Figure Painting.—In the architectural style figure-painting on a large scale makes a first appearance. Occasionally it forms an integral part of the design. In the larger "Triclinium" at Boscoreale, for instance, groups and single figures-possibly fam ily portraits-are painted in the wall-spaces between pilasters and columns, while in one room of the "Villa of the Mysteries" at Pompeii, a continuous figure-composition is painted against a panelled background. This wall-painting, which represents a Dionysiac initiation, was discovered in 1911, and may be said to surpass in beauty of colouring and composition anything previ ously known (Plate III., fig. 7). But figures so arranged as to appear to be moving within the room tend to confine the space. This is contrary to the principles of Roman and Pompeian wall painting, and a commoner method, therefore, is to concentrate the figure-subject, which is usually of a mythological character, into a central panel clearly marked off from the rest of the wall and intended to be seen as through an opening in the wall. In the architectural style these subjects are usually framed in a species of pavilion or aedicula, sometimes painted in perspective, which allows a vista of the landscape beyond (Plate III., fig. 6, from the house of the Farnesina in Rome), but this motive gradually loses its importance in the third style and becomes a purely conventional scheme of decoration, though in the fourth or intricate style, which again reverts to true architectural forms, however fantastic and bewildering in their complexity, the figure subjects are plainly conceived as pictures and framed with a simple band of colour. In the later styles figure-subjects without landscape are extremely common, but it has been shown that, e.g., in the triclinium of the Casa dei Vettii, which is decorated with a cycle of mythological paintings, the lighting is carefully calculated with regard to local conditions, so that the conception of an outlook into external space is not given up. Among Pom peian paintings effects of lighting are at times attempted with great success ; for instance the groups of a striking composition -a ceremony of benediction-are executed in bold dashes of colour, especially white, according to the principles of modern impressionism. The subjects of these Pompeian frescoes are for the most part taken from Greek mythology, but this only proves that that source of inspiration was as freely drawn upon in the art as in the literature of imperial Rome. Owing to the total loss of Greek originals, the question how far these were imitated in Pompeii (or Rome) is difficult to determine. The well known Medea, possibly influenced by the painting of Timomachus, may equally well be the contemporary version of an older theme. It would probably be correct to say of such a figure, as of the mourning woman (Plate II., fig. 5), that if the frame work is still Greek the spirit is Roman. Figure-subjects are also introduced within frames, directly imitated from actual pic tures, and placed on stands, or shuttered like triptychs as in the houses of Livia and of the Farnesina at Rome, and in Pompeii.
Examples of ancient painting in Rome are still scarce, partly because much that has been discovered of late years still awaits publication. But the magnificent series of paintings from the house of the Farnesina, which may be as early as Caesar, since they were found on or near the site of his gardens ; the paintings of the house of Livia (architectural style) ; the famous scene of a ritual marriage known, from its former possessor, as the "Nozze Aldobrandini" (library of Vatican) ; the decorative ceiling panels from the newly-excavated parts of the Golden House; the lovely head of a shepherd piping, in the British Museum (Plate IV., fig. 6), found, it is said, in a tomb near Rome, show that the art of the capital equalled, or even surpassed that of the buried Campanian cities.
Mention must also be made of the combination of ornamental work in plaster with painting which is found at Pompeii and at Rome, and is a feature of tombs of the and century A.D. In the Augustan period we find exquisitely modelled stucco, used to or nament vaulted ceilings in the "Farnesina" house. An example of Julio-Claudian date is provided by the famous hypogeum of a Pythagorean cult, discovered outside the Porta Maggiore in 1917, the ceilings and wall of which are entirely covered with reliefs in stucco ; and from the principate of Domitian we have the fine stucco work in the cryptoporticus of this emperor's villa at Castel Gandolfo. Painter and modeller also worked in conjunction, with
admirable effect; the results are best seen in the tombs on the Latin Way (Plate IV., fig. 2).
Painting continued to flourish under the later emperors. In a room of the Roman house, under the church of SS. John and Paul, may still be seen what is the largest and best preserved ancient painting so far found in Rome (Plate IV., fig. o) ; the picture-remarkable for the freshness of colouring, and the beauty of the flesh-tints-can scarcely be later than the period of Marcus Aurelius. The subject is the meeting of the two divinities (Dio nysos and Thetis?) on a sea-girt rock amid a joyous escort of tiny love gods, who guide their light craft over sunlit waters. Another room of the same house has decorative paintings of a mystical and religious character. To the period of the Severi may be referred the paintings, discovered near the Monte Mario, in the tomb of the little girl, Otacilia, which represent a "children's paradise," and those wall-paintings in the hypogeum of the Aurelii, discov ered in 1919 near the new Viale Manzoni, which apparently reflect the tenets of an heretical Christian sect. Among the Viale Man zoni pictures the one of a farmhouse and its dependencies "(Plate III., fig. 9) shows the persistence of the Roman landscape style ; that of the Good Shepherd (Plate IV., fig. 9) and the 12 sheep (symbolic of the Sermon on the Mount) is a pastoral in Virgilian vein, while the heads of the 12 figures identified as the Apostles, recall heads on the column of Marcus Aurelius. Sound Roman traditions were still operative under Aurelian, as we see from the tomb of Trebius Justus, with its picture of the building of a city wall, and the portraits of the occupant of the tomb and his fam ily, treated in a style of art which persists in the Christian cata combs. The fact that painting was still vigorous in Rome under Constantine is evident from the magnificent figure of Roma found on the site of the old Lateran palace and assigned by Wilpert to a group of the imperial family attended by allegorical figures and divinities.
Portrait Painting.—From the few examples still extant we may assume that portrait-painting was of the same excellence as portrait-sculpture: the group of Terentius Neo (long mistaken for Paquius Proculus) and his wife at Naples, from Pompeii, is char acteristic of the Augustan period, to which we may doubtless like wise refer the original of the fine mosaic representing the poet Virgil between two muses. Portraits of poets were a com mon feature of book-illustration, and the poet Martial (XIV. 186) mentions a portrait of Virgil prefixed to an edition of the Aeneid. The celebrated portraits in "encaustic" from the Fayum, give us a series of examples from the Flavian period to the 3rd century. These paintings were executed in wax-the usual technique of portrait painting, in which the colours were mixed with liquefied wax and fixed by heat, whether in a molten state or not is un certain, though it seems .nore likely that the pigments were laid on cold and a hot instrument used afterwards. These tablets have been found exclusively in Egypt, where they were inserted into the mummy-case in place of the older plastic masks. Excellent ex amples of portrait-painting are provided by the medallions on gold glass, which have something of the value of our modern mini atures. One of the finest is in the Museum of Arezzo ; it may be attributed to the period of Marcus Aurelius, and represents a bearded man whose delicate features are drawn with the utmost subtlety on a blue ground (flesh on gold, with details in black, drapery silver with violet streaks). Another little masterpiece, later inserted as centrepiece of a cross now at Brescia (Plate IV., fig. 4) represents two ladies and a boy, now identified as Alex ander Severus, in the year of his accession (A.D. 221) when he was only 16, with his mother, Mammaea, and his grandmother, Naesa.