First Style
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The First Style, also known as the Mansory Style, centers around the style of imitation. The painter's aim with the First Style was to imitate imported, and therefore expensive marble panels using painted stucco relief. While upper-class homeowners could afford to use real marble blocks to decorate their homes with, other homeowners would imitate the precious stones to try and impress the public. This style emphasizes the flatness of the wall and tries to copy certain materials, which is a very different approach than that of the Second Style. (Gazga, 1994:52)
Second Style
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The Second Style, or "Architectural Style" truly focuses on the illusionistic qualities of the painting using a stylistic trick called trompe l’oeil. Instead of trying to replicate precious stones, the Second Style replicates landscapes. This style uses perspective techniques and shading (chiaroscuro, or skiagraphia) to fool the viewer's eye into believing the flat wall is a three-dimensional space. The atmospheric perspective creates depth in a painting by depicting further objects as paler, blurrier, and with less amount of detail. The linear perspective creates three dimensionality by using parallel lines that converge at a single vanishing point. The Second Style aimed to achieve a mind-bending illusion in which the viewer thought he or she were looking through a window, or outside. The scenes in Second Style paintings were often confined by "painted columns or other architectural elements" (Gazda, 1994:54). which added to the illusion of looking out from a window. This style gave homeowners a chance to feel like they lived a lavish and luxurious life by what they were "surrounded" with.
Villa of the Mysteries (Second Style)
The Villa of the Mysteries is an example of the mature Second Style of painting. Although scholars are not quite sure on the murals overall meaning, there is a strong consensus that this room was used "to celebrate, in private, the rites of the Greek God Dionysos (Roman Bacchus)" (Kleiner, 2010:43). The scenes all depict different actions, presumably actions taken during the ritual. In the scenes, mortal women interact with mythological figures. Some scholars believe the mural focuses on "sexuality as it relates to fertility" (Wilburn, 2000:56). The mortal women come to unite with Dionysos in marriage, which is referenced sexually many times. In one panel, a female cradles Dionysos against her breast as his half-naked body is draped over her. Like the fresco of Priapus in the entryway of the House of the Vettii, many references to the phallus are made, symbolizing fertility. In the same panel of Dionysos and the woman, ribbons dangle down and create and outline on the phallus centered on the god's groin. (Wilburn 2000:57) Plant life, wine, and food also reference fertility and protection.
Stylistically, this mural is a very complex piece of work as figures interact with each other from different walls and panels. The figures are life-size and seem to move effortlessly around the room. There is a series of large panels with which the painter "created the illusion of a shallow ledge on which the human and divine actors move across the room" (Kleiner, 2010:43). It appears as though the figures could jump off the ledge and into the room at any time, which classifies it as a Second Style painting. In one panel, a winged divinity is seen in motion, about to whip a mortal woman, perhaps an initiate, who is located on a different panel on a different wall. This again illustrates the complexity of this Second Style painting.
Stylistically, this mural is a very complex piece of work as figures interact with each other from different walls and panels. The figures are life-size and seem to move effortlessly around the room. There is a series of large panels with which the painter "created the illusion of a shallow ledge on which the human and divine actors move across the room" (Kleiner, 2010:43). It appears as though the figures could jump off the ledge and into the room at any time, which classifies it as a Second Style painting. In one panel, a winged divinity is seen in motion, about to whip a mortal woman, perhaps an initiate, who is located on a different panel on a different wall. This again illustrates the complexity of this Second Style painting.
Third Style
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The Third Style, or Ornate Style, greatly moves away from the illusionistic qualities of the Second Style. This style focuses on delicate linear lines painted lightly on predominately monochromatic walls. Third Style paintings completely reject the three-dimensional worlds and realistic elements of the Second Style as they focus on unrealistically thin architecture and other elements. In the painting to the left there are unrealistically thin Ionic colonnettes with a small floating landscape painted in the middle of a completely black background. This is obviously not meant to fool anyone into thinking its a window to the outside world. Vitruvius detested this style and said it was in "depraved taste" as these things "could not exist nor could they exist, nor have they ever existed" (Kleiner, 2010:76-77). Obviously, Vitruvius was more a fan of the Second Style as it portrayed an ideal reality.
Fourth Style
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The Fourth Style combines elements from all three previous styles. The wall has a more three-deminsional effect and lets the viewer see through a window, as compared to the Third Style, although the illusionism is still not as strong in the Second Style. Borrowing from the Third Style, there is a common background color, in the case of the Ixion Room (left) a deep redand a neutral white are chosen. Unique to the Fourth Style is the architectural layout of a stage, which makes paintings in this style feel like a gallery. The images in the Fourth Style are also framed, which add to the gallery feel. The subjects are from predominately Greek mythology. (Lockey, 2009:39) The Ixion Room from the House of the Vettii feature a mythological panel on each of its three walls. Lining the walls are panels that resemble marble, which are reminiscent of the First Style.