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

over the pedestal. We may suppose that the wall had ended below the plant motif because perhaps below, at the wall, was one of the built-in couches of the triclinium. In the different zones the motifs and colours repeat themselves in the same manner. The astragalus pattern of the medallion of the main field appears also within the border of the medallions separating from each other the picture fields of the stucco-decoration. The copper crater of the pedestal appears also in the stucco-decoration. The elements of the border motifs of the main field appear reciprocally among the patterns of each other. Water-side birds are present not only on the pedestal but also on the medallion of the main field and on the stucco decoration. The uniform application of colours, motifs and proportions in the different zones of the wall-painting demonstrates their belonging to the same wall or same room, as well as it is the expression of a concordance, unity and harmony. The tripartition of the main field, the division of the surface into narrower, wider and again narrower fields are repeated in the division of the picture fields of the stucco-decoration and of the picture fields of the pedestal, that is the middle field was decorated with more complex scene(s) on a wider surface. The repeat and rhythm of the red-black colours of the main zone have a parallel in the repeat of the plant-animal-plant motifs in the stucco-decoration. The dating of the wall-painting of the Red Dining Room During the 1904 ploughing were found those fragments which were published by Gy. Rhé in his publication entitled "Balácza" on Table IV. as fragments nos. 1. and 2.

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, that is they belong to the wall-paintings of the yellow-lilac room. During the systematic excavations carried out after this, between 1906 and 1926, several fragments of wall-paintings came to light.

259 In his publications written after the excavations Gy. Rhé gave detailed analysis of wall-painting fragments, determined by him as belonging to his groups I. and II.

260 These fragments came to light from the same place, that is below the terrazzo floor of the corridor 4. of the main building No. I. in a large quantity and in a relatively good condition. The red fragments, together with the fragments with lilac- and black background and with the fragments representing the harvest scene

261 were found in the same layer of levelling. These red fragments decorated two rooms with Red-Black background.

262 Gy. Rhé thought that the wall-painting with red background, studied by myself, and described here, together with the other fragments assigned by him to his group I., belonged to the decoration of a building, built earlier than the main building No. I. He connected it with the Third Pompeian Style and according to him it was dating from about 100 A.D.

263 L. Nagy, in his study written on the wall-paintings of Pannónia assigned the red fragments of Baláca, together with the other wall-paintings of the group I. of Gy. Rhé, to the group of Western Pannonian wall-painting, established by him. On the basis of the stylistic characteristics, architectural elements, motifs and the palette of colours he determined that the fragments were dating from the turn of the l

st-2

nd centuries A.D., that is exactly from the tens and twenties of the 2

nd century A.D.

264 and connected them with the Fourth Pompeian Style.

265 In the 1950s E. B.Thomas had reconstructed a great part of the wall-paintings found at Baláca and displayed them in exhibitions.

266 The wall-paintings belonging to the group I. of Gy. Rhé, together with the fragments belonging to a room called by her the Red Dining Room, she connected with the period of the Fourth Pompeian Style and stated that they dating from