Domenico Esposito's book is a long-awaited synthesis of the wall-paintings from Herculaneum. This important study is a revision of the author's doctoral dissertation (Università degli studi di Napoli “Federico II”, defended in 2006; accessible at: http://www.fedoa.unina.it/1085/1/Tesi_Esposito_Domenico.pdf) and provides a systematic overview and comprehensive analysis of the wall-paintings from Herculaneum. Following on from his socio-economic analysis of painters' workshops in Pompeii (Le officine pittoriche di IV stile a Pompei: dinamiche produttive ed economico-sociali (2009)), E. provides an integrated analysis of the wall-paintings which discusses the distinctiveness of the wall-paintings as well as the socio-economic dynamics of painters' workshops in Herculaneum.

E.'s book is organized in three parts and is followed by a conclusion (a fourth part). In the first, E. distinguishes public from private buildings and analyses the decorative programme of both in relation to their architectural context. Previous studies have focused on houses to explore the relation between the function of rooms — including their private and public nature — and their decoration, but no study has undertaken similar analyses of wall-paintings in public buildings. The recent study of Greek and Roman temple paintings by Eric Moormann (Divine Interiors: Mural Paintings in Greek and Roman Sanctuaries (2011)) marked a shift in that respect and E.'s analysis of the wall-painting decoration of the public buildings in Herculaneum (Basilica Noniana, ‘Sacello degli Augustali’, Augusteum, ‘Palaestra’, Theatre, and the Area sacra suburbana) corroborates Moormann's conclusion regarding the close connection between Greek and Roman temple paintings and contemporaneous domestic decoration (Moormann 2011, 203–6). There are no distinctive decorative schemes for the public buildings in Herculaneum (58–9).

In his analysis of the wall-painting decoration of the houses of Herculaneum, E. focuses on a selection of houses to consider the ways in which the location and layout of these houses affected painters' choices in their wall-painting decoration. He not only takes into account the spatial hierarchy of the rooms within a house, the function of the rooms — including those on the upper floors — and the architectural typology and urban location of the houses, but also the surviving remains of furniture, pavement and roof decoration. Herculaneum was encased in compacted layers of volcanic material and for this reason upper floors are better preserved than in the neighbouring city of Pompeii. Against conventional views (A. Maiuri, Lezioni sulla casa romana e pompeiana (1946)), E.'s analysis shows that upper floors were also residential, featuring richly decorated rooms affording panoramic views of the bay, and not just service quarters. Confirming the analyses of Daniela Scagliarini Corlaità and Antonella Coralini, E.'s incisive and comprehensive examination shows that the houses of Herculaneum present more refined decorative schemes (in comparison to Pompeii) that were exploited to accentuate the architectural organization of the house.

The second part of the book tackles the chronology of the wall-paintings in Herculaneum. The city preserves all four ‘Pompeian Styles’ and E. examines the principal examples of wall-painting to determine their chronology. The transition from the Third to the Fourth Style, as well as the chronology of the Fourth Style, have long occupied scholars in their efforts to classify Roman wall-painting. E.'s contribution to this debate is critical, as he discusses with great clarity the problems ensuing from the rigid classification of the phasing of the ‘styles’ and by analysing examples from both Herculaneum and Pompeii shows that the ‘styles’ are not static. There is a fluidity in the transition between the Third and Fourth Styles and, if Herculaneum illustrates this fluidity better than Pompeii, it does not mean that we need to assume the existence of a unique ‘Herculaneum Style’.

In the third part of the book, E. addresses the organization of painters' workshops in Herculaneum. This part is a substantial addition to his thesis, in which he had made some preliminary remarks on the topic. E. employs the methodology of his study of the organization of the painters' workshops in Pompeii in order to clarify the chronology of the wall-paintings in Herculaneum and address the socio-economic dynamics between clients and workshops. There is evidence for one prominent workshop in Herculaneum — the ‘workshop of the Casa dell'Atrio a Mosaico’ — which conducted work in almost all the grand domus of the city, but also in less affluent houses. In contrast to Pompeii — where two painters' workshops adapted to the taste of the high and low commissions respectively — in Herculaneum, one workshop (the Casa dell'Atrio a Mosaico) served a more diverse clientele, diversifying its decorative repertoire. E. concludes his study by addressing the several features distinguishing the wall-paintings in Herculaneum from those in Pompeii (for example, the scarcity of the First and the Second Styles; the fluidity in the transition between the Third and Fourth Styles; a higher quality of painting by comparison to Pompeii) to conclude that while there is no unique ‘Herculaneum Style’, there is overall evidence for élite commissions, also evidenced in architecture and sculpture, which reflect the élite composition of society in Herculaneum.

