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Possible Duplicate:
“paintings on walls and ceilings” and “painting of portraits, landscapes”

There is a word which refers specifically to large landscape wall painting (I'm thinking in terms of the Roman wall paintings in Campania) and for the life of me I can't remember it. All my searches for it come up with a blank, and I'm trying to work towards a deadline which I can't reach unless I can search for articles specific to this term! Anyone know what I'm talking about? I think it's a technical term, perhaps with the stem "mega" which seems to ring a bell, but apart from that my mind is a complete blank!

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Frank
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    You are probably looking for fresco or mezzo-fresco. – coleopterist Oct 03 '12 at 15:25
  • Nope, not fresco nor mezzo-fresco; it's a technical term for big landscape wall paintings. – Frank Oct 03 '12 at 16:21
  • Wordnik (and, suspiciously, only Wordnik) has topia: "n. A fanciful style of mural decoration, generally consisting of landscapes of a very heterogeneous character, resembling those of the Chinese, much used in ancient Roman houses." But, even insofar as this is a real word, it refers not to the size, but the contents of the painting. – Marthaª Oct 03 '12 at 16:54

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Since you are thinking in terms of the Roman wall paintings in Campania and considering that you remember that this word starts with "mega-", I propose "megalography" for the following reasons.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80–70 BC, died after c. 15 BC) was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ("On Architecture"). In De Architectura he called the style you are referring to "megalography".

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (Wordnik) reads: megalography, n. A drawing of pictures to a large scale; but I'm not able to find this word in other dictionary.

For those whose known Italian language I report the following piece from Italian Wikipedia: "In questo periodo nacque così anche la figura del paesaggista, che, a Pompei, dipingeva i particolari dei giardini, molto richiesti dai committenti. Vitruvio nel VII libro si dilungò a descrivere la pittura degli "antichi", individuata come quella di primo e secondo stile: citò infatti, nell'ordine, l'incrostazione marmorea, poi uno stile a noi ignoto, con "cornicioni e riquadrature in giallo ocra", variamente disposte tra loro. Il successivo stile (secondo) era secondo lui un'imitazione di vedute di edifici, colonne e frontoni sporgenti e, negli spazi più grandi, di esedre dove venivano raffigurate intere scene figurate, tragiche, comiche o satiriche; nelle galleria invece si usavano particolari paesistici (porti di mare, promontori, coste, fiumi, sorgenti, edifici, boschetti, montagne, pastori con greggi. Infine cita le "megalografie" (a soggetto determinato), con simulacri di divinità, favole mitologiche, guerre troianae o peregrinazioni di Ulisse."

Zairja
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    Carlo, you are a beautiful, beautiful person; that's exactly it. Thank you so much! – Frank Oct 03 '12 at 17:32
  • Is that an existing English word or are you just proposing that a new one should exist? – Mitch Oct 03 '12 at 17:53
  • @Mitch please, see the link I have cited in the answer (Wordnik). –  Oct 03 '12 at 17:55
  • @Mitch you can also see, for example, the book The Lost World Of Pompeii by Colin Amery, Brian Curran –  Oct 03 '12 at 18:00
  • @Carlo_R.: oops missed the link. But wordnik is questionable, and I haven't found the word in any other dictionary. But start using it enough and maybe it'll become a word. – Mitch Oct 03 '12 at 21:19
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    @Mitch The Italians seem to know the word very well. Megalography seems to be the English translation. (A simple translator can confirm this; translators won't do this unless it is a word.) – Souta Oct 03 '12 at 22:32
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    @Souta. Italians may probably understand the word well enough, because of the prefix "megalo" from Greek to indicate "big" and the ending "graphy", which is to be found in so many words (geography, bibliography, cinematography, etc). However, this is the first time I've heard the term myself, either in English or in its supposed Italian version. And I don't think I am so little read, either. – Paola Oct 03 '12 at 23:03
  • @Paola I'm not disclaiming that the word is a bit 'foreign' to the ears, as in not often-used. What I am saying is, is that Mitch needs to learn that just because you are unfamiliar with a word, does not mean it fails to exist. As he states, "maybe it'll become a word", implies that it isn't a word. The other implication of what I had said to him was that if a translator knows how to translate the word, then it is a word. That was all. No need to be defensive. And I understand what you're saying too. – Souta Oct 03 '12 at 23:10
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    +1 Interesting ... the only reference OneLook finds besides Wordnik is ArtLex Lexicon of Visual Art Terminology, reading: "megalography - A genre in which representations are intended to glorify or idealize excessively some event, person or thing." So perhaps this word has a different technical meaning in the English art world. – MetaEd Oct 04 '12 at 00:19
  • @souta: There's no ability here on ELU to quantify any individual's grasp of a lexicon, all that one can go on is external documentation. "A drawing of pictures to a large scale." from only one dictionary. Also, your other reference gives the definition "representation of monumental figures within architectural frameworks" which is not the meaning of the word sought. However this one usage seems to confirm the OP's desired usage – Mitch Oct 04 '12 at 00:56