Symmetry of the Iconography of Surfaces and Spaces from the Viminacium Tombs G 160, G 5517 and G 2624

Abstract

As a pictorial principle, symmetry played an important role throughout the whole ancient period, and has remained a significant principle in art right into the modern era. With the knowledge that different artistic workshops consisted of real masters and their associates, it is certain that they had considerable artistic knowledge. In the familiar repertoire of ancient scenes and motifs, painters experimented with elements and principles not only to produce good art work, but also to reach different, or to reinforce existing, meanings. That is why symmetry was an integral part of complicated afterlife compositions from the late antique and early Christian tombs. In this paper, three tombs from Viminacium will be explored as examples of various forms of symmetry, not only in the iconography of painted surfaces, but also in the tomb’s space, which, in the context of the afterlife, could be observed as an alternative reality, arranged using strict canons.