. 1:05:30.710 --> 1:05:33.120 The portraits are very interesting. 1:05:33.119 --> 1:05:37.179 You can see that she isn't quite as gorgeous as her other 1:05:37.184 --> 1:05:38.204 counterpart. 1:05:38.199 --> 1:05:42.579 Her hair is not arranged in those wonderful golden locks, 1:05:42.581 --> 1:05:47.201 but is kind of fizzy over her forehead and down her neck. 1:05:47.199 --> 1:05:49.099 As you can see here, her ears stick out. 1:05:49.099 --> 1:05:50.309 She has a uni-brow. 1:05:50.309 --> 1:05:54.899 But she's more than happy to be represented, as she was, 1:05:54.900 --> 1:05:59.070 preserved for posterity, as she was, along with her 1:05:59.072 --> 1:06:00.912 husband over here. 1:06:00.909 --> 1:06:03.489 And if you look at the portrait, you will see again 1:06:03.494 --> 1:06:05.514 that it has a black frame around it, 1:06:05.510 --> 1:06:09.430 and then a maroon frame, which tells us again that this 1:06:09.434 --> 1:06:13.414 was inserted into a wall, a Third or Fourth Style wall, 1:06:13.414 --> 1:06:17.044 just like the mythological paintings were inserted into 1:06:17.036 --> 1:06:21.066 those walls, as a painting that was located 1:06:21.068 --> 1:06:26.478 in the center of that wall, and in this case emphasized the 1:06:26.476 --> 1:06:32.866 owners of this particular house, and their undying love for each 1:06:32.869 --> 1:06:35.289 other-- their relationship honors their 1:06:35.289 --> 1:06:37.359 marriage-- and served as a kind of 1:06:37.360 --> 1:06:41.650 counterpart to a portrait of the loving couple that one might put 1:06:41.652 --> 1:06:44.332 on a mantelpiece, or on a piano, 1:06:44.331 --> 1:06:46.331 in one's house today. 1:06:46.329 --> 1:06:48.739 So you have to think of it as quite comparable to that. 1:06:48.739 --> 1:06:50.699 Again, when you wander through Pompeii, 1:06:50.699 --> 1:06:52.679 you don't see many of these portraits in situ, 1:06:52.679 --> 1:06:55.679 in large part because they were so popular with treasure 1:06:55.682 --> 1:06:56.232 hunters. 1:06:56.230 --> 1:07:01.000 But fortunately we do have a few preserved from both Pompeii 1:07:01.000 --> 1:07:04.230 and Herculaneum, and those can be seen in 1:07:04.233 --> 1:07:06.663 museums like Naples today. 1:07:06.659 --> 1:07:07.169 Thank you. 1:07:07.170 --> 1:07:13.000