This week, I'm painting a cityscape in that blue portion of the mural that suggests a window, but which so far has looked very blank and flat. My intention is to create fantasy architecture as the Pompeians would, and also to add some depth to the mural.
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| L'Ornement Polychrome, Series I & II | Auguste Racinet, 1873 |
During the Third Style of Pompeian mural painting, which I described
here, a unique depiction of architecture evolved. At a glance one sees buildings, but upon closer inspection, the structures are usually simply multi-layered facades with elongated, spindly columns, much like stage settings. The Pompeians were avid theater-goers, and it is as though they desired theatrical backdrops in their homes, for the drama of their own lives.
Before I started painting my urban area, I deliberated over what colors to use. I initially considered using blues and grays, which would have given the impression of distance. In the end, though, I decided to use golds and greens to complement the Muse of Architecture, the garlands, and the trophy walls.
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| michiganexposures.blogspot.com |
The caryatids that I've incorporated into my city's grand arch were designed by Henry Hering for Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.
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| click to enlarge | Karl Friedrich Schinkel: A Universal Man |
The city's striated green marble was inspired by the red marble panels of the Altes Museum in Berlin, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel between 1822-1830.
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| click to enlarge |
The pediment of my mural temple
is the same proportion and design as
the pediment of my house, seen below.
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| click to enlarge |
Above is the finished city.
Note that the temple is open to the front and back,
and that the temple door is
a portal, within a portal, within a portal, within a portal.
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| click to enlarge |
I hope you'll join me next week
when I include an element above the city's grand arch!
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Hello Mark, I love architectural landscapes, and yours is a beauty, with symbolic elements beautifully painted. I love the way you have incorporated the exterior of your house into this mural. With all the excitement of watching your Pompeian dining room develop, I had forgotten about your previously-featured neoclassical porch, which of course was biding its time, waiting to make its appearance.
ReplyDelete--Jim
Hello, Jim,
DeleteThank you for such a generous comment! Years ago, when I bought my current house, I looked at a very plain but symmetrical Florida house and saw how it could become Neoclassic. And as I got more into the renovation of the front, which was largely cosmetic, I began to think of the house as my temple. So it was only natural that as I designed a temple, I should think of my house!
Dear Mark - like Jim I am delighted that you are incorporating so many little details that pertain specifically to yourself. I am glad that you pointed out the portal within the portal........what a brilliant effect you are creating.
ReplyDeleteDear Rosemary,
DeleteI enjoyed adding a tiny detail of my own house to the mural. I had even considered adding the house's inscription, but its length would not have matched the proportion of the mural's temple. (But I will get some lettering in other parts of the mural soon!)
Marvelous, Mark! The layering of portals is genius!! Perhaps add a column with an urn or fountain at the end of the axis? Very handsome work. Loi
ReplyDeleteThank you, Loi! The blank space in the temple door appeals to me because I like that the layering of portals is in a sense space cubed, and that the doorway could therefore perhaps be symbolic of a portal to another dimension. But you're not the first person to suggest that I might fill it . . . and I might.
DeleteHello Mark,
ReplyDeleteThis is a triumph by way of addition to your Pompeii Room. Including a landscape really does add a significant interest and makes the eye travel inwards into the painting, so making the whole seem much more alive and the room bigger. We love the way in which the portals enter other portals which in turn lead one through yet more. This is rather reminiscent of an Escher work, but without the problem of where is the front and where is the back!
Hello, Jane and Lance,
DeleteI am a great admirer of Escher, and once tried my hand at a drawing with the feel of an Escher optical illusion. I sent it as a gift to E. B. White, with whom I exchanged several letters, and he seemed pleased with it. Nonetheless, I realized through the experiment what a genius M. C. Escher really was!
Dear Mark, Absolutely fabulous. And another fantastic surprise. Can't wait to see what element you will paint above the city's grand arch.
