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Imperial Styles, Frontier Solutions: Roman Wall Painting Technology in the Province of Noricum

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Conservation and Restoration of Historic Mortars and Masonry Structures (HMC 2022)

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Abstract

Most of today’s Austria was part of the alpine province of Noricum, formally incorporated into the Roman Empire in the first century C.E. As trade flourished the area was quickly Romanized and this is reflected by surviving wall paintings exhibiting high proficiency in painting and plastering technique and utilizing precious and rare pigments.

This contribution examines the differences that can be found in roughly contemporaneous Roman wall paintings from Noricum. In the context of an ongoing study of Roman pigments, the chemical profile of the top paint layers of plaster fragments in museum collections that displayed monochrome and large-scale application of commonly available Egyptian Blue and expensive Cinnabar/Vermillion were analysed semi-quantitatively by portable XRF. Then stratigraphic cross sections of wall painting samples were made from a selection of plaster fragments that included every plaster preparation layer down to the arriccio. These were examined by light microscopy, SEM/EDX and digital image analysis. Through this process, this study intended to determine if there is a correlation between changes in pigment production and painting and plastering technique.

These methods were able to reveal the technical differences in how wall paintings were prepared and how pigments were used in different ways at several Roman sites of Noricum. The sites closer to Italia province showed artisanship more closely resembling that used in the central Empire, while those further north evolved a unique style. This finding reflects trade routes and the development of regional techniques in the Alpine area.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Samples from Iuvavum and Flavia Solva were analysed using a Tescam MIRA II LMU SEM coupled with a Bruker EDX detector using the same settings at ITAM, Prague 9 (see co-authors above).

  2. 2.

    The iron content is “less bright” than the mercury in SEM due to mercury’s additional shell of valence electrons that give a stronger signal when excited by the electron beam. This allows for their easy selection and deletion in Photoshop®.

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Acknowledgments

ASR’s project on wall painting fragments from Noricum received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 845075. ASR’s project on wall painting fragments from Ephesus has received OeAI-internal funding for travel expenses and XRF-instrument use during fieldwork at Ephesus. The work of AJB and PB was funded in part through the above, and in collaboration with Johannes Weber at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Applied Arts, Vienna Salzgries 14/1, 1013, Vienna, Austria

    Anthony J. Baragona

  2. Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prosecká 809/76, 190 00, Prague 9, Czech Republic

    Pavla Bauerová

  3. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thákurova 7/2077, 166 29, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Pavla Bauerová

  4. Research Group Object Itineraries, Department of Historical Archaeology, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Franz Klein-Gasse 1, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Alexandra S. Rodler

  5. Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, USZ 2, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Alexandra S. Rodler

Authors
  1. Anthony J. Baragona
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  2. Pavla Bauerová
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Correspondence to Anthony J. Baragona .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Violeta Bokan Bosiljkov

  2. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Andreja Padovnik

  3. Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Tilen Turk

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Baragona, A.J., Bauerová, P., Rodler, A.S. (2023). Imperial Styles, Frontier Solutions: Roman Wall Painting Technology in the Province of Noricum. In: Bokan Bosiljkov, V., Padovnik, A., Turk, T. (eds) Conservation and Restoration of Historic Mortars and Masonry Structures. HMC 2022. RILEM Bookseries, vol 42. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31472-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31472-8_1

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