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The Kingscote Wall-Paintings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

E. J. Swain  and
R. J. Ling
E. J. Swain
Affiliation:
Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, Paris
R. J. Ling
Affiliation:
Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique, Paris
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Extract

During the early stages of excavation at the Chessalls, Kingscote, Gloucestershire (ST 8065 9608) late in 1975, several large fragments of wall-plaster were exposed in the destruction debris of an early-fourth-century building with mortared stone walls. Subsequent excavation revealed that the plaster was lying in situ, face up and face down, concertina fashion, as it had fallen. Dr Norman Davey gave instruction and assistance in the lifting of this material and it was removed to his workshop in Potterne, near Devizes, for reconstruction to be carried out. As a result of several months of painstaking work Dr Davey was able to restore large areas of a mural painting or paintings, which will shortly be put on exhibition in the Corinium Museum, Cirencester.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 12 , November 1981 , pp. 167 - 175
Copyright
Copyright © E. J. Swain and R. J. Ling 1981. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 See Britannia viii (1977), 413Google Scholar; ix (1978), 456; x (1979), 322; and the annual reports, Kingscote Archaeological Association, The Chessalls Excavations, Kingscote (1977–1980).

2 One of the authors (E.J.S.), however, believes that the fragments with this ‘marbling’ come from a ceiling-decoration.

3 e.g. in Rome the marine painting of the house under the church of Ss. Giovannie Paolo, perhaps dating to the second half of the 3rd century (M. Borda, La pittura romana (1958), 320 f. with colour plate; cf. H. Mielsch, in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung (1978), 158, n. 30, with further bibl.) and those found under the palace of the Farnesina ai Baullari, perhaps mid 4th century (H. Mielsch, in Affreschi romani dalle raccolte dell'Antiquarium Communale (1976), 49–52, pls. xxv–xxx); for British material see below, p. 172. It is worth noting that Professor V. M. Strocka and Dr H. Mielsch, who have seen colour-slides of the paintings, felt on stylistic grounds that the proposed dating is too late; they preferred a Severan (or earlier) date.

4 The measurements given are in each case the maximum extent, horizontally and vertically, of the restored plaster. In doubtful cases the identification of the sex of figures is based on the flesh-colouring, normally in ancient painting darker for men.

5 e.g. A. Mau, Pompeji in Leben und Kunst (2nd ed., 1908), 355, pl. ix (4), fig. 188; S. Reinach, Repertoire de peintures grecques et romaines (1922), 94 (12, 13), 95 (1, 3, 4).

6 We are deeply indebted to Professor Toynbee for discussing, in correspondence, her ideas on the Kingscote painting. She does not necessarily agree with all the views expressed here.

7 But for the range of mythological personages who might wear the nimbus see e.g. D. Levi, Antioch Mosaic Pavements (1947), 289 and n. 12. On the history of the nimbus M. Collinet-Guérin, Histoire du nimbe (1961), and especially, for the Roman period, 203 ff., 263 ff.

8 Achilles on his feet: V. M. Strocka, Die Wandmalerei der Hanghäuser in Ephesos {Forschungen in Ephesos viii, 1) (1977), 107 f., n. 380: cf., for the sarcophagi, Baratte, F., ‘Un sarcophage d' Achille inédit’, Mélanges de l'École Françaisede Rome. Antiquité lxxxvi (1974), 773–812CrossRefGoogle Scholar (with bibl. on representations in other media: 809 ff.). Seated with lyre: ibid., 782 f.

9 R. Laur-Belart, Der spätrömische Silberschatz von Kaiseraugst (1967), fig. 1. cf. D. E. Strong, Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate (1966). pl, 59; J. P. C. Kent and K. S. Painter (eds.), Wealth of the Roman World (1977), 41.

10 Robert, C., Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs ii (1890), 31 f.Google Scholar, no. 23. We are grateful to Dr Susan Walker for obtaining a photograph for us.

11 Examples in the Louvre (Baratte, op. cit. (note 8), figs. 1, 8 and passim), the Vatican Museum (ibid., fig. 11), and the Villa Pamphili in Rome (Robert, op. cit. (note 10), ii, no. 33). cf. Baratte, op. cit. (note 8), 787.

12 H. Stuart-Jones (ed.), A Catalogue of the Ancient Sculptures Preserved in the Municipal Collections of Rome. The Sculptures of the Museo Capitolino (1912), 46 and pl. 9 top left (figure reclining on an urn and holding a sceptre), cf. Guerrini, L., in Studi miscellanei i (1958–1959), 43 f. (with full bibl.).Google Scholar

13 On goryti in general see Rätzel, W., ‘Die skythischen Gorytbeschläge’, Bonner Jahrbücher clxxviii (1978), 163–180Google Scholar, and for the Achilles series ibid., 172–6; cf. V. Schiltz, in Revue archéologique (1979), 307–9; Meyboom, P. G. P., in Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome xl (1978), 64 f.Google Scholar, pl. 33, figs. 30, 31. For another, somewhat different, version of Achilles’ leave-taking see possibly an Attic red-figure volute-krater by the Niobid Painter: Simon, E., American Journ. Arch, lxvii (1963), 57–61.Google Scholar

14 See especially the version from the House of the Dioscuri (Naples Museum inv. 9110): L. Curtius Die Wandmalerei Pompejis (1929), fig. 124.

