Three Graces in Wall Painting

Woman's Art Inc.

The Muse Restored: Images of Women in Roman PaintingAuthor(s): Susan Silberberg-PeirceReviewed work(s):Source: Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Autumn, 1993 - Winter, 1994), pp. 28-36Published by: Woman's Art Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1358447 .

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*?'u..wu umu 141 Keu:m u

R oman art of the first centuries B.C. and A.D. T T T

and female visions. The kinds of images in public art of men as statesmen, priests, and soldiers are also found in Roman literature, history, and official documents-all crafted by men. The female vision is not easily acces- Images of sible, subsumed as it was in evi- dentiary material recorded, doc- Roman umented, and interpreted by Ro men. Further, women were excluded from the political infrastructure: their place was in By usan the home. Therefore, to under- stand and enjoy the female view of the world, we must look to the Roman household, to private artifacts rather than public records. These private works of art reflect the status, tastes, and social attitudes of the patrons who commissioned them. Since we know that women as well as men owned property, it is appropriate to assume that some of these works were commissioned by women and therefore will reveal a female vision.

An examination of wall paintings in the private sphere reveals a further dichotomy in the representations of women and their roles in Roman society. Artists' interpretations of subject matter, including scenes from mythology, drama, and daily life, as well as their choice of images and moments and the postures and gestures of the characters, all speak to this dichotomy. Mythology predicated on Greek prototypes por- trays women as weak and vulnerable; images based on the identity, status, and values of Roman women show them as independent and self-assured.

The mythological paintings are rooted in Greek literature, art, and drama: most cast women in stereotyped roles and por- tray them as powerless before gods and men. These works delineate the male/female polarity so strongly expressed in Greek culture. They reveal a model of male dominance and a dualistic social order based on the superiority of men and the inferiority and base sexuality of women. Rooted in the imagi- nation and playing out male fantasies, goddess, priestess, mother, and daughter appear as victims and damsels-in-distress or as evil or mad, as she-monsters, murderers, and consorts to men and animals. If females do not abide by the Greek virtues of feminine beauty, modesty, fidelity, and obedience, they suf- fer the consequences.l In the panel of Ariadne abandoned by Theseus, for example, as punishment for thwarting her father's will, a bare-breasted Ariadne swoons tearfully on shore as Theseus's boat sails off into the distance (mid-lst c. AD; Fig. 1). Even though Theseus is not depicted, his dominance was felt by the knowledgeable contemporary viewer. Ariadne's fate is determined by her male relationships; the female voice has been suppressed.

Roman paintings based on female experience reveal a social attitude antithetical to the works inspired by Greek culture, even when they represent mythological subjects. Here women are depicted as independent and autonomous, engaged in the world of ritual, companionship, and creativity. Portraits of Roman women often exhibit self-assurance and equanimity. Rather than subservient and vulnerable, these women appear strong and self-directed, their voices clearly

'(

I

be

heard. Such images are unique /I T C Tto Roman art. Even though

FVt U z ,E lj ~Hellenistic pottery and terra- cottas occasionally depicting standardized images of women engaged in domestic activities

ZV RtED_J I-influenced the Roman paintings, the Roman attitude more clearly follows the indigenous

WAomen in traditions of Etruscan and fourth-century South Italian

* ai n tomb paintings, which often ilIntling depict women as dynamic and

individualized.2 The paintings in what I call

rberg-Peirce the "Roman mode" first appear in the repertoire of Roman art during the mid-first century

B.C. Perhaps commissioned by Roman matrons themselves, these paintings are among the few tangible documents of women's lives in ancient Rome. It is possible that some of the paintings decorating their houses reflect the tastes and interests of the materfamilias, since the house was woman's appointed sphere, and within its walls she had some measure of authority. As Cornelius Nepos informs us, in the late-first- century B.C., "At home, the wife holds first place, and is the center of its social life."3

The late-first-century B.C. represents a critical phase in Rome's political and economic transition from republic to empire. During this time the affluent classes were defining their public and private postures in response to the new Augustan social order. Men's and women's roles remained separate. Men were responsible for the administration and government of the Roman state. Women's duties were cul- tural, often performed for the family in the home: their roles in society were determined by laws, conventions, and moral standards that codified social behavior. Although they could not hold political offices or vote, they could serve as public priestesses and own property.4

According to literary sources, women were to serve as dutiful daughters, faithful wives, devoted mothers, or, like Cornelia, Agrippina, and Porcia, stoic widows who were extolled as paradigms of virtue and domesticity.5 These values were reflected in Roman sepulchral inscriptions and promoted in the ideology associated with public art.6 In a funerary epitaph from Rome, Amymone, the wife of Marcus, is praised as "most good and beautiful, wool spinner, dutiful, modest, care- ful, chaste, stay-at-home."7 On the Ara Pacis in Rome (13-9 B.C.), in response to Augustus's desire for male off- spring and familial stability after the depletion and depreda- tion of the wars, the women of the Augustan house are depicted with their children, the future dynastic heirs, and Mother Italy is represented as the archetypal maternal image with babies at her breasts.8

Even though the Roman woman was most often praised for being domestic, she was sometimes recognized for other accomplishments.9 The Younger Pliny praised his wife Calpurnia for her intelligence, interest in literature, and her ability to set verses to music and sing them to the accompaniment of her lyre.'? Plutarch notes that Porcia, who stabbed herself in the thigh to prove a worthy political ally to her husband, did not lack in "temperate wisdom and manly courage."" Tacitus recounts Agrippina's bravery for assuming

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the official duties of a commander and suppressing lmutinous attempts by soldiers during her husband A Germanicus's Germanic campaign.'" Not only was Cornelia, mother and educator of the Gracchi, immortal- -. . . . ized for referring to her children as her "most precious jewels," accord- <i ing to Plutarch she was also "well versed in literature, in playing the lyre, and in geometry, and had been accustomed to listen to philosophi- -- cal discourse with profit."3 , According to Valerius Maximus, Cornelia acquired a villa at Misenum and sold it to Lucullus for more than 30 times the purchase price, demonstrating her acuity in financial matters and her sphere of influence over the household.'4

