Through floral imagery, the Garden Room presents to its viewers a visual narrative not only depicting Augustus as an all-present entity in Rome, but also as a protecting force, bringing new life, safety, and prosperity to a Roman Empire still haunted by the specter of Actium.Triclinium paintings from the villa of Livia at Prima Porta, Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme In applying the theory of " garden-as-text " to the Garden Room and building upon visual themes previously explored by Barbara Kellum, we find a deep narrative taking place in the garden. Furthermore, we argue that aspects of garden design can be used to encode and present meanings to visitors and viewers. Prompted by recent discussions of how material objects and landscapes can encode meaning textually, we argue that such an approach can be applied to garden spaces, both physical and painted. The paintings of the Garden Room are formulated to accommodate observation by reclining diners while simultaneously eliciting garden-like strolling along the room's walls, as if the room were a real garden, blurring the distinction between the simulated and the real.įollowing our 2016 analysis of the Garden Room at the Villa ad Gallinas Albas and how its design accommodates viewers and makes them an integral part of its paintings, we now turn our attention toward the content of the paintings themselves. Our green-screen recreation of the underground paintings points to an intentional choreography between the painting and viewer. Utilizing green-screen technology with staged interactions in front of and with the painting, we identify viewers as critical components of the wall paintings' composition. 1 Building on earlier discussions regarding transformative themes in the wall paintings and scientific identifications of the painted plants in the villa's famous Garden Room, we suggest that the garden may be read as a populated space of figures and not merely as a garden composed of plants. The recent villa and garden excavations of the Villa ad Gallinas at Prima Porta have inspired a new discourse regarding the villa, its gardens, and decoration.
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