Viminacium’s painting officinal

Abstract

The archaeological research of Viminacium, the biggest city of the Roman provinces of Moesia Superior and Moesia Prima in Late Antiquity, (which has been in progress for over a century) resulted in numerous exceptional finds among which were wall paintings. The Viminacium officina was active from the 2nd to the 5th century AD, and works of art different by their topics as well as by the quality of production originated from it. The wall paintings come from different locations; in this paper, those from public buildings – the Amphitheatre and Thermae – as well as tomb painting, will be presented. The heritage of the officina of Viminacium can be understood through the painting of the Late Antique tombs (built between the 3rd and 5th centuries). In the area of the city necropolis of Viminacium, over thirty painted tombs were found. This paper will present a review of the painting of the tombs with trapezoidal section. Both the unpublished and the already published examples will be analysed in order to present new conclusions. The archaeometric research, as well as the visual observation, prove that certain tombs originated from the same painting officina.