painting in rome and pompeii

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The few references o Romanpainting n ancient iteratureusuallyconcernportable xampleson materials uch as wood and ivory.Be-cause heseworks avenotsurvived,he Romanpaintersmosthighlypraisedin antiquity ave passed nto obscurity.During he late Republic,portraitpainters ike Iaiaof Kyzikos late2nd-early 1stcentury .C.) commandedhighprices, ccordingo Pliny, ighereventhan"themostcelebrated aint-ers of the sameperiod,Sopolisand Dionysios." o too we read n Pliny hatArellius,who workedat the end of the first centuryB.C., was highly es-teemedand wouldhavebeen moreso but for his regrettable abitof por-traying oddesses n the imageof his mistresses. he sameauthoralsotellsus that the emperorAugustusexhibited wo paintings n his forum: theVisageof Warand Triumph.He displayed ther paintings n the ForumofJuliusCaesar, is adoptive ather,and it is clear hatthe mediumwasusedfor propaganda nd war reportage s well as for decoration.The Romanpaintings hat havesurvived re in the durablemediumoffresco,usedto adorn he interiors f private omes n the Roman itiesandin the countryside.According o Pliny, t wasStudius"who irst nstitutedthat most delightful echniqueof paintingwallswith representations fvillas,porticoes nd andscape ardens,woods,groves,hills,pools,channels,3

PAINTINGIN

ROME AND POMPEII

The Metropolitan Museum of Art


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2. MountVesuviusoomsat the lett behindtheruinso+Pompeii'sommercialenter, heForum. From AmedeoMaiuri, Pompeii(Rome, 929), illus.p. 25.

rivers, oastlines."omehave peculatedhatStudiuswasresponsibleor thedecoration f theVillaFarnesina,n Rome,probably ompletedn 19 B.C.on the occasionof Agrippa'smarriageo Julia, daughterof the emperoAugustus.Despitea lackof physical vidence,we can assume hatsome portablpaintingsdepictedthe same subjects hat are found on paintedwalls nRoman illas. t iseven reasonableo suppose hatRomanpanelpaintingwhich ncludedboth originalcreations nd adaptations f renowned atGreekworks,were he prototypesor themostpopular ubjectsn frescoesthe Fallof Icarus,Polyphemus nd Galatea,Perseus nd Andromeda, ndthe Deathof Actaeon. t is probable hatartists rom Romespecializingnfrescooften traveledo otherpartsof Italywithcopybookshatreproducepopularpaintings s wellas ornamental atterns.The decorative lementsharedby certain illas n the capital ndin the regionof Naplesmake hiexplanation ll butcertain.The richest concentrationof surviving frescoes has been found inCampania,he regionaroundNaples.The eruptionof MountVesuvius nAugust24, A.D. 79, buriedmuchof the countryside urrounding he volcano, ncluding hecitiesof Pompeii ndHerculaneum, s wellas dozensof4


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private residences nearby. As so often happens in archaeology,a disasterserved to freeze a moment in the past and allowed excavators from theeighteenth century onward to delve into the life of the region's ancientinhabitants.The many examples of fresco painting that have survived as a result ofthe eruption of Vesuviusare nevertheless but a fraction of what existed inthe Roman world. Pompeii was not even among the thirty greatest cities ofthe Roman Empire. Thus with each discovery n the Vesuvianregion or inRome, scholarsare forced to rethink issues related to chronology and style.Because of two major acquisitionsmade early in this century,the Metro-politan Museum has the finest collection of Roman frescoes outside of Italy.Sections of painted walls from villas of the first centuryB.C. in the Neapoli-tan suburbsof Boscoreale and Boscotrecasewere purchased and exportedwith the permission of the Italian government in 1903 and 1920 respec-tively. n the case of the second group of paintings,discovered n Boscotrecasein 1903 and acquired n 1920, the sequence of events was fortunate indeed,for had the paintings not been removed from their original context andoffered for sale, they might well have been lost forever during the 1906eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

