IXION ROOM In the latest Fourth
Style designs, Pompeian painters rejected
the quiet elegance of the Third Style and
early Fourth Style in favor of crowded
and confused compositions and some-
times garish color combinations. The Ix-
ion Room (FIG. 10-23) of the House of
the Vettii at Pompeii was decorated in this
manner just before the eruption of Mount
Vesuvius. The room served as a triclinium
in the house the Vettius brothers remod-
eled after the earthquake. It opened onto
the peristyle seen in the background of
FIG. 10-15.
The decor of the Ixion Room serves
as a synopsis of all the previous styles, an-
other instance of the eclecticism noted
earlier as characteristic of Roman art in
general. The lowest zone, for example, is
one of the most successful imitations any-
where of costly multicolored imported
marbles, despite the fact that the painter
created the illusion without recourse to
relief, as in the First Style. The large white
panels in the corners of the room, with
their delicate floral frames and floating
central motifs, would fit naturally into the
most elegant Third Style design. Unmis-
takably Fourth Style, however, are the
fragmentary architectural vistas of the
central and upper zones of the walls. They are unrelated to one an-
other, do not constitute a unified cityscape beyond the wall, and in-
corporate figures that would tumble into the room if they took a
single step forward.
The Ixion Room takes its name from the mythological panel
painting at the center of the rear wall (FIG. 10-23). Ixion had at-
tempted to seduce Hera, and Zeus punished him by binding him to
a perpetually spinning wheel. The panels on the two side walls also
have Greek myths as subjects. The Ixion Room may be likened to a
small private art gallery with paintings decorating the walls, as in
many modern homes. Scholars long have believed that these and the
many other mythological paintings on Third and Fourth Style walls
were based on lost Greek panels. They attest to the Romans’ contin-
uing admiration for Greek artworks three centuries after Marcellus
brought the treasures of Syracuse to Rome. But few, if any, of these
mythological paintings can be described as true copies of “Old Mas-
ters,” as are the many Roman replicas of famous Greek statues that
have been found throughout the Roman world, including Pompeii
(FIG. 5-40).
WALL MOSAICSMythological figures were on occasion also
the subject of Roman mosaics. In the ancient world, mosaics were
usually confined to floors (as was the Pompeian Alexander Mosaic,
FIG. 5-70), where the tesserae formed a durable as well as decorative
surface. In Roman times, however, mosaics also decorated walls and
even ceilings, foreshadowing the extensive use of wall and vault mo-
saics in the Middle Ages (see “Mosaics,” Chapter 11, page 303). The
mosaic shown in FIG. 10-24adorns a wall in the House of Neptune
and Amphitrite at Herculaneum. The statuesque figures of the sea
god and his wife preside over the running water of the fountain in
the courtyard in front of them where the home’s owners and guests
enjoyed outdoor dining in warm weather.PRIVATE PORTRAITSThe subjects chosen for Roman wall
paintings and mosaics were diverse. Although mythological themes
were immensely popular, Romans commissioned a vast range of
other subjects. As noted, landscape paintings frequently appear on
Second, Third, and Fourth Style walls. Paintings and mosaics depict-
ing scenes from history include the Alexander Mosaic (FIG. 5-70) and252 Chapter 10 THE ROMAN EMPIRE10-23Fourth Style wall paintings in the
Ixion Room (triclinium P) of the House of
the Vettii, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 70–79 ce.
Late Fourth Style murals are often garishly
colored, crowded, and confused composi-
tions with a mixture of architectural views,
framed mythological panel paintings, and
First and Third Style motifs.