We know that the owner of a house had considerable influence on its design. In a letter describing his Tuscan villa in great detail, the younger Pliny states that he "largely F Ariadne A.Pesl I det. 33" x 26". Peristyle laid out" a number of his villas, in Naple places perfecting earlier designs.'1 There is evidence that husbands and wives worked together on their houses; Statius praised both Pollius Felix and Polla for their beautiful villa and their patronage.'f Often aristocratic husbands were preoccupied with government service and left household decisions to their wives.'7 Maxxvell Anderson believes that the completion of Agrippa Postumus's villa at Boscotrecase was overseen by his wife Julia after Agrippa's death and that she would have influenced the painted decorations.' It is not difficult to deduce, therefore, that Roman womlen, who wve know were literary and architectural patrons,"' were also patrons of the visual arts.

Some of the numerous women recorded as owning property, for example, Lixia (58 B.C.-A.D. . . 29) in Rome and Primaporta; * ."

'

Cornelia (fl. 175-143 B.C.) in '. . ' .^'^'

Misenum; Clodia (fl. 95-45 B.C.) in ,

Rome and Baiae; Domitia Lepida . . : "

(d. A.D. 59) in Baiae and Ravenna; Coeccia Galla (1st- or 2nd-c. A.D.) in Baiae; Metilia Marcia (fl. A.D. 41) and Metilia Rufina (fl. A.D. 41) in Puteoli; Servilia (fl. 90-40 B.C.) in Neapolis; Rectina (d. A.D. 79) near Herculaneum; and Julia Felix (fl. , mid-lst-c. A.D.) in Pompeii,"2 most _R *

likely commnissioned the murals that '

decorated their homes. The Villa of Julia Felix contains a unique series of paintings depicting daily life in .... the Pompeian Forum, including the .,i market stalls, an open-air school, _ conversations, and a beggar receiv- ing alms from a lady (perhaps Julia

'1 \ . .1 1 ? i TT_ : i i ___T rellx) wltln ner maidi. ner PaCK- r elix wvitni lner inaid. Her Iack- Fig. 2. Sacral-ldyllic La

ground as a descendant of the Julii, det. 51" x 40". Norl who were imperial freedmen, may Agrippa Postumus, Bos

ned a, Cc s M

rnds th w cotr

have influenced her to commission scenes of middle-class life. Roger Ling believes that these types of works reveal class influences on Roman art;"' I suggest, however, :

15F >that the indigenous "popular" art that supplanted the classical style in the early-second century also may have been gender-driven, evolving in houses of emancipated families and women like Julia Felix.

New modes of imagery emerged in aristocratic households as well. The Yellow Frieze from the imperial House of Liaia on the Palatine (30- 25 B.C.) is the most elaborate extant sacral-idyllic landscape painting in

in RRome. Commissioned after Livia's dau-te J4 stay at the NVilla of the Mysteries,

where one of the earliest sacral-idyllic paintings is found in the atrium,22 its continuous panels show women playing an active and dominant role. Sometimes accompanied by their

sa (midst c. A.ro, fresco, children and servants, the women :sa di Meleagro, Pompeii.

useum. are shown engaged in conversation, performing religious rituals, and

traveling on both land and water. Similar sacral-idyllic vignettes are depicted in the painted

and stuccoed panels from the imperial villa beneath the Farnesina in Rome, which may have belonged to Augustus's daughter Julia and his son-in-law Agrippa, and from the Red Room of the Villa of Agrippa Postumus in Boscotrecase, which also may have been overseen by Julia (c. 11 B.C.; Fig. 2).'- In images from Livia and Julia's houses, women sacrificants make offerings at rural sanctuaries dedicated to female deities. The cults of Cybele, Artemis, Venus, Hekate, Vesta, and Isis, all associated wsith women in the Roman world, are alluded to in these landscapes. Altars to these and other

.. ,. deities were set up in the country- ~..:,, .,: .. side as well as in Roman house-

.: : . . holds." Although often said to illustrate Alexandrian bucolic poet-

= - ;. - : . ry, the Roman paintings also may l'

; I- h. srallude to actual practice. The

.^ ' .* . d tsacral-idyllic paintings, attributed

?.B> p g aby the elder Pliny to the painter Studius,' gained popularity in Rome and Campania after their ini- tial appearance in the Augustan

.1 ?s . households. Their occurrence in the most fashionable and presti-

.;~-, gious houses of Rome suggests that -..y? '- "*_ ? ' they reflected the tastes and

patronage of the imperial family. '17 ' Did Livia and Julia's patronage fos-

ter the spread of this genre? VNery different in style from the

' _ delicate and sketchy sacral-idyllic _ paintings are the monumental fig-

/- . _r. .? _

1

I h r

cape (c. 11 B.C), fresco, ures ot tne L ionysiac cult room anc rail, Red Room, Villa of antechamber from the Villa of the ?ecase. Naples Museum. NIMysteries in Pompeii (c. 40 B.C.).

WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL FALL 1993/WINTER 1994



These figures may illustrate the prominent role played by women in the Dionysiac cult, banned during the reign of the emperor Augustus (44 B.C.-A.D. 14).26 Here 20 women participate in a continuous narrative that begins with ritual purification and preparatory offerings and culmi- nates in a dance of initiation.27 Curiously, the few men depicted in the work, including Dionysus reclining in an enthroned Ariadne's lap, are passive and belong to the mythological realm, while the women, who are mortal beings, are clearly in control of the action. The only supernatural figure shown in an active dominant role is the female winged demon, who could also be a mortal player dressed in ritual garb.

