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

picture fields of the candelabrums served not only to put ones in the mood but also, by creating an ideal environment, enhanced the spirit of the evening and of the feast (convivium). The vine-tendrils, bunches of grapes and vine-leaves were painted by free-hand. Below the motifs mentioned before, where the motif had worn off, the black background appears. The colour of the vine-tendrils was composed of two kinds of brown colours (a dark brown and a lighter yellow ochre), on them the light and shade effect was brought about by light yellow or white colours. Every bunch of grape consists of bluishred grapes, they belong presumably to the same species. (Fig. 23.) So far we could not reconstruct a whole bunch from the fragments available for us and representing grapes, presumably a bunch consisted of at least 10 and at a maximum of 25 grapes. In the middle the bunch is somewhat narrowed, and two leaves are connected to this narrowed part. The bunches joint with the tendrils by a yellow stem which was divided into several parts at the bunch. Those grapes which were in the foreground were painted by lighter hues, while the ones being in the middle and in the background had a darker tint. With the light and shade effect they add the representation a plasticity. The centre of the grapes in the foreground is red, often with red-ruby-greyish white spots, their lower contour is bright white, their upper contour is a duller greyish white. The centre of the grapes in the middle is claret, they lower contour is painted by a red or pink strip, their upper contour was painted with faint pink, grey of white colour. The centre of grapes in the background, in the shadow, is claret, their whole contour is faint claret or greyish white. At the top of every grape there are 3-5 small lines, the colour of which is identical to that of their upper contour, however, sometimes with a plus bluish tint, to represent the convexity of the grapes. On the wall-painting at Baláca representing the so-called Dionysus the Child, the god holds in his left hand a bunch of grapes, the form and elaboration of which are identical with those of the bunches of grapes of the Red Dining Room.

221 The bunches of light grapes and vine-leaves on a wall-painting from Pompeii, now in the Archeological Museum in Naples, had been painted in the same manner as the grapes at Baláca.

222 Similarly, the grapes in the foreground have a lighter hue, the back ones are orange coloured. The convexity of the grapes is represented by 4-5 small lines, the contours were painted by different colours. The proportions of the bunches of grapes in the Red Dining Room seem to be similar to those of a bunch of grapes can be seen on a ceiling-decoration in Reims displaying a vintage scene.

223 On one of the ceiling paintings of the Baláca villa there is a vintage scene with yellow bunches of grapes. The painting of the grapes, bunches and leaves has a character differing from that of the red bunches of grapes of the candelabrums in the Red Dining Room.

224 Presumably the two paintings were made by different groups of artists and by different hand. In Pannónia from the territory of the legionary fortress in Aquincum a wall-painting represents a qualus basket full of red bunches of grapes.

225 On another wall-painting, also found in Aquincum, also bunches of red grapes are represented.

226 In the so-called Hercules villa in the Military Town of Aquincum there is a mosaic floor displaying a Dionysiac thiasos bordered by vinestocks trained on a trellis, and in its apsis represents a vine arbour.

227 Bunches of grapes were favourite elements of the still life scenes on Pompeii wall-paintings, as well.

228 The surfaces outside of the bunches of grapes and of picture fields were filled in besides the bunches by vine-leaves of larger or smaller dimensions. The artists made effort to give a realistic representation of the leaf when they divied it into three parts. Their margins have a half green colour and at the meeting of the three parts the leaf was painted with a green in pastel shades.