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

proportions the construction of the lateral wall could be completed. It is possible that after the adjustment the exact dimensions of the fields would be, though only slightly, modified. At its top the wall-painting was decorated and closed in its full length by a stucco-decoration in painting. Between the stucco fillets, made to be plastic by shading, picture fields having alternating red, green and blue background colours and displaying scenes of narrative character, follow each other. In the subsequent picture bands a oneway movement from the sea towards the land seems to be appear, elaborated on two walls of the room as if they were the mirror images of each other. The division of the coloured picture strips into shorter-wide-shorter fields follows the division of the main zone. In the middle, wider picture fields of the picture bands with red background colour complex land scenes, hunting, the carrying home of the game, the offering of a sacrifice, perhaps just in connection with the success of the hunting, boxing scene, the essential paraphernalia of which are on a small table, are represented. In the green picture strips a water-side scene is repeated and in the blue strips following them fantastic marine monsters are swimming together with dolphins. In the picture bands of the stucco-decoration the environments of the animals served up as meals, their capture, and the amusing scenes during the supper are represented as putting the guests in the mood. Furthermore, the representation of grotesque figures in every scene served also the entertainment. The painted stucco-decoration in reliefs of the room No. 11. at Baláca was completed within the same period as the wall-painting of the Red Dining Room and the same painters worked on it. Considering also the decoration of the Balatonfüred villa where the background colours are alternating in the same manner as they do at the Baláca stuccos and on the basis of the identical topics and stock of motifs we may conclude to the circulation of the same pattern book, which is not necessarily connected to the activity of the same workshop. The stock of motifs and the coloured picture strips of two stucco-decorations of the villa at Virunum in Noricum correspond to those of the painted stuccos at Baláca. On the basis of these finds the circulation of the same pattern book in Noricum and in the inner part of Pannónia is supposed. While on the contemporaneous wall-paintings of the Pannonian towns along the limes the stucco -decoration with painted pictures strips is present, and their stock of motifs and the choice of the colours applied are also similar, the assortment of the combination of the scenes as well as the construction of the picture fields are quite different. On the basis of these important differences we can state that within the same period different pattern books circulated and were used along the limes and in the inner part of Pannónia. In the medallions of the main zone the materials of meals prepared for cooking were represented. In the picture fields the courses of the supper (and perhaps also of the first dishes) were represented. The series of still life scenes starts with eggs and ends with the fruits. The importance of the main meal, the meat course, was emphasized by its position within the middle, wider field and also by the application of certain pictorial edffects as well as by the conscious choice of the proportions directing the attention of the spectator towards ther main field even if he/she is at a farther distance. The homogeneous red surfaces were interrupted by the carefully elaborated, realistic, animated representation of vine arbour. In the picture fields bordered by vine-tendrils Dionysiac mask and bird picking grapes are represented. At each side of them the candelabrums were bordered by columns, bringing about an impression as if between the columns one may cast a glance on the vine-arbour in the garden and as if the meal itself had happen partly in the room, partly in the garden. On the pedestal zone we may see the well-known water-side scene, with the difference that