3. Thevillas o+Boscorealend Boscotrecawere ocated ortho+Pompeii nd wereburiedduring heeruption +MountVesuviusnA.D. 79.

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The paintedwallsof Roman illasprovidean unparalleledecordof thelife and worldview f the well-to-do womillennia go. Theyare not onlythe physical emainsof a site, but alsomirrorsof the Romans' ulturaand artistic oncerns.Frescoedwalls n privateRomanhouses eemto havebeen almostexclusively ecorative, nlyrarelyappearing o have serveda culticor religiouspurpose.It is a truism hatthe Romansweredeeply ndebted o the magnificenlegacyof Greek ulture.Romannarrative aintings re oftenpresumed ocopyworks rom he GreekClassical ndHellenistic eriods,yet when heyincludemythologicalhemespopular n the Greekworld, hepaintings reoften casualand sentimentalizedariations f earlierworks.We must re-member hat orRomanpatrons, s forus, Greek rthada historicalascination;Latinauthors efer to the Greeks s the "ancients." he gap betweenthe Greeks f themid-fifth entury .C. and the Romans f thefirstcentur

B.C. wasas greatas thatbetween he HighRenaissance nd theBeaux-Arperiodof the latenineteenth entury.Our knowledge f Romanand Pompeian illasof the firstcenturies .C.andA.D. has grownconsiderablyn the lastdecadeand a halfthrough ystematic xcavation nd study. t has becomeclearthat the decorative le-ments of these private homes are more profitably onsidered n theirhistorical etting than as echoes of lost Hellenistic late 4th-lst centurB.C.) masterpieces. he nineteenth-centuryascinationwithgreat ancienartists ndshadowyulturalmpulses asyielded o a moreobjectivecholarmethod, whichseeks to examine each period and placeas a particulamilieu hatdrewto a greateror lesserextentfrom the past.It has becompossible o conceive f a Romanprivate etting n Roman erms as a placdesigned or first-centuryatronswho ived n roomswithelaboratelyecoratedwalls,ceilings, loors,and furnishings.A development f Romanpainting n four styleswas discernedby August Mau n hisseminal tudyof Romanpainting f 1882.AlthoughMau'system s still basically ound, recent researchhas revealed requentrevivalsof styles n laterperiods, eading o qualificationsf theprogressiodescribed y Mau.The FirstStyle ca.200-60 B.C.) was argelyan exploration of the possibilitiesf simulatingmarbleof various olorsand typesonpaintedplaster.Artistsof the late Republic 2nd-lst centuryB.C.) drewuponexamples f earlyHellenisticlate4th-3rd century .C.) painting ndarchitecturen order to simulatemasonrywalls.The wallwas routineldivided nto hreehorizontal ainted ones,andthe uppermostwascrowneby a stuccocorniceof dentils,basedupon the Doric architectural rde(fig.4). In general he mosaic loorsof thisperiodweremoreornate han hewalls,which acked iguraldecoration.The declineof the FirstStylecoincidedwith the Roman olonization fPompeii n 80 B.C., which ransformedwhathad essentially een an Italitown with Greek nfluences nto a Romancity.Going beyondthe simplrepresentationf costlierbuildingmaterials,rtistsborrowedromthe figural repertoire f HellenisticGreekwallpainting o depictgods, mortaland heroes n various ontexts.The stern-facedmarbleportraits f the latRepublicmightmislead ne to imagine hat t wasa timeof greatausteritin contrast o the splendorand opulenceof the imperial ge,but it was nfact as sociallyvariegated nd populatedby art collectors f extravagatasteas that which ollowed.

4. The entrancevestibuleof the SamniteHouseat Herculaneumisplaysypical eco-rationof theFirstStyleof Romanwallpaint-ing, withan upper onecrowned ya stuccomolding ndpainted entral nd lower onessimulating olored-marblelabs.5. An example f First Stylepainting, hisfragment (30.142.5) in the MetropolitanMuseum simulatesmarble. A comparablefragmentwasrecentlyxcavatedn Turkey tthe iteof Priene,and bothmaydate rom theearly rst century . C.

