Pantheon

Hey

So as well as being obsessed with beauty, shopping and art I am also really interested in the ancient world, most particularly Ancient Rome.  One of the courses I took for university was one on the art and society of Ancient Rome and it was one of my most favourite papers as it combined my two interests.

 

One of the things we looked at was the Pantheon which is the most amazing building in Rome.  It was built to worship multiple pagan gods, and the building survived as it was used to be a Christian Church as anything pagan was destroyed.

 

The building is interesting in that the front porch/entrance of the building is a typical rectangle front with a triangular roof but the body of the building is a circular dome.

 

The columns on the porch and inside the temple look to be all Corinthian style and help illustrate the weightiness of the building. The front porch originally had statures of Augustus and Agrippa, his right hand man which could possibly illustrate the temple being dedicated to them as well as the gods as Augustus was Rome's greatest ruler and Agrippa was who the originally commissioned the building.

 

Inside the building the floor pattern is made of cut stone, and was made to drain naturally.  decoration columns also line the inside. The are eight recessed areas in which the alternate between being rectangular and circular shape.

The image above show how grand and spectacular the building is and is definitely on dream list of places to visit.

 

Hope you enjoyed this post, I have once again splurged on make up and have some new products which I will do posts on soon.

Villa of the Mysteries

Hey

So as well as Art History I also am fascinated with the ancient world particularly with Rome and Greece.  Last semester I took a Classics paper that combined my two loves Art History and Ancient History.  The Villa of the Mysteries is a house outside of the ancient city of Pompeii and in one of the rooms are wall paintings with scenes that relate to an ancient mystery cult.  The use of the room is uncertain but is thought to be used for weddings and women rituals.

This is part of the first wall scene and reads from left to right.  The belief of the paintings illustrating a cult partly comes from the women holding a plate which could be a part of a sacrifice.  She also has a garland on her head which is involved in a religious ritual.  The women walks towards a group of women out of shot who also have garlands and look to be pouring libation which is 'wine to the gods'.

This shows the corner of the first and second wall and the story the paintings are telling start to become mythical.  The male figure on the harp is a Silenus figure who was a follower of the god Dionysus who was the god of wine.  The god himself is possibly pictured as the leaning figure against a female whose identity is unknown but is believed to be Ariadne who was Dionysus's wife.  The reasoning of it being of Dionysus is the fact that lying on his lap is what looks to be a Thyrsus, his wand/staff.  The depiction of the couple is to show marital bliss a possible indication the rooms use for a marital ritual.  The figure behind the Silenus holds a theatre mask which corresponds to Dionysus also being the god of theatre.

 

While the definition of the paintings are not entirely clear it is still a fascinating room in terms of its decoration with the colour and how well the figures are done.  This artwork gives us a glimpsed into ancient Rome and shows what they were capable of in terms of art.