This essay argues that abstract colouristic effects were favoured in the arts of ancient Rome in a manner long overlooked. Taking the wall paintings of Cubiculum B from the Villa Farnesina as a case in point, the article demonstrates that these images display an interest in interlocking planes of colour and shape that might be described as formalist. It juxtaposes this visual evidence with overlooked passages in ancient texts to explore how such effects were conceptualized in ancient Roman thought. What emerges is a model of aesthetic value that foregrounds terpnopoietic planar effects of colour and shape above those of mimetic representation – so long revered as the most important artistic practice theorized in the classical world. This paradigm of visual value is employed in relation to both figural and non‐figural works alike. The absence of these surface effects in the standard narrative of classical art becomes testimony to that narrative's limitations.

中文翻译：

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从理论上讲古罗马形象与抽象：以法尔妮西纳别墅为例

本文认为，抽象色彩效果在古罗马的艺术中受到人们长期以来的忽视。以法尼西纳别墅（Villa Farnesina）的Cubiculum B壁画为例，该文章证明了这些图像显示出对色彩和形状互锁的平面的兴趣，这种平面可以被形容为形式主义者。它将这些视觉证据与古代文献中被忽略的段落并置在一起，以探索这种效应在古代罗马思想中是如何概念化的。出现的是一种审美价值模型，该模型将颜色和形状的假人平面效应置于模仿表示之上，而这种形式长期以来一直被认为是古典世界中理论上最重要的艺术实践。这种视觉价值的范式在图形作品和非图形作品中都被采用。