Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis. – Alba Regia. A Szent István Király Múzeum Évkönyve. 32. 2002 – Szent István Király Múzeum közleményei: C sorozat (2003)

Tanulmányok – Abhandlungen - Harsányi Eszter–Kurovszky Zsófia: Theoretical reconstruction of a room from the 3rd century A.D., excavated in Tác/Gorsium, based on information gathered during the excavation and the restoring process of the wall-painting fragments (Preliinary report). p. 35–42.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fitz 1990 J. FlTZ: A katonacsászárok kora. Pannónia régészeti kézikönyve (The archaeological handbook of Pannónia.) Budapest, 44-45. Ling 1991 R. LING: Roman Painting. Cambridge University Press. Schleiermacher 1995 M. SCHLEIERMACHER: Der Freskenraum von Nida. Salzburg Jahrbuch, XL VIII, 52-99. Fig. 1. Overview plan of the II—III century ruins excavated at Gorsium. The room to which the wall-painting fragments belong is indicated with a black dot. Plate V, Fig. 2. The picture shows the room from the South. Excavation of the internal fallen masonry and the walls ended in 1994. The highest point of the wall-painting remaining on the northern wall is 48-50 cm above the floor. The painting of the dado is 1 Roman foot high, its centre emphasized by a red disc. Above it there is an approximately 5 cm wide yellow stripe with a white border, followed by a red panel. (Photo by G. Nádorfi) Plate V., Fig. 3. The surface, assembled following the excavation, is from the fallen masonry of the eastern wall. Part of its fragments completely fit each other; the others were included here based on the place they were found at. (Photo by the authors) Plate V., Fig. 4. The decoration of the sidewalls with alternating wide red fields and candelabra panels with a black background was a popular and very decorative scheme, which, similarly to Italia, traditionally spread in Pannónia the same way as in other provinces of the Empire. The height of the red fields is not known yet, but based on the general 3:2 side proportion of similar panels, the reconstruction shows 6x4 Roman feet sized fields. (Reconstruction by the authors, computer-generated image by Z. Fuchs, master of architecture) Plate V, Fig. 5. The middle of the red fields on the walls were decorated as well, not within picture fields, but painted directly on the red background, as shown by a few fragments, such as a rose with green leaves. (Photo by the authors) Plate V., Fig. 6. Detail of the stucco-cornice imitation running along the upper stripe of the longitudinal walls. At the bottom part the yellow stripe with the white border, closing the fields of the walls at their top, while at the upper part the red stripe framing the ceiling composition can be seen. (Photo by the authors) Plate V, Fig. 7. The upper drawing is about the stucco-cornice imitation on the wallpainting, while the middle one is its "corrected" version. Based on this it may seem that there is a mistake in the painting of the two dimensional version of the plastic stucco-cornice. It is more probable that at the site the intention was not to depict real stucco-cornice transformed into two dimensions, even though the motifs had a plastic pre-figuration, imitating the original architectural structure. The two drawings at the bottom are made of different imagined stucco-cornices, which could have been the pre-figuration to the depiction at Gorsium. The ancient masters could naturally have painted the motif correctly, but most probably they simplified it for a more harmonic image. This airy, simplified version truly serves the purpose better than the "realistic" depiction. (Graphics by E. Harsányi) Plate V, Fig. 8. On the surface of the fragment from the south end of the eastern wall, where the ceiling and the wall join, it can be seen that under the yellow stripe with the white border a polished red field begins. (Photo by the authors) Plate V, Fig. 9. On the south candelabra panel of the eastern wall the painting of the decorative candelabra, composed of stylised leaves and trailers, has a plastic effect. The illuminated left side is depicted in light ochre; the shaded right side is depicted in dark ochre, while the highlights are painted with white. Its top is crowned by a bearded, still fragmented head of a male, similar to Neptune, turning into acanthus leaves at the bottom. (Photo by the authors) Plate VI., Fig. 10. At the upper part of the central candelabra panel of the eastern wall, on an imaginary leaf plate, the figure of a bird painted in pink, red, light blue and white appears. (Photo by the authors) Plate VI., Fig. 11. The surface with stylised leaves and trailers perhaps belong to the bottom of the candelabra panel on the central of the eastern wall. From among the opening petals, rising from the circle of acanthuses, two buds are growing upwards on each side, the same way as at the upper part of the candelabra painted in ochre colours. (Photo by the authors) Fig. 12. The longer sides of the room are 15 Roman feet, while its shorter sides are 10 Roman feet long, the proportion of which is 3:2, similarly to the proportion of the sides of the red fields. (Drawing by the authors) Plate VI., Fig. 13. Upper comer of the candelabra panel closing the eastern wall on the north, towards the northern wall, with remnants of mortar with brickdust on its surface. The surface of the fragment arches forward at the stucco-cornice motif, and plastering to the perpendicular wall shows at its left side. (Photo by the authors) Plate VI., Fig. 14. At the north-eastern corner, on the surface of the in situ dado painting remaining on the basementwall, remnant of a technique entirely different from the high quality painting of the room appears. Above the painted layer a rough layer of plaster, mixed with brick-dust, preserved. The remnants from mortaring with a so far unknown purpose can be well seen on the fragmented surface as well. The beginning of the wide red field is well visible above the remaining dado painting and the yellow stripe. (Photo by G Nádorfi) Plate VI., Fig. 15. On the theoretical reconstruction of the room the eastern, the northern, and the western walls appear. The white colour indicates the surfaces not known yet. In the medallions at the corners of the ceiling Spring was located in the north-western, and Summer was located in the northeastern corner. Therefore Autumn decorated the medallion of the southeastern, while Winter decorated the medallion of the south-western corner. (Reconstruction by the authors, computer-generated image by Z. Fuchs, master of architecture) 47