#frescos

[illustratus]

No. 26 Scenes from the Life of Christ: 10. Entry into Jerusalem (detail) by Giotto

[wallflowerstudio]

A medieval snowball fight. The more things change, the more things stay the same.

(Detail from this fresco depicting the month of January at Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento, Italy, ca. 1400) Public domain

[men-of-the-epic-cycle]

Chiron teaching Achilles how to play the lyre

— a Roman fresco from Herculaneum, 1st century AD

[osplanetasdasabelhas]

Interiores

Palácio Nacional de Mafra

Portugal

Fotos cjmn

[twintailedsiren]

The two tailed goddess & Roman grotesques

In ancient Roman art, grotesques are the pretty but bizarre paintings of hybrid human, animal, and vegetable creatures first popularized in Nero’s Golden Palace (Dumos Aurea) in 64-68 CE. With Neros’s death, the Palace rooms were filled in and the area rebuilt, accidentally preserving the frescoes. When the Golden Palace was rediscovered in 1480, the strange and fantastic designs in those ancient paintings captured the imagination of Renaissance artists.

The word “grotesque” originally meant “related to the grotto” in Italian, because the filled-in palace rooms resembled caves. So, originally, grotesque didn’t necessarily mean ugly.

Up to now, I’ve avoided talking about grotesques, because they’re mainly decorative. And while two-tailed figures in decorative art are certainly part of the two tailed siren family tree, they make arguing that the two tailed siren is a meaningful symbol a little difficult. Since I strongly believe that the two tailed siren isn’t just a decoration, this is why I’ve avoided falling into the research rabbit hole of Roman grotesques: it’d be time consuming, and wouldn’t support my main theories about this elusive figure.

A common theory I’ve seen some researchers put forth, to explain everything from the Scythian ancestral goddess to two tailed sirens on churches is that these figures are merely decorative, and have no deeper meaning other than being symmetrical and to fill a space. I do think that the figure’s symmetry has helped make her popularity long lasting. However, given how often two tailed figures appear on ancient temples and medieval churches, I really doubt that there’s no deeper meaning behind this symbol.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at ancient Roman grotesques, starting with the originals, from the Golden Palace in Rome:

By Carole Raddato from Frankfurt, Germany - "Nerone" exhibition, Palatine Museum: the luxury of the imperial palace, the painted decoration of the Domus Transitoria, Rome, CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikipedia.

If you look carefully, you can spot the half vegetation, half human figures on the edges of these frescos, whose curling tails bear a striking resemblance to the snake legged Scythian goddess. While the Roman versions are too similar to the Scythian goddess to be ignored, I haven’t seen any research that tries to argue that the half-plant figures in Roman art have a deeper meaning. While the Roman ones might have been inspired by images of the Scythian goddess, I don’t think they inherited her symbolism. They’re just cool decorations.

Mosaics, Acholla, Baths of Trajan. Musee du Bardo, Tunis, Tunisia, North Africa. CE 150-170. 2nd pic from Dunbabin 2021, first from Brewmate.

These two tailed figures are interesting, as they combine several different elements: they’re male, like some images of the Scythian goddess; they have acanthus leaf skirts, like some two tailed Etruscan Scyllas; and their hair is spikey, reminding me of a sun’s rays.

Details of a grotesque, “Predella with hunt scene depicting a pair of lions and two stags.” Inv. 8804. National Archeological Museum, Naples. No date: fresco from Pompeii. My photo.

I spotted these half vegetation figures in Naples, though I wasn’t sure how they fit into the two tailed siren’s family tree at the time. They look possibly male, and young, and have wings. There’s other images of Erotes with legs ending in vegetation that these are likely inspired by.

Here’s the whole fresco, for context:

The next image is also from Pompeii.

Mosaic, the House of the Small Fountain (Casa della Fountana Piccola) Pompeii, Italy. Probably 62-70 CE. (Date from Dunbabin.) My photograph.