The power of these female images is strengthened by the spa- tial qualities of the composition and the rendering of the figures themselves. They are bulky and volumetric, their poses defining the space. Even though the paintings emulate some of the Greek vocabulary of forms and postures, the strength and directness of the women's representations and their relationships to one another is Roman rather than Greek in char- acter. The sense of immediacy and the illusionistic style of the scenes probably mirrored the actual rituals that took place in this Room of the Mysteries in the Villa of the Mysteries. Recent scholarship indicates that the portrait of the seated domina on the west wall (c. 40 B.C.; Fig. 3) may be Istacidia Rufilla, a public priestess of Venus whose family probably owned the villa sometime during its history (lst-c. B.C.-A.D. 79).28 She is powerfully delineated and comfort- ably enthroned at the head of the procession. Her self-confident bearing and relaxed posture suggest her role as materfamilias. The matron of the house, who also may have been the priestess of the cult, was probably instrumental in com- missioning this work.29 A statue of Livia as priestess was found at the villa, which suggests that she may have lived there for a time. The presence of this statue and the one of her as priestess found in the Eumachia, coupled with Livia's

Fig. 3. Matron (c. 40 B.C.), fresco, det. 60" x 38%. Room of the ysteries, Villa o the ysteries, Pompeii.

'rJ? _'s l Ir? r?- ? w

Fig. 4. Cassandra (earty-l st c. A.D.), fresco, det. 49" x 37". Triclinium, House I 2.28, Pompeii.

Naples Museum.

connection to the priestess Mamia, indicate that there was a close community of religious women in Pompeii and possible cult activity at the Villa of the Mysteries.30

Women played an important role in the religious life of the state throughout Roman history (from about 753 B.C. to A.D. 337): they held esteemed religious offices as Vestal Virgins and partic- ipated in a variety of sacred rites and ceremonies both in the community and in their homes.31 In public and in private, women were distinguished priestesses as well as patrons of important public build- ings. For example, Mamia, the public priestess of Ceres, was also the patron of the Temple of Augustus in the Forum of Pompeii; and Eumachia, patron of the cloth fullers (finishers and cleaners) and public priestess of Venus, dedicated the large Augustan-period building bearing her name in the Pompeian Forum.32

Not surprisingly, priestesses and sacrificants are depicted in numerous houses, often appearing in large, centrally placed panels and in smaller subordinate pinakes. Many such images were found in the villa beneath the Farnesina and other houses associated with the Augustan family. In these works women generally are shown standing at altars or before statues, making offerings and sac- rifices to various deities, and performing the rituals associated with their cults.33 Even though such ubiquitous images are often gener- alized and anonymous and may be based on subjects found on Greek pottery, they inform us of the high regard in which these rituals were held in the ancient world. In them, women are portrayed in a positive light, engaged in the quo- tidian observances of religious rites that were an important part of the Roman cosmological system. These activities were significant in the daily lives of Roman women, representing as they did their con- tributions to the religious under- pinnings of the state.

When priestesses are depicted in the paintings based on Greek drama and mythology, their representations are often negative. In a

C



painting from Pompeii, for example, Cassandra, , :".. the Trojan priestess of ^ s Apollo, stands at the

^ i

apex of the composi- . 1 tion, mouth wide open, t uttering meaningless prophesies while Priam and Paris watch (early- 1st-c. A.D.; Fig. 4). Cassandra's gift of prophecy was turned against her when she refused Apollo's advances. The decision to remain chaste and to stand up for her moral 1 convictions proved to be her undoing: notA only were her utter- ances ignored, but she was raped at Athena's Fig. 5. Sacrifice of Iphigenia (mid-lst

altar by the Locriani House of the Tragic Poet altar by the Locrian Ajax34 and carried off as a slave and concubine by Agamemnon. Upon their arrival at Mycenae, the pious Cassandra and her two sons were murdered by Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra. Typical of the Greek view of women, Cassandra's sexuality is her greatest liability.

The priestess Iphigenia is another popular subject of the paintings based on Greek drama. In :_ - the Sacrifice of Iphigenia from the ', House of the Tragic Poet (mid-lst-c. "

A.D.; Fig. 5), she is carried to the i altar, arms flailing, drapery falling.

w

Almost sacrificed to Artemis by her :s:"P father, she is rescued by the goddess and is transported to Taurus to t become a priestess of Artemis's cult. Iphigenia is a victim of fate and her i. w r father's will. In accordance with the :.! ::. Greek world view, she is depicted 4 T -

with her upper torso naked; she ' *,:

exposes her sexual vulnerability and ?: becomes the object of the male gaze.

: ' . In contrast, in an unusual painting i r

from the Casa di L. Cecilio Giocondo - modeled on the Roman mode of female imagery, the priestess ~ ,

Iphigenia is fully draped and crowned by a laurel wreath. She stands before a group of women on

, L s

the stylobate of Artemis's temple ^ (mid-lst-c. A.D.; Fig. 6), which has , been transformed into the high podium of a Roman temple. Her direct ^ gaze and proud posture are more' . Roman than Greek. A relaxed atti- '

tude is evidenced by the casual way J: m , she rests her sandaled foot on the . edge of the podium. The presence of ' '" , the fragment of a male figure at the Fig. 6. Iphigenia on Ta left edge implies that this is a repre- det. 44" x 32". Tablinu sentation of Iphigenia helping her Ponpeii.

r-Adil~~~~~~~r'

c. A.D.), fresco, det. 55" x 51". Peristyle, , Pompeii. Naples Museum.

brother Orestes to obtain the statue of Artemis, an episode that emphasizes her determination and strength.5 Her strength is further emphasized compositionally and psychologically by the supporting cast of characters, her female companions, one of whom is holding Iphigenia's sacrificial knife. The Greek Iphigenia loses her identity to the tragic drama of her circum- stances; the Roman finds hers in individual action and family alle- giance, her strength fed by the female com-

panionship she eventually betrays. Female companionship of a different sort is the subject of

a panel from Herculaneum representing Three Women in Conversation (early-lst c. A.D.; Fig. 7). In this Roman rein- terpretation of a Hellenistic prototype, the women chat in a public part of the house, possibly the sitting room or portico a , W _. ... of a peristyle courtyard, garden, or

nymphaeum. The setting, with solid simple piers, stone benches, and trees in the background, is

e J ̂ "I^^B_reminiscent of the trellised pergola

_?c^ '