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In the earliest phase of the Second Style, prior to the middle of the firstcenturyB.C., the masonrywall of FirstStyle painting endured, but columnsappeared to break through the picture plane in an imaginaryforeground.The next phase is found in both the Villa of the Mysteriesnear Pompeii(ca.60 B.C.; fig. 7) and the Villaof PubliusFanniusSynistorat Boscoreale ca.50-40 B.C.). The panels from Boscoreale, as we shall see, are an exceptionalexample of late Second Style decoration, teasing the eye with perspectivalrecessionand providing opiesof lostbut presumably nce-famousHellenisticpaintings. In the architecturalvistas, deeply receding colonnades and pro-jections of column bases nto the viewer's pace became commonplace.Oftenthe wall was no longer acknowledged and simply embellished, as had beenthe tendency in the First Style, but was instead painted in such a way as toseem knee-high. We are encouraged to look above this socle, the only bar-rier before us, and out into fantastic panoramas or architecturalconfec-tions (see figs. 27, 28). The fact that the viewer's eye was methodicallytricked on such a scale gives us insight into the nature and extent of aes-thetic refinement ln the art of the late Roman Republic.In the Second Style copies of earlier paintings, as in the Boscoreale paint-ings of Room H, the intention was to create a picture gallery,of the kind weread about in ancient literature, that displayed elaborate reproductions offamous Hellenisticworks (fig.32). The combinationof paintings n a gallerywas occasionally meaningful, as in the religious cycle of the Villa of theMysteries, nd occasionallyhaphazard,as in Boscoreale'sRoom H. At Bosco-reale, the connection among some paintings is no greater than we wouldexpect to find in a well-appointedresidence of the nineteenth century; thechoice of subjectsappears to have been based on the qualityand renown ofthe original pictures rather than some mysterious thread of meaning.With the politicaltransitionfrom Julius Caesar'srule to that of EmperorAugustus (r. 27 B.C.-A.D. 14) in the second half of the first century B.C.,sweeping artistic changes were introduced. When Octavian (later named

6. Thisroom,paintedwitha variety f religiousand cultic cenes, avethe Villa of thMysteries, earPompeii, tsname.The argf guresare characteristicf theSecondStyle

7. BedroomB of the Villaof the Mysterigivesan example f Second tyle rompe'oein its depiction f a roundtemplebehindamarble-faced all and Corinthian olumn

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Augustus) efeatedMarkAntonyat the Battleof Actium n 31 B.C., therfolloweda trendtowardopulence n public monuments, pitomizedbyAugustus's eclarationhat he had foundRomea city of brickand left ia cityof marble.Duringmuchof theRepublic, laboration aseschewed npublicbuildings,but in the earlyEmpire,a change n political limate ncouragedbothpublicand private elebrationf whatwasuniquelyRomain art rather han purelyGreek-inspiredrtistic raditions.Under Augustus,a new impulse o innovate, ather hanre-create, sserted tself in architecture, ortraiture, nd other arts as well. Augustuoversawhedevelopmentf a newarchitecturalrder, heCompositeOrdewhichmixedclassicalormswithRomannnovations ndwas irstapparenin the Forumof Augustus n Rome 19 B.C.). His approacho officialportraiture,whichquickly nfluencedprivateportraiture,s exemplified y histatue romPrimaPorta ca.20-17 B.C.; MuseoChiaramonti,he VaticaMuseums). hismagnificent ork uses ifth-centurylassicismnd Hellenistic dealism, ndsuggestsby the calmvisageof the emperor, lad in tharmorof a victorious eneralbut barefoot ike a deity,the securityandprosperity hathis reign wouldguarantee.

During he ThirdStyle ca.20 B.C.-A.D. 20), coincidentwith Augustusreign, he subjectmatter nd styleof frescopainting lsochangedabruptlThe introduction f this new stylemay n partbe attributedo AugustuandAgrippa,hisclose riendanda patronof the arts,whosponsoredman

8,9. Below:The alcoveof the Villa Farne-sina in Rome,constructedor Agrippaanddecorated bout19 B.C., epitomizeshe lastphaseof the SecondStyle n the diminishedsizeof thecentral ainting,which epresentsthe nymphLeucothea radling the infantDionysos.romMuseo Nazionale Romano:Le Pitture (Rome, 982), pl. 62. Center: na ThirdStylewallof thediningroomof theprobably ugustan eriodCasadei CubicoliFloreali t Pompeii,hepaintingof Odysseusat the eft has becomeimply ne componentof the wholedecorativecheme.The diningroom eems o depend losely n Bedroom 5of the mperial illa at Boscotrecase.