Riccardo Olivito's book on the frieze decorating the atrium of the praedia of Julia Felix in Pompeii — the author's revised 2012 doctoral dissertation (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) — is a fresh approach to a well-known representation of daily activities in the Roman forum. The Fourth Style frieze (H. 0.60 m) started at a height of about 2.40 m from the Second Style pavement and was part of a wall-painting renovation of the room following the earthquake of 62 c.e. Amongst a series of honorific equestrian statues on bases, a series of activities that would take place in a public space such as the forum is represented in front of a colonnade, in between the columns of which festoons are hung. Numerous studies have examined the fragments of this frieze, which was detached from the atrium of the praedia of Julia Felix during the eighteenth-century excavations and whose pieces were erroneously joined and now remain disconnected. O.'s inclusive study of archival evidence related to the excavation of the complex and the removal of the wall-paintings, his concise analysis of the representation itself together with a thorough examination of the architecture and archaeology of both the praedia and the Forum of Pompeii (which he convincingly argues to be the one represented in the representation) as well as related epigraphic and historical sources provide a wide-ranging study of this important wall-painting.

After assessing the history of the scholarship, examining the precise conditions of the detachment of the wall-painting and analysing the architecture of the atrium and the in-situ remains to indicate the missing parts (ch. 1), O. offers a detailed description of the eighteen surviving fragments of the wall-painting (sixteen in the Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli [MANN] and two in situ; ch. 2). The analysis of the fragments is thorough, reviewing previous interpretations and related iconographies, and providing an insightful overview of the activities represented. Whereas previous scholars have mostly stressed the idealized character of the representation — daily activities in a generic Roman forum — in chs 3 and 4 O. argues persuasively that it is the Forum of Pompeii being represented here in an idealized manner. He first analyses the architecture of the Forum of Pompeii (ch. 3) and then proceeds to address the similarities and dissimilarities between the representation and the Forum. The similarities are just too many to be ignored — even if the frieze does not reproduce faithfully the architectural details (ch. 4). Following the suggestion of Emilio Magaldi (‘Il commercio ambulante a Pompei’, Atti dell'Accademia Pontaniana 60 (1930), 61–87), O. offers an exhaustive analysis of textual, legal and epigraphic sources to substantiate his thesis that the frieze represents the weekly market day (nundinae). The combination of commercial, administrative and religious activities, together with the operation of a school, again suggests that the frieze represents the nundinae taking place in the Forum of Pompeii (ch. 5).

This, in turn, leads O. to discuss the frieze in relation to other representations of ordinary life, in the context of the scholarship on so-called arte popolare. O. stresses that the extraordinary character of the frieze — which presents activities beyond the limits of ordinary life and could be perceived as élite (for example, the school scene) — is intended to relate to the diverse clientele of the praedia. Taking into account the socio-economic analysis of painters' workshops by Domenico Esposito, who attributes the paintings to the workshop of the Via di Castricio (Esposito 2009, 134), O. suggests that the unique character of the painting, which presents an idealized view of everyday life in the Forum of Pompeii, represents a commission for the atrium of the praedia, the public part of the property (ch. 6).

In the final chapter, O. uses a dipinto (CIL IV 1136) — a rental notice for the baths, shops and apartments of the estate — on the façade of the praedia on the Via dell'Abbondanza together with inscriptions which imply professional activities (CIL IV 10150 and 10152a, from the east façade of the insula) to examine the private and public nature of the praedia. He explores the possibility that the praedia was the seat of a professional collegium, as suggested by M. Torelli (‘Il nuovo affresco di “arte popolare” dell'agro Murecine’, Ostraka 15 (2006), 135–54). The frieze then would be a special commission to represent real events experienced by people frequenting the building. This is an interesting proposition which needs to be explored further in relation to other collegia and their architectural and decorative programmes (cf. B. Bollmann, Römische Vereinshäuser (1998); and recent studies of M. Trümper on the architectural characteristics of associations on late Hellenistic Delos). O.'s book concludes with an examination of the proposed reconstructions by S. Nappo and C. Parslow, while the author makes some cautious suggestions on a possible reconstruction (which he does not attempt due to the fragmentary nature of the frieze).

Both publications exemplify novel approaches to wall-paintings of a younger generation of scholars, who go beyond the classification of the ‘styles’ to contextualize Roman wall-painting by addressing the architecture of the buildings in which they feature, and tackling the social and economic — and more broadly cultural — implications of their commission, execution and perception.