Art History
Uploaded by okocaman on Apr 28, 2014
I would first like to say these paintings were amazing because it lasted through decades and still looked beautiful. These paintings were very well preserved and were actually bigger then I thought. The painting with the woman sitting down and holding a kithara is 73 1/2 x 73 1/2in high. The painting of the wedded couple in the middle of the two paintings is 69 x 76in high. Finally the painting on the right, of a woman holding a shield is 70 x 40 1/4in high. The shapes of these paintings are rectangular and the artist who painted these magnificent paintings used Fresco. There is actually some damage done to these paintings due to the conditions I saw them in. Even thought they lasted through ages there were many cracks and chips on the paintings. The paintings also have lost most of its original coloring because all the colors looked faded to me. Over all though the paintings were in good shape and were probably maintained when they arrived in Metropolitan Museum of Arts.
When comparing the three paintings from the reception hall we see that its depicting some sort of celebration . In our case its depicting a dynastic marriage. On the left painting of the women who is seated playing the kithara is probably an important part of the court because she is wearing a diadem and is sitting on a chair. Kithara was very similar to lyre used in Greek culture and it was an instrument used in that time by the professional musicians. The girl who is standing behind her is probably from the ruling class also due to her age and her outfit. In the center wee see the married couple because the center stage usually depicted the most important. The male is depicted nude because in that age being nude and showing your body was heroic and was part of the Roman culture. The rulers wife is depicted wearing pensive, which was a traditional dress worn by the brides in that time period. The last painting on the right is a woman who is holding a shield is an oracle who depicts the future. Oracle in our case is depicting the future male heir. Her shield had a nude male Hellenistic ruler wearing a white band. These paintings were really important because we saw the same techniques in paintings before and after the date...