f the artistis to make the room look larger, and also appears deeper than it really is. He uses brightcolors to achieved these effects. There is an optical effect stronger than the one of theFirst Style.The Third Style, or ornamental, was a reaction to the illusionism of Style II,together with the preference for a more classic typical art of the Augustan period. Paintersno longer wanted to replace the walls with three-dimensional worlds of their own creation.Instead they decorated the homes of rich Romans with delicate linear fantasies, The wallsare once more simple flat surfaces which mark the boundaries of an enclosed space aresubdivided horizontally and vertically into monochrome areas articulated by slenderarchitectural and decorative elements. The focal point is a painting in the center, generallyof mythological, religious or idyllic subject, set inside an aedicule flanked by panels withsmall scenes suspended in the center which depict miniature figures and landscapes.(Giuntoli 7). In the North wall of the red cubiculum, from the Villa of Boscotrecase, inthe Museo Nazionale, Naples, we have one of the best examples of the 3rd Style. The villawas owned by Agrippa Postumus and was decorated about 11 B.C. We can see here, alandscape, in the middle of the red wall, representing a sacred precint dominated by thestatue of a seated goddess. It measures only 15 by 179, and it was appropriate to thishall of 198 by 29, one of the largest in Pompeii. It does not fill the whole wall as in theThird Style, now is only a picture in every central wall. It is almost square and has smallerdimensions. The artist wanted to give us the impression of a picture hanging on the wall.The colors have changed from lively reds, greens and oranges to broken tones, combiningsoft browns, a green somewhat on the blue side and an unusual violet. Now, we begin tosee a contour around the figures.The Fourth Style, became popular in the period of Claudius and Nero, w...
