Perspective Systems in Roman Second Style Wall Painting

Bibliographic Data

ID4535978
AuthorsPhilip Matthew Stinson (0000-0002-4338-7204, University of Kansas, corresponding author), Philip Stinson
Year2011
Volume115
Issue3
Pages403-426
Publication date2011-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9114 • E-ISSN: 1939-828X
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.3764/aja.115.3.0403
OpenAlexW1534493241
LanguageEN
Citations received37
References cited14

There is still much to be learned about architectural perspective from the study of Roman wall paintings dating to the first century B.C.E. This article demonstrates that Second Style wall paintings of houses and villas in Rome and Campania hold evidence for different types of perspective: convergence perspective and parallel perspective. A special variation involves multiple systems of convergence perspective. Analyses of these different perspective systems and reconstructions of painters' methodologies demonstrate the sensitivity and adaptability of wall painters to the physical and social parameters of Roman domestic space. The use of different perspective systems reflects the role of painters in crafting the complex form of perspective found in Second Style wall painting. While being adjustable to many variables, the type of perspective found in the Second Style offered viewers impressions of perspectival convergence, a visual function analogous to contemporary applications of perspective in other media, such as architects' drawings and theater scenery painting

Adaptability · Aesthetics · Art · Convergence (economics · Function (biology · Painting · Perspective (graphical · Style (visual arts · Visual arts · Historical Geography and Cartography · Literary, Cultural, Historical Analysis · Urban Design and Spatial Analysis

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