K. Palágyi Sylvia szerk.: Balácai Közlemények 2008/10. (Veszprém, 2008)

KIRCHHOF, ANITA: The decorative system and reconstruction of the red dining room at Baláca - A balácai vörös ebédlő dekorációs rendszere és rekonstrukciója

length of the picture strips (without the medallions) of the stucco found in the room No. 11. at Baláca is about 47,1 cm for the red field and 39,5 cm for the green one. On the basis of the possible dimensions we may state that when the length of the picture strips was determined, the one and a half Roman feet was taken as a starting point to the measuring out the picture fields. A construction of a field longer than this and its filling with agitated, overcrowded representations would hinder the spectator to interpret the scenes. When the length values are estimated the length of the Balatonfüred stucco does not cover those of the Baláca stuccos because its dimensions are visibly larger. (Fig. 27.) At both ends of the composed band the medallions are present, that is they mark the full length, however, because it is mounted, now we are unable to judge whether the fragments could fit into each other or not. In the reconstruction the figures of the tree and of the man are considerably elongated and the spaces between the animals which are filled in with plaster cast are rather large. The present reconstructed length of the field together with the medallion is 60 cm, and counting only the surface length of the fragments we get an approx. 56,5 cm long band, including the medallion. Without the medallion the length of the picture field is 50,5 cm. The reconstructed approx. 60 cm length corresponds to two Roman feet. The différence in the length of the Baláca and Balatonfüred picture field can be explained by the differences as regards their dimensions. Within the decorative system the painters did not take an effort to create an accurating arrangement. Though the main motifs, the tree-man-escaping animals, are present in the scene, yet scattered, in a loose arrangement, farther from each other with airy empty spaces left between them. The study of the similarities and différences of the three stuccos (Red Dining Room, room No. 11. and Balatonfüred ones) suggests that they were made within the same period and that at least two teams of painters worked synchronously in the region, using pattern books of similar contents. The use of patternbooks is proved by the identical order of the background colours of the picture fields in the two different settlements, by the identical character of the scenes represented in the picture fields as well as by the hunting scenes (with animals escaping from the hunters, the presence of trees) appearing at every painting. The picture fields are closed by medallions in a similar manner, only their background colours are different and at the contact of the blue and red background fields there is the representation of the windpersonification, only in a somewhat different manner. The painting of the motifs was similar, too: with white coat of painting over a blue background colour. The motifs of the main field appear on the stucco decoration - that is in the instance of the Red Dining Room the border of the medallion is an astragalus pattern, and the upper fillet of the stucco decoration of the Balatonfüred villa is lapped around by red-green ribbons similarly to the slight columns

113 with ribbons which form the border of the candelabrums of the Red Dining Room. Presumably this motif was present in the decoration of the lateral wall at Balatonfüred as well. But what is the reason of the lilac colour of the red fields of the stucco decoration of the room No. 11. at Baláca and of the Balatonfüred stucco while the colour of the red background field of the Red Dining Room is red? The answer is given by the other parts of the wall-painting. In the main field of the Red Dining Room the large-size red panels are divided by black candelabrums, therefore the red band of the stucco decoration had to match the colours of the panels of the main field. On the basis of the fragments found in the store-room the stucco-decoration of the room No. 11. of Baláca had to be continued in larger yellow panel fields, following a blue band and a festoon consisting of guttiform green leaves. Besides the stucco fragments also