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public buildings, such as the Pantheon in Rome. In fact, Agrippa'sown villain Rome, the Villa Farnesina(ca. 19B.C.; fig. 8), anticipatedthe Third Style.During this new phase of mural decoration,wallsoften hada single mono-chrome background color such as red, black, or white and were decor-ated with elaborate architectural,vegetal, and figural details.These drewupon familiar forms, including mythicalbeasts like sirens and griffins, butthe original mythologicalsymbolismof such animals seems to have been ofpracticallyno interest to the artists,who treated them as decorativedevices.In decorative arts, the samebasic indifference to subject matter was charac-teristicof the so-calledNeo-Atticmovement,which began to servethe Romanappetite for classicizing tyleas early as the late second centuryB.C. and wasespecially popular during the Augustan period.

Additional evidence of this primarily decorative, ratherthan symbolic,approach to wall painting is the fact that the multiplicityof figural scenescharacteristicof the Second Style ended, and only a few stockscenes wereused. These usually appeared in the center of the wall. As in the SecondStyle, they may be understood to serve as the equivalent of framed paint-ings, in which figures and landscapes were shown in fairlynatural spatialperspective. These later paintingslose the importance they had earlier en-joyed, however,and are only a part, not the dominant element, in the over-all decorative scheme. The paintings' subjects, which during the SecondStyle had begun to matter less than the fame of the workscopied, became

10. The paintingsof the Third Style VillImperiale tPompeii ca. 12 .c.) show arful attentiono detailand havemuch n common with thoserom Boscotrecase. ere aincenseburner ises n front of a delicatedescribedfriezendfantastic rchitecturalftures.Thesmallpaintings o either ideof thincenseburner re subordinatedo the othdecorative lements.

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11,12. Above: n a detailof thenorthwallr Mysteries. ugustus's eteatr AntonyandtheBlackRoom romBoscotrecase,gyptian Cleopatra aveEgyptianizingmotifsa sym-figures ropitiatehedeityAnubisn thetorm bolic haracternBoscotrecase'smperial es-of ajackal.Below:A similar cenewitha croc- idence; n a privatehomeuchas theVillarodile s partr predella n the ThirdStyle theMysteriesheymerelyefected hetastertablinum, or vestibule, n the Villarhe theday. Seealsofig. 48.)

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less significantthan the harmony of the paintings with the surroundingsections of the wall, the ceiling, and the mosaic floor.Interest in reproducingfamous Hellenisticmasterpiecesand portrayingelaborate istaswasreplacedby anacknowledgment f thetwo-dimensionalityof the wall'spaintedsurface. Third Styleartists were preoccupiedwith ar-tistic form rather than content and no longer fascinated with simulatingdepth. Although veryskilledtechnically, heyeschewedthe perspectivalex-aggerations of the preceding style, except to poke fun at them, as on thenorthwallof Boscotrecase's lackRoom (ca. 11B.C.; figs.47-50, backcovers).Here the Second Style'sdistant andscapesseen through massivepedimentsareparodied by a miniature paintingof a landscapeon the wall not in thedistance and a spindlycanopy barelyprotruding into the viewer'sspace.The Metropolitan'spaintingsfrom the imperial villa at Boscotrecaseareamong the finestanywhere of the Third Style, in some ways the most revo-lutionary phase becauseits insistenttwo-dimensionality eflects a momentwhenartistsreactedagainst raditionratherthan builtupon it. This impulse,which is familiar o students of modern painting, was rarelyattested in thehistory of the classicalworld.Itwas n large measurethe perspectivalconceits and playfulattitude gov-erning the late Second and Third Styles that prompted the condemnationof Vitruvius, he late first-centuryB.C. architectand writer. In one passageof his bookDe Architectura,Vitruvius laments:Imitationsbased upon realityare now disdainedby the improper tasteof thepresent.... Instead of columns there rise up stalks; nsteadof gables, stripedpanels with curled leavesand volutes. Candelabraupholdpicturedshrines andabove the summitsof these, clusters of thin stalksrise from their roots in ten-drils with little figures seated upon them at random.... Slender stalkswithheads of men and of animals [are]attached to half the body.Such things nei-therare, nor can be, nor have been.... For how can a reed actuallysustain aroof, or a candelabrum he ornaments of a gable?.... For pictures cannot beapproved which do not resemble reality. 7.5.3,4)The crusty rhetoric of Vitruvius'sconservativevoice echoed Republicandistaste for the novel artisticdirection taken during the monarchy of Au-gustus, but the earlyThird Style,which was in effect the court styleof theemperorAugustus and his friend Agrippa, eventuallygave way to a rekin-dled interest in elaboration or itsown sake. The colorpalette of the ThirdStyle also evolved, so that the initial stark and restrained red, white, andblackbackgroundseventuallychanged to green, blue, andyellow.This pro-gression signaled a gradual revivalof the ostentationand flourish of lateRepublican aste.During the Fourth Style(ca.A.D. 20-79) there was a revivalof interest inthe simulationof depth on the painted walland the depiction of fantastic

