DOS Pompeian dancers of the Segovian “Retretito Regio”

Abstract

The discovery of the cities buried by Vesuvius in the 18th century conditioned the way in which Antiquity was understood by enabling a much closer examination of the daily life of ancient Rome. However, one of the areas that was most affected by this new knowledge was art. Numerous artists were subjected to a new stylistic current in which the predominance of classical elements influenced their development. This classical reception can be decisively distinguished in numerous works of art that were made after the key archaeological discoveries. The objective of the article is to analyze an essential example, the decoration of the so-called “Retretito Regio” of the Segovia City Council. In this designated space built in the 19th century, not only can we see the traces of Neoclassicism, so characteristic of the time, but we can also observe the use of several classical elements from Pompeian culture. The excavations and the diligence in which all their findings were documented, formed a learning path for many of the artists who were being trained and educated at that time. So, it was common for painters to resort to these classical motifs when they received commissions in which they had freedom of style, obtaining areas in which Pompeian decoration assumed a vast role. In conclusion, it is considered appropriate not only to acquire knowledge about this type of Pompeian decoration, which owned a certain prestige, but also comprehend the precepts that determined its use, and whether compositional schemes such as those presented in the Segovian space have been repeated afterwards.