La tecnica dell’affresco romano ad Aquileia: un preliminare confronto tra la fonte vitruviana e il dato archeologico

The paper examines the executive techniques of Roman wall paintings, from the selection of the raw materials, to the laying of the coatings constituting the tectorium and the application of the pigments. The archaeometric investigation of more than 60 fragments of wall paintings from the site of Aquileia, dated between the Republican Age and Late Antiquity, provides the basis for the present study, where the compositional characteristics and the methods for the application of preparatory layers and pigments of a selection of samples, collected from nuclei of First, Second, Third and Fourth Pompeian Style, will be described and analysed in comparison with the executive practices of the opus albarium as described in Vitruvius’ De architectura.