Funeral banquet, procession or an offering scene – a few remarks on Roman provincial painting

Abstract

Research on Roman funerary painting is inevitably associated with the reminiscences of real-life events – customs, practices and rites, and shaped by the overall concept of the philosophy of death and artistic traditions. In the case of provincial funerary painting, specific, local interpretations have been noticed so far that often lead toward a simplification of the known patterns and developed models, as well as the stronger influence of symbolism. Because of this local comprehension of artistic solutions and pictorial content, scenes with figural motifs of servants depicted with various gifts to the deceased need to be elaborated and explained through the lens of a dual perspective on funeral rites of the time. The basis for this research are scenes from the territory of today’s Serbia, which are compared to ichnographically or symbolically rendered scenes mostly known from the Eastern Mediterranean.