Sin the upper garden terrace of the house belonging to Loreius Tiburtinus in Pompeii. Seated on a stone bench, the woman on the

i + -?l?:;'.', right leans back, resting her arm ....- on an overturned clay jug. The ~-

' ^^ i, i central figure surpasses even

\. ' i Iphigenia in the casualness of her 7 1Jm pose. Her strong S-curve is bal-

anced by the turn of her head gaz- ing at her seated companion. The

* ;' f: e seated woman on the left, with hand to chin, also looks toward the

p ,, | ,, woman with the jug. Their ':: 4 >*? ' f glances, gestures, and casual atti-

7, tudes tie them together into an

?W . - sB intimate grouping. How different is this picture of

i\ W

' !?' three friends from that of the

young, nude Three Graces at the

?^ .^ ^:?? Casa di T. Dentatus Panthera __,* B^^ _I(mid-lst c. A.D.; Fig. 8), which is

v. i derived almost exactly from a : 2:|-td Greek prototype. Their positions

:.i;;: X > +combine to provide a three-dimen- ;, ,il ,,5 ' {' <'' sional view of a woman, as if seen

urus (mid-st c. A.D.),fresco, from all sides simultaneously. im, Casa di L. Cecilio Giocondo, Although placed in close proximi- Naples Museum. ty, these women are alone, remote,


I

i



Fig. 7. Three Women in Conversation (early-1st c. A.D.), fresco, det. 23.5" x 23.5". Herculaneum. Naples Museum.

and detached from one another. Juxtaposing these two paintings makes clear one of the differences between the Roman and Greek modes; the former shows women as they are, the latter the way men would like to see them. The svelte Three Graces would require as background the support of delicate Ionic architecture; the bulk and simplicity of the Roman women in Three Women in Conversation is echoed by the bulk and simplicity of their surroundings.

Scenes such as that in Conversation are usually identified by scholars as copies of Greek works and as taking place in the gynaikonitis, or secluded women's quarters. This scene, however, does not take place in such an environment. Though their poses may be reminiscent of those on some Greek steles and reliefs, these women simply do not fit the generic mold of earlier Greek examples. Moreover, the gynaikonitis, with its private, closed nature is a feature typical of the Greek house and not of the Roman. Wallace-Hadrill believes that the difference between male and female space so important in Greek houses is virtually undetectable in Roman houses.36 And Cornelius Nepos informs us that one of the main contrasts between Greek and Roman women is that the former sit secluded in the interior parts of the house, while the latter frequent the front rooms "versatur in medio" and accompany their husbands to dinner parties.37

Traditionally, it was thought that Roman women sat in a separate, segregated dining room adjacent to the triclinium in which men reclined; however, this may not have been the case. Citing Valerius Maximus, who observed that "women used to sit, but now they lie to eat with the men," Wallace- Hadrill concludes that men and women dined in the same room and that both reclined.38 Couples reclining on the dining couch are common in the art of Etruria from the sixth through the second centuries B.C.,39 for example, in the Tomb of the Leopards in Tarquinia and the Sarcophagus of the Married Couple from Cerveteri now in the Villa Giulia. These Etruscan models seem to have influenced both Roman

Fig. 8. The Three Graces (midst c. A.D.), fresco, det. 22.5" x 21". Tablinum, Casa di T. Dentatus Panthera, Pompeii. Naples Museum.

practice and imagery. In a scene of the garden banquet from a panel in Pompeii, men and women recline together on couches; and in Entertainment after a Meal, also from Pompeii, women diners in an all-female gathering recline in the triclinium, watching one of their group dance to the accompaniment of the double pipes, which, not surprisingly, are played by a female musician.40

Women playing the aulos, kithara, and lyre is a common theme in Roman painting. These images may refer to the talents of the materfamilias or her daughters, as described by Pliny the Younger of Calpurnia and Plutarch of Cornelia. The Music Lesson from Herculaneum, now in the British Museum, however, is a bit more problematic. In this painting, two wreathed figures, one male and one female, are seated together on a delicately carved couch decorated with grif- fin armrests (Ist-c. A.D.; Fig. 9). The fully clothed young woman is playing the kithara; in contrast, the young man is nude, his only covering the cloth draped over his lap. The couple sit closely, their postures echoing each other. His arm seems deliberately placed on hers as if to guide her fingering of the stringed instrument. Opposite the couple stands an older woman whose monumentality and strength parallel those of the standing woman in Conversation. Larger than the other figures, she presides over the scene with ease and composure, clearly indicating her elevated stature in the household.

Other images of women playing the lyre or kithara are found in.the Villa of Agrippa and Julia under the Farnesina and the Villa of Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale.41 What dif- ferentiates the British Museum painting from the others is the presence of the young man, whose nudity and closeness to his companion, almost merging with her form, imply that he is a figure from another realm. The griffins on the armrest and the stringed instrument suggest that this may be Orpheus or Apollo in the guise of inspirational genius, counterpart of the female muse. He stares fixedly at the young musician, as

0



if to infuse her with his xwill. If this is the case, the music lesson presided over by the standing woman is actually being talught by an otherworld- ly presence. The young musician, it seems, is considered important enough to be a recipient of these god-given talents.

