Lecture on Ancient Roman Painting
Lecture on Ancient Roman Painting
The study of ancient painted surfaces, paired with ancient texts, and experimental archaeology, makes it possible to reanimate the choices that painters had to navigate when creating a painting. Going behind the scenes of a Roman painting makes it possible to explore the legal, artistic, and economic choices involved in commissioning paintings. This talk will review how to make a contract for Roman painting and how artists in a Roman workshop needed to be coordinated in the field. Artisanal knowledge will also be explored by considering some of the discoloration issues that Roman artists might have with certain pigments and what Roman artists might have had to know to avoid such problems.
Hilary Becker, Associate Professor Binghamton University (SUNY)