The Mechanics of Commissioning a Roman Painting: How Patrons and Painters Contracted Materials and Labor (20 min)

Presenters

Hilary Becker, Binghamton University, SUNY

Abstract

In the first century B.C.E., the scribe Faberius commissioned a painter to paint the walls of his peristyle using the costly pigment cinnabar. Soon after, the red-painted wall turned black, prompting Faberius to make a new contract to have his walls repainted. This account from Vitruvius (de Arch. 7.9.2) prompts a question as to what went on when a painting was contracted. Considering this account, as well as other textual, juridical, and archaeological evidence provides ample testimony that makes it possible to understand the choices that Roman patrons and painters negotiated when commissioning and creating paintings. Some of these choices likely included what materials (e.g., how many layers of plaster, which pigments, and perhaps of what quality) and who was responsible for paying for them. Decorating a wall was not simply an act of artistic expression but was treated in a legal manner, similar to the way that other kinds of commissions, like public works contracts, were carried out.