The Frescoes of Pompeii: when ash freezes the instant
79 AD. October 24. Noon. Pompeii. Prosperous Campanian town of 20,000 inhabitants.
By Artedusa
••10 min read
The Frescoes of Pompeii: when ash freezes the instant
79 AD. October 24. Noon. Pompeii. Prosperous Campanian town of 20,000 inhabitants. Vesuvius has been rumbling for days. Earthquakes. Vapors. Nobody evacuates. Fatal error.
1 PM. Eruption. Ash column rises 30 kilometers. Rain of pumice stones. Roofs collapse. Panic. Flight. Too late. Pyroclastic surge rushes down slopes. 400°C. Everything carbonizes instantly. 16,000 dead. Town buried 6 meters ash.
And miracle. Ash seals. Oxygen absent. Frescoes preserved. Colors intact under volcanic shell. 1700 years. Total oblivion. Pompeii disappears from collective memory.
Excavations begin. Archaeologists pierce ash. Houses appear. Intact. And walls explode with colors. Gleaming frescoes as if painted yesterday. Brilliant cinnabar red. Deep Egyptian blue. Luminous ochre yellow. Malachite green. Calcium white.
Stunned Europe. Romans believed sober, austere, military. Discover sensuality, luxury, refinement. Walls covered paintings. Each room decorated. Triclinium, cubiculum, atrium, peristyle. Art everywhere. Daily beauty. Sophisticated life frozen instant of eruption.
Four styles: Roman aesthetic evolution
Archaeologists identify four successive styles. August Mau classification (1882). Still valid.
First style (2nd century BC): architectural imitation. Modeled stucco imitating colored marbles. False blocks, false columns, false reliefs. Architectural trompe-l'œil. Economy: stucco cheaper than marble. Aesthetics: democratized grandeur.
Second style (1st century BC): illusionistic perspective. Walls open onto fictitious landscapes. Painted columns create depth. Imaginary gardens extend room. Masterpiece: Villa of Mysteries. Monumental frescoes showing Dionysian initiation. Life-size figures. Purple background (Tyrian red, precious pigment). Enigmatic scenes: flagellation, dance, revelation. Painted mysticism.
Third style (late 1st BC - mid 1st AD): decorative elegance. Walls become flat again. Whimsical, slender, unreal architectures. Central medallions showing mythology. Idyllic landscapes, seascapes, still lifes. Maximum refinement. Villa Boscoreale: delicate black frescoes, golden ornaments, exquisite miniatures.
Fourth style (mid 1st AD - 79): baroque synthesis. Combines second style illusionistic architecture and third decoration. Overload. Profusion. Theatricality. House of Vettii: chromatic explosion. Mythological friezes, grotesques, garlands, chubby cupids (putti). Horror vacui. Roman maximalism.
Pompeii frozen 79 shows mainly fourth style. Latest Roman aesthetic fashion before catastrophe.
Arriccio: rough lime + sand mortar (grip)
2-6. Five layers lime mortar + marble powder. Decreasing particle size. Last = very fine marble powder.
Intonaco: final smoothed, polished layer. Mirror surface.
Drying time: weeks. Each layer must harden before next. Impatience = future cracks.
Painting: fresco technique (buon fresco). Pigments diluted pure water applied fresh still-wet intonaco. Pigments penetrate, fuse with mortar. Drying crystallizes lime. Pigments imprisoned calcareous matrix. Quasi-eternal permanence.
Major difficulty: speed. Intonaco dries fast (few hours under Neapolitan sun). Artist must paint entire section before drying. Error impossible: dried fresco unalterable. No regrets.
Solution: giornata (day). Intonaco applied zone by zone. Artist paints what he can finish before drying. Tomorrow: new adjacent giornata. Joints sometimes visible between sections (technical diagnosis).