panoramas,as well as a revivedemphasison narrativepainting. In theJulio-Claudianphaseof thisstyle (ca.A.D. 20-54), a textilelike qualitydominatesand tendrilsseem to connect all of the elementson a wall.The colors warmup once again, and they are used to advantage in the depiction of scenesdrawn from mythology.A second subtype of the Fourth Style involves aflattening of the picture plane once more, and a third introduces a com-plete blanketingof the wall with painted images, a manifestationof theamorpleni (loveof abundance) that is typical of contemporaryFlavian A.D.69-96) architectural culpture and decoration.

13,14. The landscaperom theeast wallofthe Boscotrecaseilla'sBlackRoom abovemayhave inspired landscape f identicasize in Pompeii'sCasa dei CubicoliFloreal(below). he cene neach hows two-columstructure eara tree,with iguresapproaching theapparentceneof sacrifice.

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The decoration f a Romanvillawasa highlyorganized nterprise.Wallpaintingswere carefullyplanned n advancewith ntricate ystems f pro-portions nd geometry, intedat by Vitruvius. rivatenteriorswereprob-ablya cooperative ffortof artists n itinerantworkshops hospecializednpaintingbackgrounds,andscapes, nd figures,moldingelaborate tuccocornices nd ceilings,and creatingmosaicpavementsn conjunctionwiththe wallpaintings.Someof the bestevidence or the techniques f Roman rtists s in Pliny'sNaturalHistory nd nVitruvius's anualDe Architectura.itruvius escribesthe elaboratemethods mployed ywallpainters,ncluding he insertion fsheetsof lead in the wall o prevent he capillary ctionof moisture romattackinghe fresco, he preparation f as manyas seven ayersof plasteron the wall,and the useof marblepowder n thetop layers o help producea mirrorlike heen on the surface.Sectionsof eachroom were paintedatdifferent imes, and the edges of each section(orgiornata,meaning heextentof a day'swork)are faintlyvisibleon thesurface. t seems hatpre-liminarydrawings r light incisionson the prepared urfaceguided theartistsn decoratinghewalls fresco on freshplaster)withstrongprimarycolors; he lightercolorswereapparently ftenaddeda secco on dry plas-ter) in a subsequent hase,although here s vigorousand continuingde-bateabout he exactmethodsof Romanpainters.Vitruviuss helpfulas well n informing s abouthecolorsusedbyRomanmuralpainters.Blackwas essentially rawnfromthe carboncreatedbyburningbrushwood r pine chips. Ocherwasextracted rom mines andserved or yellow.Redswere derivedeither fromcinnabar, ed ocher,orfrom heatingwhite ead.Blueswere made from mixingsandand copperand baking he mixture.The deepestpurplewasby far the mostpreciouscolor, ince t came romcertain eawhelks, utVitruvius lsodescribesessexpensivemethods fobtaining urplepigment ydyeing halkwithberries.AffluentRomans f the firstcenturies .C. andA.D. often had more hanone residence,ncluding house n the cityandacountry illa,and thoseofa higher station, ike senatorsand knights, requentlyhad severalvillas.The expenditure f vastsumson the constructionnd furnishing f thesehomesprompted onsiderableriticism; ucretius oted sourly hatbore-dom drove the rich fromtheir city home to theircountryone and backagain. Such was the quest for creature comfortsand diversions thatpisciculture thebreeding f fish n ponds became passion imilar o thecultivation f tulips nseventeenth-centuryolland, ndmanyRomanwrit-ers complained hat thebusinessof governmentufferedbecauseof it.Certainlymuchof thecondemnation f luxurian Roman ountry stateswaspure Republicanip service;Cicerowasamong he criticsbut had sev-eral villashimselfand corresponded ctively n searchof statues or hisgardens.The elaborateetreats f the late Republic nd earlyEmpirewereamenities hat seem to havebeen indispensableo the wealthy.The villa rustica,or countryvilla,whichpermittedhe owner o overseethe farmsat his disposal,musthaveoriginated arlyon in Campania, hichwasfirstcolonizedbythe Greeks n the middleof the eighthcentury .C.Evidence or such villas s preservedonly fromthe second centuryB.C.Onward, owever,when prominentRomans ike ScipioAfricanusMaiorhada secondary esidence utsideof the capitalor occasionaltays.At thattime, mported bjects rom Romanmilitary onquestsn Greece illed he

