Mural

About: Mural is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1144 publications have been published within this topic receiving 5050 citations.

Notes on the Mural Paintings from Boscoreale

Abstract: The large figures in the main room of the villa built near Boscoreale in the first century B.c. have been interpreted in the most diverse ways. Studniczka' saw members of the Macedonian royal family. Phyllis Williams Lehmann refuted this theory and replaced it with embodiments of Aphrodite, Adonis and their attendants.2 In reviewing this important book3 I refused to see a cycle of sacred representations related to the cult of Aphrodite and Adonis and suggested that the nine large figures on the two side walls of the room are three generations of one family, probably of the owner of the villa, assembled to venerate the gods represented originally on the now lost rear wall. Erik Sj6qvist rejects this attempt in a footnote.4 He agrees with the theory of Phyllis Lehmann, but he improves it in one important point. The figure interpreted as Antigonus by Studniczka, as an attendant female associated with Aphrodite by Phyllis Lehmann, Sj6qvist proves definitely to be male by enumerating a number of male statuettes from Cyprus wearing the same headgear. This correct observation I wish again to modify. It is not an \"effeminate young temple attendant,\"5 but a mature warrior who holds a spear, wears a sleeved robe, a mantle, and a cap of the tam'o'shanter type. The features of the face are serious and developed, with deeply sunk eyes, a long nose, lean cheeks, narrow lips with drooping corners and a short chin. They look to me highly individualized, as do all the heads in the Metropolitan Museum (pl. 66, figs. I, 2) and the old man in Naples. The individuality of the latter has never been doubted, and he has been given the names of the philosophers Epicurus and Menedemos, or of Cinyras, the king of Cyprus. The shield must belong to the man, not to the woman, who is his mother or his wife. His counterpart in the Metropolitan Museum has neither dress, nor headgear, nor shield. His shield is probably the one which the girl belonging to the right side (not as now exhibited in the museum to the left) of this central panel, is carrying away. She moves toward a small door and looks back and upward with a pathetic expression. I believe that this is the shield which has been brought back from the battlefield, where the heroic man found his death. The woman next to him is seated, not on the same bench, as Phyllis Lehmann believed, but on a separate lower chair. The end of the side rail of the throne of the man is seen next to his spear below her left hand (fig. i, below at the right). She must be his wife, for she displays her wedding ring on the left hand, while she sustains her head with her right hand. Her large eyes look mournfully into the distance. I thus believe that the two men are the two sons of the old man in Naples. Both sons had gone to war, but only one returned. The war took place in a country with a cold climate, where the soldiers had to wear sleeved tunics and protect their heads. That is why the soldier in Naples wears a cap with long lappets, which can serve as earmuffs. The cithara player may be a sister with her little girl. Both she and the little girl have similar individual features (fig. 2). The next parallels to the girls are on vases of Centuripe, already compared with the shieldbearer by Gisela Richter.6 Other painted portraits of the second style which could be compared are the couple in Naples from Pompeii,7 the man recalling the warrior, the woman the shieldbearer while the poetess8 recalls the cithara player. These certainly are individual likenesses. The art of portraiture flourished in Italy in the first century B.c. Three special painters of likenesses are named for this period by Pliny (Nat. Hist. 35, I47f): Jaia, Sopolis and Dionysius. The interest in genealogy also was at its height in this period.' The pictures of ancestors were minted on coins, and Aemilius Paulus dedicated the portraits of his ancestors in the Basilica Aemilia (Pliny, 35, 13). Timomachos, who lived in the time of Caesar, painted a noble family in Greek dress (pallium), partly seated, partly standing (Pliny, 35, 136: \"Cognatio nobilium, palliati quos dicturos pinxit, alterum stantem, alterum sedentem\"), which reads like a description of the family in Boscoreale. All these portraits seem to me to represent contemporary Italian personalities.

The Application and Development of Mural Art in Urban Public Environment Landscape Design

Abstract: With the gradual improvement of social and economic levels, cities not only meet people's basic living needs, but also have an artistic expression to a certain extent, and the public pays more attention to the beauty of the external environment. Landscapes in cities are settlement landscapes characterized by man-made landscapes, which are not only a cultural resource but also an ecological environment resource. Murals are also the first works of art of mankind. According to records, murals are the largest number of artworks in China. It is a popular work of art, representing social functions with historical value, aesthetic value, political significance, and educational function. Due to the great influence of the latest technology and emerging technology on urban art concepts, murals are widely used in urban public landscapes in Europe and America. Its grand and strong space coverage, not wasting too much space, and its imperceptible influence on vision make it the main element of urban public art. Therefore, the mural design in the urban public environment can improve China's current urban atmosphere and enhance urban characteristics. Bring the citizens a historical and cultural understanding of the urban environment they live in and enjoy art. According to the interrelationship between the city and the public environment and the human mural art, based on the relevant theoretical knowledge of urban planning and design, urban public art management, and based on the basic characteristics of human mural art, this study combines a large number of domestic and foreign cases, starting from the characteristics of the natural environment and human urban environment. This article studies the relationship between mural design and architectural design concepts and concepts in urban public environment landscape design.