The inclusion of a deity in , this scene should not be considered unusual since it is believed that such images of . musical activities may be con- nected to ritual practices.42 As in the Villa of the Mysteries, the male in this image is par- tially clad and represents the mythological realm. It is significant that in this mode of Roman painting the male figures have become ancillary players, while the females, traditionally muses and support- . ing characters in the Greek world, are now protagonists, playing the active roles.4'

Even with portraits of real people, women often seem - dominant. In the portrait of the couple known as Terentius Neo or his wife (3rd-quarter-lst c. A.D.; Fig. 1 slightly larger than hers, she is given mc position, the clarity of detail, and her att ly the husband had been identified as Paquius Proculus, a Pompeian magistrate, but since the painting Nwas found , in the tablinuml of a house 7'>: adjoined to a bakery and the couple do not have an aristocratic bearing, the consensus seems to be that he is s x Terentius Neo, a Pompeian baker.44 The placement of ,

such an image in the tablinum ' in is significant. If, in fact, the portraits were of a magistrate , and his wife, then this image would have presided over the . salutatio or daily morning ritual of meeting political and business associates in the tablinum, one of the main public rooms of the atrium house. If, however, this is a portrait of a baker and his wife, these images would man- ifest their aspiration to a higher social class. In either case,

'the portraits would have A.D.), served as a backdrop to the

. ::X:,;A?: ;:?. * :n

::

,~~.

:: 2i - -^ ..:.'

. ** X

~Si '? _~ -

i. tu.-,9 .

a: W ..

I . 4 .^

: -'' .: *

r ' ' 't' < W: .'rLi "C?\u- as ., t % '

4 :

Fig. 9. The Music Lesson (1 st c. A.D.), fresco, det. 24" x 33". Herculaneum. British Museum.

Paquius Proculus and actual couple seated at the focus of the atrium-alae-tablinumn 0), though his head is vista.45 )re prominence by her The scroll in the husband's hand could be read as a magis- tributes. Until recent- terial attribute; however, if the identification as baker is cor-

. i rect, it would then be interpreted as a '5j i S _ jf . ^ Sconventional symbol of learning. The

woman holds in her hand a stylus and wax tablet, a tabula cerata, which was

- . 2 *used for notes and memoranda, letters, tv:\.^ * %~~and accounts. In a domestic context,

,:F'~u ;iw,lus . . f atu _ cthese tablets would symbolize the house- :" '

,,..... . . hold records for which women were -:ribt ?^^SK reen't- f *teria .l^ i often responsible, but since she is por-

:~ ,~ . . .:~ ~trayed with such authority and may be

j*tyIf 'l^,4t i:.N'" ^ Ut.

^the w ife of a businessman, it seems likely *f: ., . l that she is the keeper of the commercial ' ~'t .c . . . idaccounts. Regardless, the stylus and 'L U||^H ^ \

1il the ' A.D.; stylus and ~. !.I* r^^f wa Q tablets are indicative of her intelligence

{ a|I

~,:~ IBEp

'~ * and worth.

._ff 'l poeSimilar attributes appear in the Pompeian medallion medallion portrait, Voman

,B 7B liw w ith a Stylu s, which has sometimes been

0.f" ke r

; nidentified as Sappho (3rd-quarter lst-c.

" .......< A.D.; Fig. 11)." Her golden hairnet and Fresco, de.. 25.5i7 x . :: Tablnum Domtight curls identify her as being Flavian;

therefor it is possible that this is a portrait of the poet Sulpicia, author of love

.'d!> .... . t poems and a satire against Domitian, who was praised by Martial and is known to have flourished around A.D. 80.47 In 0. Terentius Neo and His Wfe (3rd-quarter- 1 st c. to have flourished around A.D. 8. In

Fresco, det. 25.5" x 23". Tablinum, Domus Terenti is original context, the painting was Neonis, Poimpeii. Naples Museum. paired with a pendant medallion of a




male,4" probably her husband, who would then be Calenus, holding a scroll. The husband's gaze is remote and unfocused; the wife's frank, direct . i '

gaze informs the viewer of her daring f' y ,B as well as her intellectual prowess and ,. . /' creativity. The couple's elegance sug- ; ,' gests that they are of a higher class v t ,f than Terentius Neo and his wife. In - * % this case, the scroll probably is a mag- isterial attribute and her stylus and , : <a>. tablets suggest loftier activities than ^ . keeping accounts. Such an image conjures up a vision of yet another poet, the Sulpicia of the Augustan '. period who authored six elegies.49 Regardless of the sitter's identity, the portrait offers visual affirmation of other literary sources, such as the description of Calpurnia by the Fig. 11. Woman with Sty younger Pliny, which suggests that fresco, det. 12" x 12.

upper-class Roman women were well versed in literature and enjoyed writing.

There is ample evidence both visual and written that poets were greatly regarded. For example, a series of seated poets were painted in the Villa Imperiale; in addition to Sappho, a male and female pair are identified by Schefold as Pindar with Corinna, traditionally believed to have been his teacher. Sappho also occasionally appears on her own, as in a painting from Pompeii in which, wreathed and seated, she is lost in thought with her chin in her hands."' The painted images of . :.,. r: .. these poets confirm that -

, $ women as well as men were -.. ... .*... acknowledged for their skills in literature and poetry. !

-' '

There is also reason to believe that women were S C . involved in the visual arts. The tX B l - most explicit image of a female artist is the rWoman Painter (mid-lst-c. A.D.; Fig. 12), origi- 9?

"

nally located in a room off the . peristyle of the House of the : :'?

