Meaning across Medium: Graffiti as Art in the Casa dei Cervi

The 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried an entire coastal region surrounding the city of Pompeii and its lesser known neighbor, Herculaneum. The volcanic material that covered the area preserved various kinds of art and... [ view full abstract ]

The 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried an entire coastal region surrounding the city of Pompeii and its lesser known neighbor, Herculaneum. The volcanic material that covered the area preserved various kinds of art and artifacts, including ancient graffiti. The town of Herculaneum contains more than 300 graffiti inscribed into the wall plaster of its buildings. While most of these graffiti are composed of text, about 15% of the graffiti are drawings, or pictorial graffiti.

One particular set of pictorial graffiti, a group of stags inscribed in Herculaneum’s Casa dei Cervi, exemplifies the challenges of studying ancient graffiti, a genre that resists categorization by not quite qualifying as inscriptions nor written record nor art. Although graffiti such as these fall outside of the art historical canon, I argue that by applying an art historical lens, we can further our interpretations of this unique kind of evidence.

In his volume on pictorial graffiti in the ancient world, Martin Langner suggests that the graffiti drawings of stags in the Casa dei Cervi illustrate the ancient literary idea that sculptures could be so lifelike as to become animated and break free from their settings. In this case, Langner argues, the graffiti respond to the marble sculptures of stags that were found in the house. By analyzing art historical comparanda and examining the literary precedent for this imaginative concept, I explore the dialogue between graffiti and their more canonical art historical counterparts as it pertains to the idea that life-like sculptures could come to life. I also discuss the implications of identifying an art historical theme that transcends medium specificity and responds to context.