A Study on Effects of Decorative Interior Wall Paintings of the antique Rome on the Scientific Perspective

고대 로마의 실내 장식벽화가 과학적인 원근법에 미친 영향 연구

  • Published : 2002.09.01

Abstract

Under the assumption that techniques of interior decoration often frequently used by people of the antique Greece and Rome became basis for scientific perspective in the period of Renaissance, this study analyzed characteristics of wall paintings excavated as relics of the antique Greece and Rome. The result of the study can be summarized as follows ; (1) Decorative wall paintings which were and have been excavated from relics of the antique Roman cities are characterized by single and multiple point techniques as their perspective. The two techniques were later adapted by people of the Baroque in the 16th century who recognized and expressed space through putting it into a certain framework. (2) Such antique wall paintings drawn using the technique of single point clearly indicate that the technique was not fully created in the period of Renaissance but developed by people of the antique Greece and Rome. Unlike its present form, the technique was unsophisticated and poor in many respects when first created. Since then, it has become manipulated as spatial recognition has been developed in various ways. (3) Illustrations on vase surfaces or wall-decorative painting panels of the antique Greece were painted mainly through the technique of multiple points which helped changes in the sense of space. The technique were later complied with by the theory of cubism which was emerged in the late 19th century. In other words, the technique was developed over times into a basis of the theory. (4) Some of the antique Roman and Greek wall paintings were drawn by using the method of single point perspective. When the height of the wall foundation, 90cm, as specified in [Ten Books of Architecture] by Vitrubius, the viewpoint for the method almost complied with the height of spectators' view, or 150cm. This height is almost same as the height of the view point employed by wall paintings in the Renaissance period.

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