Pompeii No.28: The Golden Tripod

In my last two postings, I created a sense of depth in the mural's window panel by painting a cityscape in the background and then hanging an olive branch in the foreground. I could have heightened the illusion of foreground by having the olive branch partially obscure the cityscape, but I didn't want to go that route.

So this week, I'm going to accentuate the mural foreground by painting an authentic Pompeian tripod in the area below the cityscape.

photo-illustration, Mark D. Ruffner

The Romans made sacrifices to their many gods at stone altars, and they also conducted rituals and made offerings using bronze tripods. The Greeks before them had done the same, and gave tripods to important citizens as gifts for their civic service.

Shapero Rare Books   |   villageantiques.ch

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) created many fine etchings of ancient Rome, including these two fantastic tripods, above.

click to enlarge   |   sources below

Pompeii, Coarelli, Riverside   |   The Treasury of Ornament, Dolmetsch, Portland House

Tripods in Pompeii were no less finely designed, and above is one of the more famous ones. It comes from the estate of a wealthy Pompeian woman named Julia Felix, daughter of Spurius. On the left is a photograph and on the right is a Victorian era representation of the same tripod. As you can see, the Victorians were wont to exclude certain details.

Period Paper   |   amazon.com 

An equally well-known Pompeian tripod is pictured above, and this is the one that I'll incorporate into my own Pompeian Room.

click to enlarge

I could have rendered the tripod in a green to give the impression of a bronze with patina, but as with the cityscape, I wanted this new element to pick up some of the existing colors of the mural.

click to enlarge

I have no evidence that the Pompeians would have used a white cloth for a ritual, but I have included it for three reasons:

• I want to fill more of the alaea* panel without otherwise crowding it,
• I do want to give the impression that a rite is happening before the temple, and
• I want whatever I place in the basket to stand out against a lighter background.

*Sherwin Williams calls the color of that lower panel alaea. "Alae" (in an ancient Roman house) referred to an alcove opening into a larger room or courtyard. I was unaware of that when I chose the color, but love the serendipity of the choice!

click to enlarge

 Next week I'll be filling the tripod's basket.

I hope you'll join me then!

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