Megalography

The term megalography ("large painting") is used in art history to describe images that depict their subject in life-size or larger-than-life size. This often refers to the painting of antiquity , a well-known example are the frescoes of the Mystery Villa in Pompeii .

The expression comes from Vitruvius , who thus refers less to the size of the representation than to the meaning of what is represented:

In some places there are pictures on a grand scale, with figures of gods or scenes from mythology or the battle for Troy or the wanderings of Odysseus, with landscapes in the background and other objects depicted in a correspondingly lifelike manner.

That is, for Vitruvius megalography is the representation of the great and the important. The opposite term is rhyparography or rhopography ("small scrap painting ").

Occasionally the projections produced by a magic lantern are also referred to as megalographs.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ De architectura 7.5.2: "nonnulli loci item signorum megalographiam habent et deorum simulacra seu fabularum dispositas explicationes, non minus troianas pugnas seu Ulixis errationes per topia, ceteraque, quae sunt eorum similibus rationibus from rerum natura procreata."