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Most paintings from the Roman era have been found in Pompeii and Herculaneum, and many other towns in the Bay of Naples. There are four different Pompeian styles of paintings. The division of the styles was based on fundamental differences in the way the artist would treat the wall and paint the space. The first two styles began during the Republican period and the third and fourth styles were found in imperial times. The first …

…different spatial levels with vistas on top of more remote scenes. The creation of the fourth style was partly due to the painter Famulus. There are many remnants of the third style that can be seen like, the reed like columns, but the attention to receding space is a characteristic if the fourth. A good example of the fourth style of painting can be found on page 96 of our textbook. This painting is from Herculaneum.