This explanation is curiously confirmed by an architectural painting
on the garden wall of one of the finest houses of the Tufa Period, the
house of the Faun. Here we find pilasters and entablature, except the
architrave, painted white; but the architrave is painted in two
bands, of which the lower is yellow, as if to represent wood. Nothing
would have been easier than to leave the architrave, moulded in
stucco, of one color as if it were all of one material; but special
effort was made apparently to indicate the appearance of a lower
division of timber. From this we may infer that in actual construction
no pains was taken to conceal the lack of uniformity in structural
materials by laying a coat of white or colored stucco over wood and
stone alike; on the contrary, the difference was not only recognized
in the decoration, but even accentuated, as the timber, whether
retaining its original color or painted with a suitable tint,
presented a marked contrast with the stone the surface of which was
covered with white stucco. If the strip of timber in the architrave
had been perceptibly thicker than that of stone above it, the effect
would not have been good; as the earlier Greek polychrome decoration
was now no longer in vogue, the stripe of color above the capitals
made a pleasing variation from the prevailing whiteness of the
structure.
The Basilica at the southwest corner and the temple of Jupiter both
conform to the same variation from the direction of the early north
and south street that we have noticed in the case of the colonnade of
Popidius; they belong, therefore, to the same remodelling of the
Forum. It is quite possible that the erection of the temple, by
limiting the area of the Forum on the north side, caused its extension
toward the south beyond the earlier boundary. Originally the temple
was isolated, the north end of the Forum on either side being left
open; later, but still in the time of the Republic, a high boundary
wall with passageways was built on both sides of it. Later still the
two arches were erected in a line with its façade; afterwards, in the
time of Tiberius, the wall at the right of the temple was replaced by
the commemorative arch (I), and the smaller arch near the façade at
the right was removed in order that there might be an unimpeded view
of the great arch from the area.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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