Kolor a przyjemność oglądania. Przypadek pompejańskiej Mozaiki Aleksandra
Colour and Pleasure of Viewing. The Case of the Alexander Mosaic in Pompeii

Author(s): Bogdan Burliga
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: colour; mosaics; painting; imitation; art
Summary/Abstract: The colour programme of the Aleksander Mosaic has not been the subject of separate studies so far. Researchers take up this issue when analyzing the statements of Pliny (in his „Natural History”) about the palette of four colors and the so-called colores floridi and colores austeri. Assuming that the Mosaic is a copy of a lost painting of Philoxenus of Eretria, I try to prove that the use of four colors resulted from an artist’s assumption that the pigments must be subordinated to the whole composition and should not dominate it, which was a condition for a well-understood art of imitating of nature. This conviction is in line with the remarks of many ancient thinkers, including Aristotle, although – as Vitruvius and Pliny testify – it was not scrupulously kept by ancient painters.

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