dyeing linen

[Crispvs]

I think it is probably because quite a number of pieces of ancient art seem to follow the same compositional arrangements as each other, despite different subject matter, as if a craftsman asked to depict a certain subject then looked in his pattern book for a suitable composition to adapt to the need at hand.

There are a number of examples to strongly suggest this was often the case. The Alexander mosaic in Pompeii is widely believed to be a copy of a famous painting which was looted by Aemilius Paulus after his victory at Pydna and which afterwards hung in a position of prominence in Rome. I believe Pausanius describes the painting (although I do not have a copy to check) and the description seems to match the mosaic well, suggesting that a floor based on this and other well known works of art could be commissioned and produced according to detailed pattern books.

Next I would suggest that the number of famous Greek bronze statues by famous sculptors such as Praxiteles which survive only in Roman copies in marble would suggest that detailed descriptions including scale drawings were available for sculptors to use in making their own copies.

Next I would point out the similarity of Mithraic sculptures from widely differing locations, again strongly arguing in favour of standardised patterns.

The fact that standard compositions had been the way of things for quite some time was demonstrated by the frescoes revealed during the excavation of the Macedonian royal tombs at Vergina. The 'Rape of Persephone' scene could almost have been traced from pictures of other surviving Hellenistic frescoes, which it resembles not only in size but also in the positions and even the angles of the figures, despite the subject matter being different. In the same way, horsemen shown in frescoes from Vergina seem almost exactly the same as horsemen shown on the Alexander mosaic, despite them being separated by over three hundred years.

I am quite sure that someone better versed in ancient art than me could find many more examples than I have cited here, but I think that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that the existence of established pattern books of artistic designs is more likely than not to have been the case.

Crispvs