Londinium Lite

CLASSIFIED ADS

Pigments of the imagination

Old Masters showing Bacchus and his followers are usually found in the capital’s art galleries, not buried amongst rubble on a city building site. The fragmentary remains of painted Roman wall plaster found on Gresham Street (GHT00) are tantalising.

The colours and skilful figure-drawing are of a standard rarely found in Roman Britain. On one slab of wall plaster are a team of horses or sea-horses with flowing manes. On another the head of a young man, about half life size, a woman with grapes and vine leaves, and fluted columns dividing the scene into panels.

Fragments of wall-painting depicting the head of Bacchus and a follower
Although fragmentary, the head and wand of Bacchus survive

One detail gives an unambiguous clue to the subject. Just above the male head is a knobbed stick or wand – a 'thyrsus' brandished by the wine-god Bacchus and his devotees during their orgiastic ritual celebrations. Is it too fanciful to imagine that the painting showed the god himself, dancing with female worshippers, framed by the sea-horses of Neptune or the chariot of the sun-god Apollo?

Perhaps dating to the 2nd century AD, the painting may have come from a bath-house or the dining room of a wealthy town-house. Because the plaster was discovered in dumps of rubble, we do not know exactly where the building was, though it was probably situated nearby.
Mosaic depicting Bacchus riding on a tiger, now in the British Museum
Mosaic roundel depicting the god Bacchus

This is not the only example of Bacchus being a feature of interior design. A large mosaic found in Leadenhall Street in 1803 formed the floor of a room more than 6m (20feet) square with the design set within a wide border of plain red tesserae. The finely-executed central portion is now preserved in the British Museum and features Bacchus riding on a tiger. Elements of his features are picked out in blue glass tesserae, indicating that it is mosaic of some quality.

 

A version of this article appeared in Archaeology Matters No 17, March 2002

For further information about wall paintings, see Internal walls in Home life.

 

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