wasuntil the end of the Tufa period. The decoration of the tablinum has a band along the baseof the wall (a dado), which is mounted by painted and stuccoed imitations of large stoneblocks (orthostates). These blocks are outlined and give a good idea of the colorfulnesstypical of this style(red, yellow, orange and green). In this style there is no figuration orornamental motifs. The wall is divided into three horizontal zones and the top area was apainted cornice. There is no hidden symbolism or religious meaning in this particularpainting. It is probably been done at the late phase of the style, the individual field wereonce again enclosed in a real three-dimensional framework of stucco rather than relyingonly on illusionistic painting. ( Kraus 165) The Second Style, also called architectural, became popular in the years whenSullas military colony was established, around 80 B.C. The decoration on the wallsproposed perspective views with architectural elements illusionistically articulated ondifferent planes with foreshortenings and complex perspetive effects which culminated inbreaking through the wall towards an imaginary open space. The immediate models werethe illusionistic stage sets of the Hellenistic-Roman theater and the new baroquefashions of 2nd-1st cent. B.C. architecture. (Giuntoli 6). Some scholars have argued thatthis style also has precedents in Greece, but most believe that is roman invention. The aimof this style painters was not to create the appearance of elegant marble walls, but ratherto dissolve the confining walls of a room and replace them with the illusion of a threedimensional world constructed in the artists imagination. It seems he is inviting us into hisworld. In the cubiculum 16, in the Villa of the Mysteries, we can see how this style ischaracterized by painted columns breaking through the picture plane, architectural vistasteasing the eye with perspective recessions (Pompeii 1). It seems that the aim o...
