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

yellow fragments came to light in the Balatonfüred villa.

114 With the knowledge of the fragments we may state that at Baláca the stucco ledge known from the room No. 11. decorated a Yellow-Lilac room, similarly to the stucco of Balatonfüred. ín these two latter instances, too, the stucco decorations had to match the colours of the lateral walls and since the already processed colours were used during the painting, the lilac field had got a background colour harmonizing with the red colour still with a lilac hue. Similarly, on the Balatonfüred stucco the yellow background colour of the medallion depends on the background colour of the main field, and because of the "red" field with lilac-colour it was not reasonable to paint a lilac-coloured medallion, therefore they decided the other background colour of the main field for it. At the same time on the stucco found in the room No. 11. at Baláca the painters let the lilac colour of the medallion remain, perhaps because of the lilac-coloured medallions of the Red Dining Room, or just the opposite. The colour of the lilac-reddish band is not homogeneous, here and there it is red and at some places it is dark lilac-coloured. In the instance of the unpublished Baláca fragment there was a lilac-coloured picture field below the painted stucco band while over it we may observe a green band, presumably closing the zone. (Fig. 5.) The fragment refers to another yellow-lilac composition. The differences between the Balatonfüred and Baláca stuccos provide for us a possibility to get information on the structure and character of patternbooks. The height of the picture strips is almost identical at the two Baláca finds (4,2-5 cm), while the Balatonfüred one is higher (5,7-6,5 cm). The larger dimension of the Balatonfüred decoration might be explained perhaps by its position within the building, that is it was at a higher place than the ones at Baláca. So in the Balatonfüred villa the larger figures with larger empty places between them can be seen and interpreted better from a longer distance. Because of the differences in the struccos of the two settlements we may suppose that the patternbooks contained the background colours of the scenes, the order of their alternations, the figures and the colours applied to paint them at least in the form of an enumeration and the painters used them according to their own intuition and skill. In this manner they composed the jumping-escaping deer, the small hind, the wind-personification and the tree representations. We may stay that the decoration of stuccos in both rooms at Baláca was elaborated by the same (or by the same two) ornament painter(s), while the the figures on the Balatonfüred stucco were painted most probably by another hand. This can be proved by the different elaboration of the wind-personifications, though we can detect some similarities in the painting of the animals and of the crown of the tree. On the basis of the Balatonfüred decoration we are able to reconstruct also the scenes on the red picture field found in the room No. 11. at Baláca, as a tree is followed by an escaping deer and by an escaping hind. (Fig. 27.) Painted stucco decorations are not unique finds among contemporary Pannonian wall-paintings. The stucco-decoration of a room found in the canabae of Brigetio"

5 was composed of alternating red and blue fields. Weithin the red fields there are winged figures, amors, while within the angular blue fields we can see scenes of combat between man and animal. Outside Pannónia stucco decorations with blue background picture fields elaborated in a manner very similar to that of the ones of Baláca and Balatonfüred were found in Virunum (Noricum). There the upper closing of one of the picture strips was created by a circular fillet, lapped around by red and blue ribbons, like in the strucco of Balatonfüred."

6 On another stucco fragment on a blue background there is a sea panther moving leftward, with a fragment of