3. Tablinum In the domus, the tablinum was the office space, the original “work from home.” It was in this office that the distinctive and complex rituals of the ancient Roman “patronage” relationship took place. It was a hierarchical system, but obligations between the patron and his client were mutual. The domus served as the backdrop against which the “paterfamilias” (male head of the household) enacted his public persona. To this end, the tablinum was literally raised off the ground like a stage. Framed by the “jaws” of the entrance, and illuminated by the light pouring in from the atrium, the patriarch was clearly visible from the street as he received his clients, commanding this vantage point as the figure of ultimate authority. A curtain or screen could be drawn, when he needed to be alone with his labors. This room, with attractive mosaic floors, frescoes, racks of family archives, and chests of records and documents, created a picture of rank, legacy, and accumulation. In other words, the tablinum functioned as a theater of patriarchy and power. Yet, as much as it was designed for this purpose, the same components draw attention to the artifice of the setup, with its scripted roles and masks of domination. A system bound by personal relations could also be fragile and severely tested. At any moment, in politics, gladiatorial matches, or within the family, the wheel of fortune could spin dramatically. Pompeii was also notorious as a town that flipped the script; there are several documented examples of ex-slaves who accumulated huge wealth and commissioned massive building works with extravagantly painted rooms, inversions of the social order that came with a particular taste for decadence. Is it a stretch to wonder if the present-day painting studio mirrors some aspects of the tablinum, as a place of public performance and private grafting? The mask can be tragic or comic. Interpersonal relations are everything. The front presented to the world might be in great contrast to the work of development behind the scenes, and the role of chance can never be underestimated. —AK
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online