Date Thesis Awarded
4-2019
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
Classical Studies
Advisor
Molly Swetnam-Burland
Committee Members
Vassiliki Panoussi
Brad Weiss
Abstract
In this thesis, I argue that the naturalistic wall-paintings decorating Pompeian peristylia during the late 1st century BCE and early- to mid-1stcentury CE sought to identify the homeowner with broader cultural movements celebrating “Romanness.” A new understanding of Roman identity originated with Augustus’ programs of urban and civic renewal, which adopted images of nature, both literary and artistic, to put forth ideas of peace, cultural fertility, and nationalistic superiority. As the Roman empire continued to expand and change under the principate, such symbols established an opposition between the notion of proper Roman personhood and the moral decay of late Republican Rome, as well as the practices of non-Romans in the Mediterranean. My hypothesis counters scholarship that posits that naturalistic Pompeian wall-paintings created spatial illusions in an attempt to emulate wealthier homeowners for the purposes of gaining prestige. I instead develop a framework that contextualizes this artistic form within the transitionary historical period from which it hailed.
Recommended Citation
Gaborek, Rebecca Marie, "Gardens Beneath the Ash: Contextualizing Naturalistic Imagery within Pompeii's Urban Fabric" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1282.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1282
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