Imitation alabaster: varieties and symbolism in Roman Painting

Abstract

Alabaster was one of the most prized stones in the ancient world. Its popularity forpavement and wall revetment in élite houses is confirmed by the increasing exploitationof its sources around the Mediterranean and its reproduction in the First, Second and Fourthstyle Roman paintings. Preliminary results of a survey of painted alabaster carried out bythe present authors at several Roman sites in the Vesuvian area identified high accuracy inthe reproduction of the variegated patterning of alabaster suggesting that Roman paintershad become acquainted with real varieties as they were imported into Italy. This paper willdemonstrate, through cases studies from Pompeii, Oplontisand Stabiae, that the imitationsare fairly faithful renderings of the most popular Egyptian and non-Egyptian alabastertypes. Moreover, the location of painted alabaster suggests that its use went beyondaesthetics and that, like real alabaster, it had an underlying symbolic message.