While I wanted this image to turn out to be something deep and meaningful, because I went to Pompeii to take it, I haven’t found any research that says this who this figure is or what they represent. (Yes, I’m going with non binary on this one.)

I’m still not certain if this mosaic is merely decorative. While the previous two-tailed figures are likely only decoration, as they’re at the edges of the frescos or paintings, this mosaic places the two tailed figure front and center. The figure has the same spikey hair style as the Tunis mosaics and a leaf skirt.

I’m also on the fence about the figure’s gender. I spent much longer than I should have in Pompeii, looking at this figure, and debating if those are well defined pec muscles or breasts. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, to be honest. But I couldn’t make up my mind, and I didn’t want to kicked out for climbing over the barrier to the ancient monument. 

Fresco in Casa del Menadro, Pompeii. Picture from Laws 1961.

I’m including this one, because while I didn’t see it myself and can’t find any other research on it, it definitely falls into our category of two tailed beings, possibly decorative. Her lower half is made of delicate, curling leaves, and she has wings.

Roman mosaic, St Romain en Gal, Vienne.

Our second to last figure is from the now sadly-defunct Green Man of Cercles website, which had interesting takes on Green Men, sirens, and other foliate two tailed critters. While the website is down and I can’t find any other info on this image, I want to include it, because of the figure’s pose: holding two tails apart, in the classic pose.

Mural fragments with grotesques. Roman period, 1st-2nd century CE. Kelsey Museum, Ann Arbor.

I’m including these as examples of how weird grotesques can get— and to back up my theory that grotesques in ancient art are mainly just artists letting their imaginations go wild. While there’s undoubtedly inspiration from other figures in ancient art, I don’t think these figures have layers of hidden meaning. They’re just weird little dudes.

From museum description: “Imaginative grotesques perched on spindly columns sprouting foliage were popular wall painting motifs in the Augustan Age and beyond, but not all romans approved of them. The conservative Roman architect Vitruvius, in his Ten Books on Architecture (7.5) vigorously rejected the new taste for such fanciful images in favour of the illusionistic representations of reality.”

Up next: Renaissance and Baroque grotesques.

Sources

Dunbabin, Katherine M. D. Mosaics of the Greek and Roman World. Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pages 104-106.

Laws, Guitty Azatpay. "A Herodotean Echo in Pompeian Art?" American Journal of Archaeology 65, no. 1 (1961): 31-35.

Squire, Michael. “Fantasies so Varied and Bizarre”: The Domus Aurea, the Renaissance, and the “Grotesque”’, in M. Dinter and E. Buckley (Eds.), The Blackwell Companion to the Age of Nero (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell), Pp. 444–464. 2012.

[mailmiocuoredipietratremaancora]

[nomadicrusalka]

I LOCKED IN!!!

One of the world locations for my project, with some lore sprinkled in~ Koba so far has only been mentioned here and there, but don't worry I will make a character sheet for him too at some point,,, If you would like to support my art and works like these, then feel free to check out my ko-fi! <3

[blueiscoool]

House of the Vettii

Pompeii home owned by former slaves reopens.

The House of the Vettii, known as Pompeii's Sistine Chapel, has reopened to the public for the first time in 20 years after an extensive restoration.

The house, built in the second century BC, was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.

It was named after its owners, the Vettii brothers, two former slaves.

Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus got wealthy by selling wine after they were freed.

Adorned in mythological frescos and phallic sculptures, the house reopened on Tuesday after years of restoration work.

Excavation works carried out between late 1894 and early 1896 showed that the ancient Roman townhouse, built on top of the ruins of an earlier house, had survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

"The owners, freedmen and ex-slaves, are the expression of a social mobility that would have been unthinkable two centuries earlier," said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

He added that the brothers became rich by trading agricultural products from the surrounding area in Pompeii - but added that prostitution was also practiced in their house.

In the house, the Greek god of fertility and abundance, Priapus, is depicted in a fresco weighing his own phallus against a bag of money.

Ornate furnishings inside the house, as well as Greek and Roman sculptures in bronze and marble, offer a glimpse into the lifestyle of the elite.