Surgeon at Pompeii. In this -, detail, the central focus of an . interior setting is a woman seated at her easel. She applies paint to the brush from a ^

palette box resting on a fallen column drum while turning to

' ,

face the subject in front of her, the statue of a male deity. On the left, standing behind a pier, are two women watching the artist at work (not shown in detail); on the right is a small i figure, perhaps a child, sup- : porting her canvas. The fact r_ I that the subject of the portrait is a god, coupled with the ^' R : respectful attitude of the two Fig. 12. Woman Painter(mid observers, indicates the valued 14.5". House of the Surgei

rus II In ; Mt

nature of the creative process and the high esteem in which the artist is

*^K^ ^held. Two other paintings are known : '2;.!: . ' of women artists; one is from a house

" ci, '; in Pompeii, the other from H i, Herculaneum.' 5 The latter shows a backstage scene in which a kneeling

' i,~, . !",' ' k woman, brush in hand, paints a dedi-

I '4:-F . , .'T cation beneath the tragic mask of a Sj<g l l W seated actor watching her. In a sec-

*. 4 g'2,,:~f? ond-century A.D. sculpted funerary portrait from the Villa Albani in Rome, a female painter is depicted

^holding pots of paint and working with a young male nude model.'-

_ ., These representations of women painting beg the question: Could the

V ' , painters of some of these images have been women? Are they self-portraits?

(3rd-quarter-lst c. A.D.), The Elder Pliny provides us with s. Occidentolis, Pompeii. one answer. In his list of Greek and jseum.

Roman painters, he mentions an artist named Iaia of Kyzikos, who worked both in Rome and in Naples around 100 B.C.:

laia of Kyzikos, who never married, worked in Rome during the youth of Marcus Varro. She used both the painter's brush, and, on ivory, the graving tool. She painted women most fre- quently, including a panel picture of an old woman in Naples, and even a self-portrait for which she used a mirror. No one's

hand was quicker to paint a pic- -^.f ^^1 . *ture than hers; so great was her

e ̂ ;, well-ktalent that her prices far exceed- ed those of Sopolis and Dionysios, well-known contem-

a,.. :,.; ? porary painters, whose works ;rN7",i

~?:...:

,_~~f

.

Jfill our galleries.`:3

I-1st c. A.D.), fresco, det. 14.5" x on, Pompeii. Naples Museum.

Although a few painted portraits of men from the first century A.D. are extant, I have not found any images of Roman men in domestic contexts. Official state art, dominated by the male figure and men's patronage, could aptly be considered the genre of male experience. As counterpart, the female reality-based genre and portrait paintings discussed above provide a unique record of the lives of Roman women, who are represented as independent and accomplished, active in public and private life as priestesses, writers, musicians, and artists. These private works are domestic visual equivalents of the state art that documented the public lives of Roman men. Thev are an affirmation of the significant role played by women in Roman

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culture and proof that their authentic voice was heard within the home.

The fact that this voice was heard within the home, of course, lies at the heart of this discussion. Family life was central to Roman culture, and the materfamilias was central to the Roman house. Therefore, the positive light in which women were portrayed in the paintings, which I call the Roman mode, conveys the true spirit of feminine identity in the Roman world. This model can profitably be applied to all Roman art production: it represents a woman's view, one which, until recently, has been effectively suppressed. ?

NOTES

I thank John Onians, Elisabeth de Bi6vre, Martin Henig, Maria Phillips, Patricia Crane Coronel, Michael Coronel, and Rita Bowman for reading earlier versions of this paper.

1. For a discussion of women's roles in Greek myth, see Page duBois, Centaurs and Amazons: Women and the Pre-History of the Great Chain of Being (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1991), 111, 150-57; Mary K. Lefkowitz, Women in Greek Myth (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1986), 30, 112-27, 133; Eva Cantarella, Pandora's

Daughters: The Role and Status of Women in Greek and Roman Society (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1987), 24-27.

2. See, for example, illustrations in Ian Jenkins, Greek and Roman Life (London: British Museum, 1986); Woman Carrying an Offering from Paestum, Naples Museum, in Amedeo Maiuri, Roman Painting (New York: Skira, 1953), 19; Funeral Toilet with Seated Matron from Cumae in Naples, Maiuri, 22; Larissa Bonfante, ed., Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies (Detroit: Wayne State

University, 1986), 235-41. 3. Cornelius Nepos, quoted in Ian Jenkins, Greek and Roman Life,

16; for a discussion of the Roman matron, see Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (New York: Schocken, 1975), 149-89.

4. For a discussion of women's roles in ancient Rome, see Jane E. Gardner, Women in Roman Law and Society (Bloomington: Indiana

University, 1986); Cantarella, Pandora's Daughters, 121-26; M.I. Finley, "The Silent Women of Rome," in Aspects of Antiquity: Discoveries and Controversies (New York: Viking, 1968; rpt. Penguin, 1986), 124-36.

5. Suzanne Dixon, The Roman Mother (Norman: University of Oklahoma, 1988); Judith P. Hallett, Fathers and Daughters in Roman

Society (Princeton: Princeton University, 1984); Leanna Goldwater, Women in Antiquity: An Annotated Bibliography (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow, 1975). Images of women in these roles were revived by 18th- and 19th-century Neoclassical artists who, living during regimes that emulated Republican Roman values, based their images on Plutarch, Tacitus, and Valerius Maximus. See, for example, Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Displays Her Children as Her Only Precious Jewels (1785); Benjamin West, Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus (1786) and Agrippina Surrounded by Her Children, Weeping over the Ashes of Germanicus (1773); and Elisabetta Sirani, Porcia Wounding Her Thigh (1664).

6. Aside from generic images of women, representations of the Vestal Virgins and portraits of wives and relatives of the imperial house that served to promote the impression of a unified ruling family, autonomous, identifiable Roman women rarely appear on official public monuments. A few statues were located in public places, such as the seated statue of Cornelia that apparently stood in the Porticus Octavia (Pliny, Natural History, XXXIV, 30-31). In historical reliefs, however, women are more often depicted as goddesses and as allegorical personi- fications of Rome, Victory, Abundance, Mother Italy, and the various provinces.

7. Funerary epitaph CIL 6.11.602, quoted in Naphtali Lewis and

Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilization Sourcebook: The Empire, II (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), 283. For similar sentiments, see inscriptions ILLRP 973; ILS 8403, quoted in Jane F. Gardner and Thomas Wiedeman, The Roman Household: A Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 1991), 49-55.

