Thesis of the Doctoral Dissertation Anita Kirchhof WALL-PAINTING IN PANNONIAN VILLAS Budapest 2011 Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Humanities Historical Studies Doctoral Programme Archaeological Doctoral Programme Thesis of the Doctoral Dissertation Anita Kirchhof WALL-PAINTING IN PANNONIAN VILLAS Dissertation Supervisor: Dr. Borhy László DSc. Budapest 2011 2 I. Theme and aim of the dissertation The subject of my doctoral dissertation is the wall-painting of Pannonian villa-estates and within this theme I lay emphasis on the inner decorations of estate centres in the area north of the Balaton and in the surroundings of Aquincum. As for the wall-paintings of villa estates resarchers so far have been familiar only with those old finds which came to light from the Baláca villa during the excavations made by Gyula Rhé between 1906 and 1926. These finds, belonging to the early period of the villa, that is to the turn of the 1st-2nd centuries A.D., were published by himself and later they were reconstructed by Edit B. Thomas. At the same time remains of decoration are known from 16 villas from the 1221 ones can be found in the area north of the Lake Balaton, in Aquincum they are known from 4 buildings from 44 centres of estates and this kind of decoration is known also from other parts of Pannonia from 30 villas. The intention of my dissertation is partly the study and the determination of types of the old wall-painting material excavated by Gyula Rhé and in this connection also the revision, correction and analysis of the reconstructions made by Edit B. Thomas. Furthermore the basis of my studies was constituted by the study of those wall-paintings which came to light from several buildings (I., II., X., XVII.)2 of the Baláca villa during the excavations restarted in 1976 comprising the assortment of the remains according to types, the making of reconstructions as well as their arrangement in groups according to periods. Another aim of my thesis was the examination of the inner decoration of other villas with wall-paintings in the area north of the Lake Balaton. This material came to light from the villas at Bakonyszentlászló, Balatonfüred, Gyulafirátót, Kádárta, Örvényes, Öskü and Szentkirályszabadja. It is either unpublished or published only in part. I studied also the ornamental elements of those villas which are mentioned only in records, the in situ decorations of which had been committed back to the earth or had got lost or destroyed after they had been found (Balatonalmádi, Balatongyörök 1.-2., Gyenesdiás, Kékkút, Sümeg, Tihany, Várpalota, Veszprém). The analysis of the inner decoration of villas in the surroundings of Aquincum was also the subject of my research work, comprising the wall-painting and stucco decoration of the Csúcshegy, Csúcshegy-harsánylejtő, Szőlőkert street and Testvérhegy villas. In addition tangentially I studied those painted finds which are known from the other Pannonian villas 1 Gabler D., Einige Fragen über die Geschichte der römischen Siedlungen auf dem Territorium nördlich vom Balaton. Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 19/20 (1993-1994) 150. 2 The examination and full-scale study of the wall-paintings of buildings I. and XVII. will be possible only after they will be published. 3 according to the publication of Edit B. Thomas.3 In my thesis there is a special emphasis on the inner decoration of villas in two regions. Centres of estates in the area north of the Lake Balaton had been already developed at the end of the 1st century A.D. and during the 2nd century A.D. along the main routes and they were self-supporting units. At the same time the majority of those villas which were situtated near Aquincum, that is along the limes, had been developed only after the Marcomannic Wars. In these villas usually farming activity was practised. The owners purchased the necessary industrial products at the markets of the towns.4 In the Late Roman period Barbarian assaults becoming permanent along the frontiers had their influence also on the villas in the surroundings of the towns. Soldiers' families had moved into those villas which had occcupied a strategically key position. They played an important role in frontier defence as well. At that time the buildings became less spatious and the villas became self- supporting while other villas had been ceased to exist.5 There are some differences in the Late Roman Period development of the villas in the area north of the Lake Balaton of those estates which were situated along the main routes flourished, their inner decoration attests considerable prosperity. At the same time in those centres of estates which were situated at a considerable distance from the main routes or were established on the downs of the Bakony Mts., only slight alterations6 can be observed referring to stagnation. Regarding the wall-painting of these regions of different development I tried to answer the following questions: Whether the consulting, use of special pattern book(s) could be detected according to territorial circulation? Are there differences between the painting of self-supporting villas and of those ones which were near towns and if there are, what is the nature of these differences? Who were the persons who made the inner decorations and where they originated from? Are we able to detect quality differences within a given region or between regions? Are there any differences between regions as regards the character and decorative motifs of the ceilings? 3 E. B. Thomas, Römische Villen in Pannonien. (Budapest, 1964) 4 Sz. Póczy K., Die Villa von Békásmegyer und die Gutshöfe in der Umgebung von Aquincum nach den Markomannkrieg. Budapest Régiségei 22 (1971) 96. 5 Zsidi P., Aquincum topográfiája. Specimina Nova 18 (2004) 205. 6 S. Palágyi, Schwerpunkte der neuen Ausgrabungen im Gutshof von Baláca. Balácai Közlemények 3 (1994) 13-14. 