15-17. Opposite: hisdetailfrom he WhitRoomof BoscotrecaseecallsVitravius's assagedescribingheplayfulconceits f the ateSecondand earlyThirdStyles,whichhe deplored.Above:TheJulio-ClaudianGorgomask 92.11.8) reveals omeof the technicafeatures f Romanresco,witha colorfulayea secco (on dryplaster) aintedon topof thewhite resco background.elow:A panel inthe Museum f Art, Rhode sland SchoolofDesign,Providence,ypif s the antasticarchitecture aintedduring heFourthStyle.

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homes of Romanpatronsboth in the cities and in the countryside. uchbootyfired the imagination f artistsworking n the region and accountfor muchof the imagery n villasof the secondand firstcenturies .C.During he late Republic, he agricultural roductivityf farmsadjacento these villasbecame ess important han the enjoyment he ownersde-rived romthe residences hemselves.This trendwasa sourceof irritatioas earlyas the mid-second enturyB.C. to men like M. PorciusCato,whosaw n the striving or uxuria a debasement f longstandingRomanvirtueassociatedwith hardworkand devotion o the state.As the role of the countryvilla changed from a simple residence oroverseeing gricultural roductivityo a comfortable etreat,more slavewere kept year-round n the groundsand more roomsand servicebuildingswereadded.Similarly,s the ownersgrew ncreasinglyophisticated,tbecame ashionableo inviteGreekphilosophers ndRoman iterati o theseretreats.The settings n whichan owner entertainedhis guests changedaccordingly,nd simplepaintingsmitatingmasonrywallsyielded o scenedrawn rom Greekmythology.The cultivatedaste hatreplacedmereostentationwas n no smallmeasure responsible or the growthof the SecondStyle.The paintedwallsofdiningrooms, ibraries, nd bedrooms,ikethoseof the villaat Boscorealsoon reflected he villaowners' ntellectual nd aesthetic avoir aire andweremeant o be appreciated y visitors rom the neighboringGreekcitof Neapolis ancientNaples).

18. Vesuviusan beseen o thenorthwestnthisphototgraphf thevillaat Boscorealeakenduring ts excavation,n Septemberf 1900.In the oregrounds theolearium (Room 4on theplan,fig. 21) or themanufacturendstorage f wineand oil. The villa'sentranceis at theright.Between he entrance nd theoleariumwa.s he Roomof the MusicalIn-struments, amed fter hesubject f its res-coes;paintingsrom bothrooms re now intheLourre.Two olumnsf theperistylemergefrom hemound f earth t theright, till un-excavatedt the ime,andBedroomM is ustbeyondhecolumnarthestromtheobserver.FromF. Barnabei,La villa pompeiana diP. Fannio Sinistore (Rome, 901), pl. III.