15 Originally by B. V. Farmakovsky: cf. Rätzel, op. cit. (note 13), 174; Meyboom, op. cit. (note 13), 65. For another theory, which, like ours, places this scene on Scyros, see Reinach, T., in Revue archéologique 3rd ser., xxix (1896), 146–9.Google Scholar

18 This interpretation presupposes that Achilles' sex was originally unknown to Lycomedes and his daughters, as in Statius’ version of events (Achilleid i).

17 A cogent objection, however, is the lowness of the seat of Achilles, which is inappropriate to a palace (the traces of flowers in any case suggest an outdoor setting) and is at variance with other artistic representations of Achilles on Scyros (the British Museum sarcophagus and the lyre-playing scene).

18 I am most grateful to Madame Barbet for her comments on the painting, made when I presented a paper on the subject to a seminar in Cambridge on Roman provincial wall-painting (September, 1980). (R.J.L.). See Appendix.

19 e.g. painting from Otford (J.M.C. Toynbee, Art in Britain under the Romans (1964), 220) and mosaic from Lullingstone (ibid., 263 f., pl. lx a). Cf. the inscriptions on the Frampton mosaic (Toynbee, Art in Roman Britain (1962), pl. 234 and p. 203 nn. 1 and 2). Fragments of lettering occurred on paintings at Woodchester (S. Lysons, An Account of Roman Antiquities Discovered at Woodchester in the County of Gloucester (1797), pl. xxxl), and Greetwell (Lines.) (in Lincoln Museum: unpublished). The tiny scale and cursive script of the Kingscote inscription are, however, inappropriate for a ‘label’ like the examples cited. Another possibility, suggested to us by Dr Janet Huskinson, is that the ‘lettering’ belongs to a scroll or tablet represented within the painting; Dr Huskinson cites the letter which appears in depictions of the Phaedra legend.

20 Davey, N., in Britannia iii (1972), 265Google Scholar and 268, figs. 14, 15, pl. xxii (B).

21 R. M. Tanner and A. G. Giles, A Guide to the Excavations at Barton Field, Tarrant Hinton, Dorset (2nd ed., 1972), passim and pls. i-iv.

22 Davey, op. cit. (note 20), 268, fig. 16; J. Liversidge in I. M. Stead, Excavations at Winterton Roman Villa (1976), 276–280, figs. 139–141, pls. xxviii, xxix.

23 C. J. S. Green, The Funerary Wall Paintings and Cemetery at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset (B. A. dissertation, London, 1971); J. S. Wacher, The Towns of Roman Britain (1975), pl. 62; Liversidge, J. in Munby, J. and Henig, M. (eds.), Roman Life and Art in Britain, British Archaeological Reports xli (1977), 99 f., fig. 5.9.Google Scholar

24 G. W. Meates, Lullingstone Roman Villa (1955), 126 ff., figs. 10–12, pls. 42–46; J. M. C. Toynbee, Art in Britain under the Romans (1964), 221–7, pls. liv, lv.

25 D. J. Smith in A. L. F. Rivet (ed.), The Roman Villa in Britain (1969), 95–113; id., ‘Three fourth-century schools of mosaic in Roman Britain’, in Stern (ed.), La mosaique gréco-romaine (1965), 95–116; D. E. Johnston, ‘The central southern group of Romano-British mosaics’, in Munby and Henig, op. cit. (note 23), 195–215.

26 It is obviously possible that the mosaic and the murals were not applied at the same time, but they certainly existed together in the last phase of the building.

27 e.g. in room n of the Domus Uboni (ix 5, 2) and in the tablinum of the House of the Dioscuri; further examples in the lists compiled by K. Schefold, Vergessenes Pompeji (1962), 186–196. Generally on thematic or conceptual links within groups of paintings, Thompson, M. L., ‘The monumental and literary evidence for programmatic painting in antiquity’, Marsyas ix (1960–1961), 36–77.Google Scholar

28 The translation is by Roger Ling. Madame Barbet did not see piece X, which was in store at the time of her visit to Kingscote, and did not know that it joins the leg of the Cupid. Panel C cannot therefore belong in the position where she has hypothetically placed it.

29 A photograph taken at the time of the excavation in fact shows in this area several fragments not included in the restoration (R.J.L.).