Interpreting Pompeian fresco from “House of Baker”

[guy]

 

Professor Steven Tuck is widely regarded as a foremost expert in the field of Pompeian archaeology.

Here is a scholarly article that analyzes the importance of the famous fresco depicting the distribution of bread in the “House of the Baker” in Pompeii.

 

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The identity of the main figure in the painting is debated: either a baker or a politician. The second is the status, political rank, and network of the owner of the property on which the fresco was discovered. Supported by the evidence of an electoral programma, the painting and inscription illuminate the mechanics of beneficence at Pompeii and serve to identify the residence of someone who operated in the political networks of the 1st-c. CE city at a sub-elite level.

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The painting provides an axonometric view from above and to the right of a scene with four figures and a wooden stall. The stall, carefully painted with the nail heads and the wood grain of its boards depicted, has two shelves behind and a long counter in front. Between these is a male figure wearing a white garment. This may be a tunic or toga, although the bulk given to the garment seems to suggest a toga. He is seated on a raised seat or platform. On the counter and the shelves there are at least 13 stacks containing a great number of loaves of bread piled on top of each other. The loaves are of various sizes but uniform shapes, all consistent with the segmented type found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. In addition, a wicker basket on the counter to the right of the seated figure contains smaller loaves of bread or buns. The seated man holds out a loaf of bread in his right hand to a group of three people standing in front of the stall, two adult men wearing dark tunics and boots and an adolescent boy on the right in a dark tunic and sandals. All three wear cloaks: the boy and the man on the left have dark cloaks, the same color as their tunics, while the taller man in the center of the group wears a yellow cloak. He raises his right arm to take the offered loaf and stands out from the group because of his bright cloak, height, and position facing the counter. In contrast, the boy and other man are in profile, facing him on his right and left sides, essentially acting as pendent figures focusing the viewers’ attention on the man accepting the loaf. The boy has both hands raised, and his weight is clearly on his left foot as he reaches forward and up towards the loaf of bread.

Samples of carbonized bread were found in Pompeii and Herculaneum:

 

 

 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/baked-bread-to-the-people-bread-distribution-and-social-and-political-networks-at-pompeii/3DFB7584C1DC81A0A4741EE2F513D427

 

The wonderful Max Miller makes some ancient Roman bread:

 

 

Edited September 1 by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

I've frequently seen that picture in reading on the history, but I never thought about it before-- the clients are wearing colored &/or dirty clothes (streets were filthy) while the "baker" is wearing a white (candida) toga- commonly worn by those standing for election....hence our word "candidate."

Even today, each region of Italy has it's more or less characteristic style of bread. In Rome, it's still the round loaf. I haven't been to Italy in 50 years. Maybe things have changed, but back then it was common to see porcetta vendors on the streets, equivalent to American hot dog stands/carts. One could get a quick pork sandwich on bread sliced from those big, round loaves.