4 Questions regarding certain villas: Whether the wall-painting of the villas reflect the economic function of the estates, a local activity and if it does on which scale? Can we prove the existence of decoration type(s) which is/are chraracteristic only of villas? Is there a difference between the decorations of buildings of different function over different periods? Whether within a certain building the function of different rooms had an influence on the quality of the wall-paintings or on the character of decorative motifs? Whether the wall-paintings reflect either a local or an Italian environment and if they do, to what extent? Are there differences between buildings regading the design of ceilings (flat or vaulted ceilings)? Can we trace the mark of one or more artists on the paintings? Whether a connection or perhaps a certain identity of motifs existed between the decorations of ceilings, floors and walls or between the motifs of the different zones of walls? Questions regarding the technique of producing the wall-paintings: What kind of appliances and dimensions were used to make plaster-work, wall-paintings, to proportion the surfaces, to deposit the motifs? Was there a sketching and if it existed, in which manner? Can we demonstrate the application of a stencil? What kind of sets of brushes the painter used? Whether differences in the composition of plaster-works meant also differences in quality or not? In what manner the renovation of the paintings was made? When earlier paintings had been inserted can we find differences between the instruments used? How many persons used to work during the preparation, impainting of paintings? What kind of paints were used over different periods? How and in which form the paints had been got into the spot? Who were the painters and the owners of the villas? Whether the ethnic, the religious affiliation or the pursuit of the owner had an influence on the wall-paintings? If there were grafittis, which period they had appeared in, what was their subject and who made them? How and where the stucco ornaments belonging to the wall-paintings had been made? Regarding the function of the rooms can we finds differences in the decoration of ceilings? To what extent the application of perspective influenced the design of the ceilings? The existence of what kind of supporting devices can be concluded from the impressions at the reverse sides? 5 II. The method of the dissertation During my researches I studied the decorations of different buildings within a centre of estate and compared them which each other. After this I examined per periods the wall- paintings of villas within the same region, finally I compared with each other the decorations of the two regions. Tangentially I studied decorations known from the other Pannonian villas as well and looked for parallels between them and the thoroughly examined wall-paintings of the mentioned two regions and I compared them also with the decorations of Italy and of other provinces of the Roman Empire. Except the old material the Baláca villa is the only one where the study of the wall- paintings was possible according to buildings and rooms. The fragments from other villas we are not able in every case to connect to either rooms, buildings or periods, therefore I treat them according to villas, by ranging them typologically. At the same time if there was a possibility to do it, like in the case of the Szőlőkert street villa, I discuss them according to periods as well. Within the villas I treated the ceiling decorations and stucco fragments with special emphasis. In the first phase of my studies made on wall-paintings I selected those fragments which belonged to the same site or to the same collection. I cleaned off their surfaces, arranged them in groups according to colours and the manner of painting, later I tried to fit together the fragments of these groups and as far as I could I tried to assemble them to get larger surfaces. Fitting them together was hampered by the earlier restoration technique, which meant the embedding of every single fragment in plaster (Baláca, Balatonfüred, and in some cases also Gyulafirátót, Örvényes). Because of this plaster coating there was no possibility to fit together the fragments and I could not study either the character of the plaster-work of the fragments or the traces of a certain supporting device if it had survived at all. Therefore with hard, painstaking work giving utmost attention and care to the operation I tried to remove the modern plaster bed at least in cases from those more important fragments which seemed to be fitting together. This operation was followed by the adjustment and drawing of the fragments, and finally the making of a reconstruction. A difficulty of the study of wall-paintings is that, contrarily to other types of finds, from the small or monochrome individual fragments one cannot conclude always to the whole composition of the painting or to its position within a room (base, side wall, ceiling) before the partial or final assembling. A further phase of my work was researches in libraries and documentation departments, finally these researches were followed by the classification and 6 interpretation of data. Determining the type of a given painting I took into consideration the composition, the background colour, the manner of the painting, the application of colours, and also the composition, colour, layers, thickness and reverse side of the plaster-work. If excavation records were not available I tried to put the different types in the chronological sequence adequate to the Imperial trends on the basis of their composition, ground colour, application of colours and analogies. 7 III. The structure of the dissertation My dissertation consists of two main parts, namely of the presentation and interpretation of the wall-painting of the villas and of the itemized catalogue. The introduction comprises the outlines of the work including the motivation of chosing the subject and the intentions. It is followed by the survey of the history of researhes of Pannonian wall-painting. In the third, fourth and fifth chapters there is the detailed description of those Pannonian villas from which either wall-paintings or fragments suggesting the existence of other inner decoration are known. In the third chapter, after a short introduction there is a detailed treatment of villas in the area north of the Lake Balaton, arranged into groups according to their names in the Archeological Topography of Hungary. In the introductions of its subchapters there is a short description of the history of researches, the history of the construction of the villa and the chronological implications. It is followed by the description of observations made during the excavation or excavations related to the wall-paintings. Finally I give an analysis of the paintings, their characterization according to types and their chronology, based on my own researches. At the end of the description of different types there is a minor summary containing a short enumeration of observations and new results. This summary contains also the chronology and analogies. The characterization of different villas is followed by the interpretation of the results within a summary and at the end of the part with