8. This ideology is also expressed on the entablature frieze of Nerva's Forum in Rome (late-lst century A.D.), in which women are

working with wool, spinning and weaving, engaged anachronistically in the traditional Roman wife's work that, with the advent of imported fab- rics, had long since become a thing of the past; Jenkins, Greek and Roman Life, 19.

9. Mary R. Lefkowitz and Maureen B. Fant, Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1982).

10. Pliny the Younger, Letters, 4.19, W.M.L. Hutchinson, trans., I (London: William Heinemann, 1961), 332-35.

11. Plutarch, Life of Brutus, quoted in Judith P. Hallett, "Women as Same and Other in Classical Roman Elite," Helios, 16:1 (1989), 63.

12. Tacitus, Annals, ibid. 13. Plutarch, Life of Pompey, quoted in Jenkins, Greek and Roman

Life, 16. 14. Valerius Maximus, cited in John D'Arms, Romans on the Bay of

Naples (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1970), 28, n. 33, 184-85. 15. Pliny the Younger, Letters, Book V, Chapter VI, lines 41-42, Betty

Radice, trans., I (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1972), 352-53. 16. Statius, Silvae, Book II, Chapter 2, lines 9-146, J.H. Mozley, trans.

(London: William Heinemann, 1955), 94-107; D'Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples, 220-21. For a discussion of domina and dominus as the center of the domus, see Gardner and Wiedeman, Roman Household, 1.

17. Beryl Rawson, "The Roman Family," in Rawson, The Family in Ancient Rome (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, 1986), 28-29; T. Carp, "Two Matrons of the Late Republic," in Helene P. Foley, ed., Reflections of Women in Antiquity (New York: Gordon and Breach, 1981), 343-54.

18. Maxwell Anderson, "Pompeian Frescoes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Winter 1987/88), 38. According to Alix Barbet, La peinture murale romaine (Paris: Picard, 1985), 214, one of the charms of studying Pompeian houses is ascertaining the personality and tastes of the owner who select- ed the decorations.

19. In Tony Woodman and David West, eds., Poetry and Politics in the Age of Augustus (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1984), 175, n.25, Julia, the daughter of Augustus, is documented as a literary patron. Among the architectural patrons are Mamia, Eumachia, Octavia, and Livia.

20. These women are discussed in Elizabeth Lyding Will, "Women in Pompeii," Archaeology (September/October 1979), 34-43; Michelle D'Avino, The Women of Pompeii (Naples: Loffredo, 1967); D'Arms, Romans on the Bay of Naples, 175, 196, 209, 211, 216-17, 223-24.

21. Illustrated in Roger Ling, Roman Painting (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1991), 163-64, Fig. 177; Oreste Ferrari, et al, Le Collezione del Museo Nazionale di Napoli (Rome: De Luca Edizione d'Arte, 1989), Figs. 330, 331, 332, 333; for reference to the Julii, see Paavo Castren, Ordo Populusque Pompeianus: Polity and Society in Roman Pompeii, 2nd ed. (Rome: Bardi, 1983), 178-79.

22. Illustrated in Ling, Roman Painting, 144, pl. 149; for a discussion of the landscapes, see Susan Silberberg-Peirce, "Politics and Private Imagery: The Sacral-Idyllic Landscapes in Augustan Art," in Art History (September 1980), 241-51.

23. The Farnesina paintings are illustrated in Irene Bragantini and Mariette de Vos, Museo Nazionale Romano Le Pitture: Le decorazioni della villa romana della Farnesina, II (Rome: De Luca Editore, 1982). For a discussion of Boscotrecase, see Peter H. von Blanckenhagen and




Christine Alexander, "The Paintings from Boscotrecase," Mitteilungen des deutschen archaeologischen Instituts, Roemische Abteilung (Supplement 6), 1962.

24. For the sanctuaries of Isis in the House of Loreius Tiburtinus and the Casa degli Amorini Dorati in Pompeii, see Francesco Paolo

Maulucci, Pompeii: Archaeologischer Fuehrer zu den Ausgrabungen von

Pompeii (Milan: Carcavallo Verlag, 1987), 116-19, 187-89; for household shrines, see Wilhelmina F. Jashemski, The Gardens of Pompeii, Herculaneum and the Villas Destroyed by Vesuvius (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Caratzas Brothers, 1979), 115-40.

25. K. Jex-Blake and E. Sellers, The Elder Pliny's Chapters on the

History of Art (Chicago: Argonaut, 1968), 146-47. 26. Linda Fierz-David, Women's Dionysian Initiation: The Villa of

the Mysteries in Pompeii (Dallas: Spring Publications, 1988), 10; Otto J. Brendel, "The Great Frieze in the Villa of the Mysteries," in The Visible Idea: Interpretations of Classical Art (Washington, D.C.: Decatur House, 1980), 91-138. Representations of the Dionysiac cult are among the most popular scenes of private worship. Most common are single panel vignettes of one woman or a group of women making an offering at the base of a statue, as in An Offering to Bacchus; see Michael Grant, The Art and Life of Pompeii and Herculaneum (New York: Newsweek, 1979), 50-51.

27. For a thorough discussion of the frieze and its most recent inter-

pretations, see John R. Clarke, The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 B.C.- A.D. 250: Ritual, Space, and Decoration (Berkeley: University of California, 1991), 94-105. Another frieze of ten women engaged in ritual activity, originally from Pompeii, is now in the Louvre.

28. Istacidia Rufilla is mentioned in Will, "Women in Pompeii," 35, 41; Castr6n, Ordo Populusque Pompeianus, 71, 78, 274.

