THE EAR OF THE BEHOLDER: SPECTATOR FIGURES AND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE IN POMPEIAN PAINTING

Abstract

The debate on spectator figures in Roman painting has traditionally concentrated on their function as virtually meaning‐free space‐fillers, or on their potential to make external viewers aware of the fact that they are looking at a picture. This article takes a different approach and uses the spectator figures of two frescoes from a house within the Scavo del Principe di Montenegro in Pompeii as a means of exploring the narrative strategies of Pompeian mythological painting. The satyr ear of one of the spectators, which in previous research has gone unnoticed, and the elements of gender masquerading which come with it, form the ground for reconsidering the spectators' contribution to the reception aesthetics of an image, its mythological and its emotive content. The result is a fresh assessment of Pompeian painting as a laboratory for the exploration of visual story‐telling and of the shifts in the engagement of Roman audiences with mythological stories throughout the first century ce.

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