Abstract
This paper examines the first through fourth styles of Roman wall painting. The author discusses artistic methods used, such as incrustation, illusion, and naturalism with shadow and light. The paper also looks at the influences on each style, and includes images of Roman wall paintings.

From the Paper
"It is tempting to think of Roman art as all of a piece, a series of unchanging and perfect classical sculptures of perfect male bodies stretching far away into the distance. But this of course is a picture of Roman art so simplified as to be almost entirely inaccurate. Roman art changed dramatically over the hundreds of years of the classical empire's greatness as artists acquired new techniques and new materials and came into new ideas as the long political arm of Rome grew ever longer and more and more cultures came under its domain. This paper looks at how dramatically one medium of art "the wall painting" changed in just a couple of centuries, beginning with the painting in the Samnite House in Herculaneum as an example of the First Style of Roman Wall painting and ending with the wall paintings of the Domus Aurus of Nero from 64 to 68 C.E. "

Tags:hellenistic, style, samnite, house, pompeii, dimension, naturalism, illusion, perspective, domus, aurea, nero