text there are the illustrations, drawings and coloured reconstructions presenting the villas and their wall- paintings. The majority of the wall-painting material of villas in the area north of the Lake Balaton is originated from the Baláca villa (1485 items), though those paintings which came to light during the excavations made in the centres of estates at Balatonfüred (61 items) and at Örvényes (147 items) also represent a considerable quantity. I deal with the wall-paintings of the most intensively studied Baláca villa in several subchapters, partly because the old wall- painting material, excavated by Gyula Rhé, which is classified into 71 different types, due to excavation imperfections cannot be connected either to buildings or rooms (except the wall- paintings from the early period which most probably decorated the building XIII.). Partly, because within the villa painted fragments are known from several buildings. Therefore I study the Baláca wall-paintings according to buildings, that is the published and in situ wall- paintings from the building I., as well as the decorations of buildings II. and X. in an itemized manner. At the end of the chapter dealing with the Baláca villa I treat with a special care the 8 ceiling decorations (type 21) and stucco fragments (type 20) found in the area of the whole estate. The fourth chapter, dealing with the villas in the surroundings of Aquincum describes the decorations of the villas from this region following the above system. The fifth chapter, the composition of which is identical with those of the above ones, presents other villas with wall-paintings from Pannonia, though the analysis of their decorations was made on the basis of the published material. In the sixth chapter I try to find out who were the owners of the lavishly decorated villas. The seventh chapter examines the technique of making Roman wall-paintings as it is reflected by ancient sources and archeological finds available. It deals with the manufacturers of the paintings, their legal status, the tools and devices applied during painting and stucco making, the question and types of pattern books, the pigments used for painting, including their kinds, market value, the making of plaster-works, the division of surfaces. The results of the studies on the wall-paintings of the villas treated with details in the different chapters at the end of the part with text are followed by a summary, acknowledgements, list of abbreviations and references. The second part of the dissertation is a catalogue containing 1765 items in which wall- paintings known and studied from the estates in the area north of the Lake Balaton and in the surroundings of Aquincum are enumerated per villas. In the catalogue the inventorized fragments are mentioned according to their inventory number, while the ones without it are present on the basis of their profile numbers or according to their types. The catalogue contains also the archeological context, the short description of the subject, number of pieces, the determination of the painting period, the thickness of lines, data on traces of sketching or of incised patterns, type of the decoration, the layers of plaster-work, the characteristics of the reverse sides and the dimensions of the fragments. In certain cases, like in the case of the in situ wall-paintings of the building I. at Baláca I introduced some individual viewpoints as well. 9 IV. Main results of the thesis Villa estates can be found all over Pannonia, in every region of the province, along the limes, in Inner Pannonia or in the Drava-Sava confluence area. They had been established along the main routes or near them. Slightly less than one third of the villas studied yielded wall-paintings, mosaics or other ornamental elements which refer to a rather rich inner decoration. It is an universal observation that in the centres of estates consisting of several buildings not only the main building but also the bath, the house of the vilicus and perhaps some other structures, maybe the corridors, too, which linked buildings were also decorated with ornamental elements meeting the requirements of the age.7 In the Baláca villa the bath had wall-paintings of similar quality as the ones in the main building while the house of the vilicus was decorated with paintings of lower quality. Almost every farm-building was supplied with plaster-work, quite often even the putting of new coats of plaster-work can be observed. In my dissertation I compared first of all the wall-painting and inner decoration of villa estates in those two regions the development of which differ entirely from each other. These two regions are the area north of the Lake Balaton in Inner Pannonia and the other one is the municipal territory of Aquincum along the limes. The villas in the area north of the Lake Balaton had got connected with the life of the province by the Poetovio-Aquincum route and had got the necessary goods, too, in this way, by trade. In the area north of the Lake Balaton already in a very early period, during the 1st century A.D. (Baláca),8 but at the turn of the 1st- 2nd centuries A.D. at the latest, villas hade been established and to make paintings for them the first master painters, too, had arrived along this route. On the basis of a similar collection of motifs applied by them they had originated most probably from the surroundings of Emona. On the basis of the similar design (the application of colours and motifs) of the so- called early period wall-paintings and stucco decoration which can be observed both in Baláca and Balatonfüred we may suppose the presence and circulation of the same pattern books in the area in this period. At the same time some diffrerences in the identical ornamental elements of the two sites allow us to think that several groups of painters or several master painters had arrived the area to prepare the wall-paintings of newly erected 7 Therefore in case of small-scale excavations it is hard to decide whether the remains of the villa urbana, those of the bath or the ones of the house of the vilicus had been found. The decoration of the bath did not differ considerably from that of other buildings, the presence of bathing scenes or the application of some special colour cannot be observed in every case. Their paintings bear rather those stylistical marks which are characteristic of the given period. 8 Gabler D., Einige Fragen über die Geschichte der römischen Siedlungen auf dem Territorium nördlich vom Balaton. Veszprém Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 19/20 (1993-1994) 151. 10