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c e n t u r y B.C. through the middle of the firstcentury A.D., those who couldlived n "profusis umptibus" lavishextravagance as the privateresidencesof the period attest.Condemnationsof such self-indulgencebywriters ikeMartial ontinued, but Campaniawasfilledwith sumptuousproperties,in-cludingthe imperialestateat Boscotrecase,and until the end of the RomanEmpireremainedan inviting resort area of thermalcures, glamorousso-cial life, and intellectualstimulation.Each villa'sextensive grounds pro-vided ample space for innovativelandscapedesign and architecturalanddecorativeexperimentation,but the proliferationof suchvillasalsoresultedin motifssharedfrom one to the next, whichhas facilitated he archaeolo-gist'stasksof establishingrelativechronologyand sortingout workshops.

The discoveryof Romanvillasin Campaniahas proceeded slowly,sinceso much of the countrysidesurrounding Vesuviuswas covered over andsubsequentlybuilt upon. By contrast,the remainsof seaside villas oftenowned in additionto villae usticae maybe spottedunderwaterto this dayin the Bay of Naples, especially in the area around Posilipo, ancientPausilypon. The chance discoveries of the two villas at Boscoreale andBoscotrecaseare especially mportant,sincethese weresuperbexamplesoflate Republicanand early Empireinteriordesign. Dozensof other extraor-dinaryvillas ntheregion,both imperialandprivate,await arefulexcavation.15


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21. Thevilla at Boscoreales shownherein a roofZesssometric lan that includesfeaturesknownonly rom the excavationreport ublished yE Barnabei n 1901.RetainingBarnabei'snorthodoxystem fidentification, e can proceed round hevilla clockwise:B. Interior ntranceC. PassagewayD. Roomof theMusical nstruments24. 01earium, or theproductionf wineand oilE. Peristyle. he ix-columnrrangementwas mitated n thepaintedwallsbelow hecantileveredoofof thecourtyard. largebronze ase (tg. 39) was paintedon thewallacross heentrances f RoomsN andO, and the Corinthian olumn tg. 38)wasat the outheastorner f theperistyleN. Winterriclinium (dining room)O. Sittingroom

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M. Cubiculum ith northwindow, hichmayhavebeenoriginalor added fter heearthquakef A.D. 62 (see ig. 23)L. An open exedra with three wallspaintedwithgarlands.Thewall visible nthe drawing is in the Muse'eRoyal etDomaine eMariemont,Morlanwelz, el-gium; the Metropolitan'sanel (tg. 43)was on the acing wallI. Thisroomwasdecorated ithpaintingsof rusticatedmasonry, ow n theLourreand in theMariemontmuseumH. Probably diningroom.On the wallfacing the outh ntrancewere hree aint-ings (left o right):Dionysos ndAriadne,AphroditendEros,andtheThreeGraces.Only hecenter anel s preserved;t is intheMuseoArcheologicoazionale, aples.Above achpaintingwere mallerriptychs;twoof these, n verypoorcondition, re nthe MetropolitanMuseum.On the right(east)wall were heMetropolitan'saint-

ings (figs.34-36). A wingedGeniuswaat each ideof thesouthern ntranceromtheperistyle; ne s in theLourre,and thother s in the Mariemontmuseum.Onthe eft (westwall), not visible,were hrepaintingsnow n NaplesG. Summer iningroom(?). aintings ntheMariemont nd Naplesmuseums23. PassagewayE Three aintingsof thisroom re in thMetropolitansee igs. 40, 42 )22. Uncertainunction20. Dressing oom21. Frigidarium(coldbath)17. Tepidarium (warmbath)18-19. Caldarium (hot bath)15. Colonnadedourtyard1-12. Servants' uarters

22. Opposite:Detail of a maskof Pan fromthe Metropolitan's ection of Room L


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painting in rome and pompeii

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