29. Gerald Gassiot-Talabot, Roman and Early Christian Painting (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1965), 38-42, suggests that the domina

pictured here as priestess was probably the patron. 30. The statue was identified as Livia by Amedeo Maiuri, La Villa dei

Misteri (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1947), 235. 31. We know of Alleia Decimilla, Aquvia Quarta, Clodia, and Lassia,

who were public priestesses of Ceres; Holconia, a priestess of Venus; Alleia Mai, a priestess of Venus and Ceres; Terentia Paramone, a priestess of Demeter Thesmophorus; and Vibia Sabina, a sacerdos luliae

Augustae, all of whom were residents of Pompeii during the Augustan and Julio-Claudian periods; Castren, Ordo Populusque Pompeianus, 71-

72, 101-02, 274. 32. For Mamia and Eumachia, see Lefkowitz and Fant, Women's Life

in Greece and Rome, 259; Will, "Women in Pompeii," 36-41; Castr6n, Ordo Populusque Pompeianus, 123, 165.

33. For example, the fragment from Pompeii of a garlanded girl hold-

ing a sacrificial instrument or offering, Fig. 235; and the fragment from Herculaneum of a veiled priestess carrying an incense box on a tray, illustrated in John Ward-Perkins and Amanda Claridge, Pompeii A.D.

79, II (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1978), Fig. 196. 34. See the in situ panel from the House of Menander, Pompeii. 35. The painting is badly damaged, but most sources suggest the pres-

ence of Orestes and Pilades; see, for example, Karl Schefold, Die Wdende Pompejis: Topographisches Verzeichnis der Bildmotive (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1957), 337, 371.

36. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, "The Social Structure of the Roman

House," Papers of the British School at Rome, LVI (1988), 43-97; for a discussion of Greek and Roman dining rooms, see Vitruvius, The Ten Books on

Architecture, M.H. Morgan, trans. (New York: Dover, 1960), 186. 37. Cornelius Nepos, quoted in Jenkins, Greek and Roman Life, 16. 38. Isodorus and Valerius Maximus, quoted in Wallace-Hadrill,

"Social Structure of the Roman House," 51-52, 93, n. 147. 39. Bonfante, Etruscan Life and Afterlife, 234-35, quotes a passage by

Athenaeus (Greek writer, c. A.D. 200) stating that Etruscan women

"dine not with their husbands, but with any man who happens to be pre- sent." Quoting Aristotle, Athenaeus adds "that the Etruscans eat with their wives reclining at table with them under the same blanket."

40. Illustrated in Ward-Perkins and Claridge, Pompeii A.D. 79, II,

Figs. 245, 247. 41. Illustrated in de Vos, Museo Nazionale Romano, II, pl. 66-67, 170-

71; Phyllis W. Lehmann, Roman Wall Paintings from Boscoreale in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art (Cambridge, Mass.: AIA Monographs, 1953), 50, pl. I. Other paintings of women musicians include a woman

playing two stringed instruments for a small group of women, Pompeii, Le Collezione del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Fig. 107; and a female kitharist accompanying a male singer and double flute player from

Herculaneum, Fig. 105. 42. For example, the kitharist in the Hall of Aphrodite at Boscoreale;

see Lehmann, Boscoreale, 50. 43. Similar features are also visible in the Aldobrandini Wedding

(late-lst-century B.C.) in the Vatican, illustrated in Maiuri, Roman

Painting, 30-32. 44. In Le Collezione del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Fig. 236, the

room is identified as an exedra; Maiuri, Roman Painting, 102-03, identifies it as a tablinum. The human quality of the couple resembles the

Fayum portraits. 45. See Eugene Dwyer, "The Pompeian Atrium House in Theory and

Practice," in Elaine K. Gaza, ed., Roman Art in the Private Sphere (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1991), 25-48; Wallace-Hadrill, "Social Structure of the Roman House," imagines husband and wife sitting at the focus of the atrium-alae-tablinum vista for the morning patronus- clientes salutatio, 83, 88. The mosaic emblema of a woman from

Pompeii (1st-century A.D.), and a seated woman from the Villa di Arianna at Stabiae (1st-century A.D.), both probably representing the

domina, were cited in the tablinum; see Le Collezione del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Figs. 40, 153.

46. As in Le Collezione del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Fig. 232; and

Jacqueline and Maurice Guillaud, Frescoes in the Time of Pompeii (Paris: Guillaud Editions, 1990), 30, 34.

47. Ling, Roman Painting, 158, identifies this as a Flavian portrait. For Sulpicia, see Goldwater, Women in Antiquity, 163; Oxford Classical

Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 1023. 48. Illustrated in Le Collezione del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Fig. 231. 49. For the Augustan period Sulpicia, see Oxford Classical

Dictionary, 1023; Goldwater, Women in Antiquity, 163; Hallett, "Women as Same and Other," 59, 69-72; Hubert Creekmore, The Erotic

Elegies of Albius Tibullus with the Poems of Sulpicia (New York:

Washington Square, 1966), 105-25. 50. For images of Sappho, see Schefold, Die Wdende Pompejis, 71,

112; Corinna and Pindar, 71, 136, 139, 165, 177, 283. The Villa

Imperiale has an unusually large number of paintings depicting women's

themes; for poets, Schefold, 290-93; Teacher and pupil in the triclinium

(dining room), Maiuri, Roman Painting, 107-09; Marriage scene, Maiuri, 106-07.

51. Schefold, Die Wdende Pompejis, 334; Herculaneum example illustrated in Le Collezione del Museo Nazionale di Napoli, Fig. 103.

52. Illustrated in Phillipe Aries and George Duby, A History of Private Life, I (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap, 1987), 41. However, she is

depicted looking at the viewer rather than the model. 53. Pliny the Elder, quoted in Lefkowitz and Fant, Women's Life in

Greece and Rome, 168. It is interesting that Pliny mentions Iaia never

married, a point made by other writers on art about prominent women artists throughout history. For a discussion of Iaia, see Natalie Kampen, "Hellenistic Female Artists," in Archaeologia Classica, 27 (1975), 9-17.

Susan Silberberg-Peirce is Associate Professor of Art History at Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

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Three Graces in Wall Painting

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