Painting on west wall of Tomb 4

The walls in the chamber tombs were finished with mortar and either plain white plaster or painting in fresco, though in most cases the plaster had greatly deteriorated. The best preserved painted tomb, Tomb 4, exhibits a bold decorative program. The basic format is successive horizontal zones divided by red and green bands. In the uppermost register is a succession of opposing animals, mostly birds, such as herons, swans and ibises, but also mythical creatures, such as hippocamps. Below this and alongside the niches are panels of variegated colors and textures representing different types of imported marble revetment. In the lower register, alongside the loculi, are painted architectural frames; the ones surrounding the central loculi on the back wall take the form of aediculae surmounted by elonged dolphins. Between the loculi garlands hang from thin red ribbons, on which are gently perched birds. This program, restricted to floral, faunal, and architectural motifs, shows little stylistic or iconographical complexity. It is, however, carefully rendered in bold contours combined with delicately executed vignettes, which speaks to a certain artistic finesse. Moreover, the composition displays a basic symmetry in the choice of subjects on facing walls, which unifies the pictorial space. Noteworthy among the usual vibrant colors of the provincial pallette are highlights of Egyptian blue, a costly exotic pigment that would have been imported. The decorative forms are related to Italian painting traditions, particularly the Pompeian Fourth Style. This kind of painting was widely diffused throughout the eastern Mediterranean, including the urban community at Corinth, and it often displays creative innovation or personal flair on the part of local painters, as was the case in Tomb 4.

Detail of swans with raised wings above faux marble panel between Niches A and B, south wall	Detail of architectural frame surmounted by dolphins, Loculus III, west wall	Detail of garland with perched bird between Loculi I-III