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Bilder machen Räume: Mythenbilder in pompeianischen Häusern

This book is a thoroughly reworked and extended study based on Lorenz’s doctoral dissertation (180,000 words, 666 pages, 232 illustrations). It covers a large corpus of material which, given the considerable level of fragmentation, was time-consuming to compile, analyse, and document: all mythological decorations in Pompeian houses (some 500 pictures across 95 houses) are discussed. The work applies complex forms of enquiry, studying the material from three different perspectives (iconology, narratology, architectural sociology) whilst critiquing the extensive research in each of these areas. The material is extensively documented in an unusually large number of illustrations and drawings.

This book presents a systematic account of the use and function of Pompeian mythological frescoes as elements structuring the Roman domestic context. The study is in three parts: (i) an iconological analysis of the pictures, foregrounding their content, mythological and other; (ii) a narratological assessment of the pictures in combination with each other; (iii) an analysis of the distribution of the pictures across different room types and houses. The argument applies art-historical and sociological methods to map the role of myth as a means of social communication in the early imperial period, thereby contributing to a History of Seeing.