ReplyDeleteI know that I have no business suggesting anything that I would like to see added. Me thinks that your city needs a foothold, a terrace with stairs leading down or something similar. I see that the base lines up with your other side panels and you have painted below them as well. You are always full of surprises and no doubt you already have something designed for that space.
Your city is a brilliant idea and again, so expertly painted.
Dear Gina,
DeleteThank you for a lovely comment. I always enjoy your suggestions; it's interesting and rewarding to know what other people visualize. But you are right that I already have a special element in mind for the lower panel, and I think that with your love of gilt, it will appeal to you especially!
Hello Mark,
ReplyDeleteLove your blog and read it whenever I can. Your Pompeii room is spectacular, and I love reading the updates about it. You obviously have a firm grasp of Pompeii art and architecture, as well as vast knowledge of these two fields themselves.
As a lifelong Chicago suburbanite, though, I have to let you know that the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum of Natural History are two different places: see websites below. Sounds as though Hering designed the caryatids for both buildings, from what I've read online. They are both excellent museums in the wonderful city of Chicago, and I hope you are able to visit them both someday.
www.msichicago.org, 5700 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60637
www.fieldmuseum.org, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605
Sincerely,
Elisabeth Carrel
Dear Elizabeth,
DeleteThank you for visiting (for all of your visits) and for taking the time to correct my mistake! I was misled by one of the sources I used, and have edited this posting to reflect your comment. Thanks again.
I actually visited both the Museum of Science and Industry and the Field Museum of Natural History when I lived in Park Forest back in the 1950s, though I never heard the words "Field" used in relation to the natural history museum. My family moved away from the Chicago area when I was only 12, but I still have fond memories of the city. You might imagine that as a 10- and 11-year-old, my biggest impression of the Field Museum was of the mummies and shrunken heads displayed there!!
Dear Mark,
DeleteGlad you have seen both museums. They're well worth seeing again if you ever find yourself in Chicago again. Not to mention the Art Institute of Chicago, of course!
Sounds like you are a man after my late uncle's heart. When he was a preteen (!) during World War II and just after, he was allowed to take the streetcar (long gone) from his South Side neighborhood to the Field Museum to see his favorite exhibits: you guessed it, the shrunken heads and the mummies.
Best,
Elisabeth
Maybe you can here me chuckling . . .
DeleteHello Mark and everything is coming together splendidly. Also many thanks for the time and effort you are putting into these posts including the top-views which so help the imagination-impaired among us (probably just me!) Just love watching the progress on this amazing project.
ReplyDeleteHello, Barbara,
DeleteI'm glad my birdseye view helps! Before I began the postings, I had considered making a three-dimensional model — like an architect would use — but thought this system actually worked a lot better.
Mark, you are an incredible person! Your work is so stunning that I find it difficult to say more effectively what others have already said. Beautiful, beautiful. Each post is exciting--everything falls into place, and makes perfect sense. Thanks for giving all of us the experience watching you work. Did you film any of your days working on this project? Would love to see more.
ReplyDeleteHi, Mrs. D!
DeleteThank you for your generous comment; it gives me great pleasure to share this project, which is actually a very small room.
I have not filmed any part of the project, but I was very conscious before starting that I would photograph each stage. That's been an interesting experience for me because it has required that I paint in the order that things will be revealed, rather than in a way that might be easier in terms of using up hand-mixed colors!
So fabulous. Somehow, Mark, you've incorporated movement into this panel showing the city within a city. It is not static at all. Have you given any thought to putting a book together on this project? I think you definitely should think hard about it.
ReplyDeleteDear Yvette,
DeleteMy blogging friend Gina, of ginaceramics.blogspot, has also suggested a book, one like she did for her own ceramics. (I've put a link below to what she did.) I'm definitely thinking about it, especially since the suggestion is coming from different directions, like your own. So thanks!
http://ginaceramics.blogspot.com/2014/09/my-book-has-arrived.html