10-18Dionysiac mystery frieze, Second Style wall paintings in room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 60–50 bce.Fresco,
frieze 5 4 high.
Second Style painters created the illusion of an imaginary three-dimensional world on the walls of Roman houses. The figures in this room are
acting out the initiation rites of the Dionysiac mysteries.
10-19Second Style wall paintings (general view,left,and detail of tholos,right) from cubiculum M of the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor,
Boscoreale, Italy, ca. 50–40 bce.Fresco, 8 9 high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
In this Second Style bedroom, the painter opened up the walls with vistas of towns, temples, and colonnaded courtyards. The convincing illusionism
is due in part to the use of linear perspective.
1 ft.1 ft.