Roman Wall Art Case Study

1. What was the purpose of Roman wall paintings and floor mosaics, and what do they tell us about the lives of the Romans?
The Roman wall paintings depicted many different things depending on the style of the painting (Kleiner, 2012). The first style of wall paintings within Roman art had purposes that were meant to replicate the marble walls of Kings (Kleiner, 2012). In the second style of wall paintings, the Romans utilized art to create three-dimensional scenes on the wall (Kleiner, 2012). The second style portrayed an alternate reality most commonly religious or illustrated stories. The brawl in the Pompeii amphitheater wall painting from House I, 3, 23 Pompeii, Italy created something in 60-79 CE (Kleiner, 2012). The wall painting …show more content…
Within the third style, the artist began to create an opposite look in comparison to the first style in that they wanted to emphasize the presence of the confining walls (Kleiner, 2012). Artist began to utilize single colored backgrounds and created murals that adorned the walls with subtle yet elegant linear fantasies. The fourth style also possesses a taste for illusionism and became a popular form of wall art in 50 CE (Kleiner, 2012). Much of the fourth style designs portray a kinship with the third shape and are of scenery such as animals, birds, sea creatures and landscapes. Much of Roman art illustrated Greek mythology (Kleiner, 2012). In the late fourth style designs, there was crowded compositions and mixed architectural views and framed mythological panels. In a personal perspective, I feel that Romans utilized art to portray wealth and reduce the feeling of confinement by dressing their walls with elegant paintings and murals that provided the illusion of looking through windows (Kleiner, 2012). The mosaics told much about the life of the Romans they communicate not only beautiful record of art but also information regarding daily gladiator fights, mythology,