Pictorial Elements and Principles in the Creation of the Ancient Image Using the Example of Viminacium Funerary Paintings

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to determine which pictorial elements and principles were dominant in the compositions of Viminacium paintings, based on preserved tomb frescoes. Many of the pictorial elements and principles used played a symbolic role in the content or narrative context. Since the painting of the above-ground structures of ancient Viminacium is preserved only as fragments, the similar use of line, space, and colour, or balance, rhythm, and proportion in tomb paintings could be useful for the future reconstruction and understanding of the particular styles of the artists who were based in Viminacium.