House of Vettii: fresco of tortured Ixion. Attached to flaming wheel, turning eternally. Divine punishment for coveting Hera. Moral message: punished hubris. Or just spectacular decor? Roman ambiguity.
Nature and gardens. Vegetal trompe-l'œil. Room without window? Paint luxuriant garden. Birds, fountains, statues, flowers. Space illusion, visual freshness. Villa Livia (Rome, Prima Porta): garden fresco surrounding room circularly. Total botanical immersion.
Romans import massively. Chemical analysis frescoes reveals: 80% blues = Egyptian blue. Quasi-total monopoly. Quality superior natural azurite (less stable, less brilliant).
Fascinating particularity: infrared fluorescence. Under IR lamp, Egyptian blue emits violet glow invisible naked eye. Scientists use it identify modern restorations (modern pigments don't fluoresce).
Cinnabar red: natural mercury sulfide (cinnabar mineral) or synthetic (vermilion). Vibrant scarlet red. Pompeii loves it.
Extreme toxicity. Volatile mercury. Artisans applying it risk chronic intoxication. Trembling, dementia, death. Price paid for beauty.
Troubling particularity: light darkening. Cinnabar exposed sunlight turns black (conversion sulfide → metallic mercury). Pompeii frescoes protected by ash preserve red. Those exposed weather darken.
Modern restorers' dilemma: leave black (authenticity) or restore red (original appearance)? Insoluble ethical debate.
Preserving catastrophe: why Pompeii survives
Magnificent contradiction: eruption destroys city but saves art.
Volcanic ash seals frescoes. Oxygen excluded. No oxidation. Stable pigments. Humidity infiltrates little (porous but compact ash). Fungi, bacteria absent.
Result: perfect conservation 1700 years. Intact colors. Sharp lines. As if painted last week.
But modern excavations = new danger. Exhumed frescoes exposed air, light, tourists, pollution. Degradation begins. Cinnabar darkens. Blues fade. Limestone crumbles.
Race against time. Restorers stabilize, consolidate, protect. Laser cleans without abrading. Climate-controlled shelters installed. Visits regulated. But losing battle. Oxygen destroys everything, slowly, inexorably.
Tragic paradox: excavating = saving knowledge but condemning work. Leaving buried = eternally preserving but depriving humanity. Impossible choice.
Rediscovery and European passion
1738: discovery Herculaneum (Pompeii sister, buried same eruption). Exhumed frescoes. European excitement.
1748: Pompeii excavations begin. Decades progressive excavations. Houses appear one by one. Each discovery sensation.
Late 18th century: neoclassicism triumphs. Architects, painters, decorators copy Pompeii. Wedgwood creates "Pompeian" ceramics. Robert Adam decorates aristocratic residences with ancient motifs.
Today: 2.5 million visitors/year. Most visited archaeological site world after Giza Pyramids. Mass tourism threatens conservation. Irreversible damage. UNESCO alerts. Insufficient funding. Pompeii dying second time.
But magnificent paradox: destruction preserves. Ash kills inhabitants but immortalizes art. Frescoes cross two millennia thanks catastrophe.
Ambiguous lesson: fragile beauty requires protection (expensive, imperfect modern conservation). But beauty sometimes emerges tragedy. Pompeii involuntary volcanic masterpiece.
Also: daily art. Romans didn't paint for museums. Decorated living houses. Frescoes = luxurious wallpaper. Domestic, accessible (relatively), omnipresent beauty.
Modernity separates art/life. Museum temples. Works sacralized, untouchable. Pompeii reminds: art can inhabit quotidian. Walls can tell stories, enchant meals, soften sleep.
We walk dead streets. Contemplate dead colors painted living today dust. Grandiose memento mori. Beauty testifies against oblivion. As long frescoes shine, Pompeii breathes. Frozen but alive. Dead but eternal. Art's ultimate paradox: transcending everything's end immortalizing instant.
The Frescoes of Pompeii: when ash freezes the instant | Art History
