My PhD project addresses images of Roman villas and villa architecture in wall paintings and mosaics in relation to their surrounding landscapes. The chronological focal point of the investigated villa paintings is the 1st century A.D. The examined villa mosaics proceed from the 4th and 5th centuries A.D. Differences between paintings and mosaics stem from their respective chronological frames and geographical areas. The wall paintings to be considered originate from the Italic region and the mosaics from North Africa. The research presented here provides a cataloguing of the villa paintings and villa mosaics classified according to typology and chronology and describes perspectives, proportions, measurements, provenance and literature in detail.

Within this project, the origins of the villa images and possible successor motives will first be determined. By researching the predecessors and successors of villa images, a chronological development shall be traced. According to this development, possible ciphers and standardizations can be observed. I expect to determine changes in the perception of villas and nature which were based on reality and also found in the imaginations of the contemporaries.

A further area of research shall be the question concerning the degree of realism in the images. In this context, the images shall be compared to real villas (floor plans) and their real surrounding landscapes (botany, geomorphology) to evaluate whether the images are similar to recent photos or whether they are products of the imagination.

Furthermore, architectural proportions, landscapes, and people with their respective perspectives are taken into consideration. To verify this topic, ancient written sources shall be examined. Depending on the results, an interpretation of the meaning of these images will follow. I then hope to be able to find out how Roman contemporaries dealt with landscapes as well.

Another research topic is the examination of the importance and the socioeconomic background of the villa images. Why did contemporaries in ancient societies acquire villa images for their homes? In particular, the position of the images in the houses shall be taken into consideration when examining their functions. With the help of ancient written sources and already existing literature dealing with the topic of „villa and nature“, relationships to the villa images shall be sought in order to evaluate how Romans and particularly the Roman upper class dealt with nature and landscape. Socioarchaeological models shall also assist in clarifying whether nature was merely a luxury resource. It must also be examined if the emotional significance in connection with villas can be found in the villa images.