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POMPEIA S FRESCOE
IN MUSEUMOF ART THE METROPOLITAN

Maxwell

L.

Anderson

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THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART B ULLETI N Winter1987/88 ) (ISSN0026-1521 VolumeXLV,Number3 (C) 1987by The Metropolitan quarterly Published Museumof Art, FifthAvenueand 82nd Street,New York, postagepaidat New York,N.Y. N.Y.10028.Second-class and AdditionalMailingOffices.The MetropolitanMuseum of Art Bulletin is providedas a benefitto Museummem$18.00a Subscriptions by subscription. bersand available year.Singlecopies$4.75. Fourweeks'noticerequiredfor changeof address.POSTMASTER: Send addresschangesto Museumof The Metropolitan Department, Membership Art, FifthAvenueand 82nd Street,New York,N.Y. fl-omUniveron microfilm, 10028.Backissuesavailable 313 N. FirstStreet,Ann Arbor,Michigan. sityMicrofilms, as a clothbound VolumesI-XXVIII(1905-1942)available yearlyvolumesfroln The Ayer reprintset or as individual Inc., 99 MainStreet,Salem,N.H., Publishers, Company, 03079, or from the Museum,Box 700, MiddleVillage, John P. of Publications: N.Y.11379.(;eneralManager O'Neill.Editorin Chief of the Bulletitl:Joan Holt. Associate Editor:MeropeLolis.Design:MaryAnn Joulwan and Circulation of OwnershipManagement Statement
Titleof publication:
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART BULLETIN

Publicationno.: 0026-1521 October1, 1987 Date offilirlg: of issue: Fourtimesper year Frequency No. of issuespublishedannually: Four or Freeto Museum price: $1X.00, Annual subscription

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and engineering jurisprudence, to government, Roman contributions the basisfor an Romans to the We owe acknowledged. are commonly feats still and their structural government, efficientsystemof centralized to bejudged worldcontinues legacyof the Roman amazeus. Yetthe artistic it. The thatpreceded Greektraditions widelyas an echoof the magnificent and the decorative design, portraiture, of Romanarchitecture, creativity in fresco,to cite the subjectof Paintings indisputable. artsis nonetheless works genius; of technical strongevidence provide certainly thispublication, eruptions, volcanic earthquakes, mediumhavesurvived in thiscomplicated centuafterhavingwithstood good condition and are often in surprisingly the demonstrate also vividly But wallpaintings riesof adverseconditions. and decoof narrative of Romanartwiththeirlivelyadmixture originality trompel'oeildevices.Morewithingenious often combined rativesubjects, of the pictureplane, towardthe penetrability over, in their ambivalence thatwouldengage concerns artistic foreshadow wallpaintings theseancient of our own tirne. artists someof the mostcreative of Romanfrescoesis the largest collection Museum's The Metropolitan arts led the of Romandecorative outsideof Italy.An earlyappreciation finewall exceptionally the Art to acquire Roman of Greekand Department two townsnear Pompeii,in and Boscotrecase, paintingsfrom Boscoreale atThey havebeen the focusof scholarly of thiscentury. the firstquarter to tentionin the field of Romanart eyer since,and they are fascinating modernviewersas settingsof ancientlife. The dining room wallsof the Boscoreale villa surely witnessed elaborate banquets like those later (ca.A.D. 60). The bedroomwallsof in the Satyricon by Petronius described and provide on the other hand,are personaland intimate, Boscotrecase, glimpseof the tasteof the familyof Rome'sfirstemperor, a provocative owner. Julia,the villa's and of his daughter, Augustus, The textwas of thisBulletin. arethe subjects andBoscotrecase Boscoreale Muof the EmoryUniversity L. Anderson,Director by Maxwell prepared andcharts whotellsthe storyof the twovillas seumof ArtandArchaeology, exuberfromthe baroque in the artof Romanwallpainting the transition of the earlyEmpire. restraint to the classical anceof the late Republic contribution Agnelli,whosegenerous to Giovanni Wearedeeplygrateful They frescoes. of theBoscotrecase anddisplay therestoration madepossible treasures. finest the'Metropolitan's among now taketheirplaceproudly Philippede Montebello
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PAINTING IN

ROME
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POMPEII

few referencesto Romanpaintingin ancientliteratureusually concernportable exampleson materials such as woodand ivory.Becausetheseworks havenotsurvived, theRoman painters mosthighlypraised in antiquity have passedinto obscurity. Duringthe late Republic, portrait painters like Iaiaof Kyzikos (late2nd-early 1stcenturyB.C.) commanded highprices, according to Pliny, highereventhan"themostcelebrated painters of the sameperiod,Sopolisand Dionysios." So too we readin Plinythat Arellius,who workedat the end of the firstcenturyB.C., was highlyesteemedand wouldhavebeen moreso but for his regrettable habitof portraying goddesses in the imageof his mistresses. The sameauthoralsotells us that the emperorAugustusexhibitedtwo paintingsin his forum:the Visageof Warand Triumph. He displayed other paintings in the Forumof JuliusCaesar, his adoptivefather,and it is clearthatthe mediumwasused for propaganda and warreportage as wellas for decoration. The Romanpaintings thathavesurvived are in the durablemediumof fresco,usedto adornthe interiors of private homesin the Roman citiesand in the countryside. According to Pliny, it wasStudius"whofirstinstituted that most delightfultechniqueof paintingwallswith representations of villas, porticoes andlandscape gardens, woods,groves, hills,pools,channels,
3

The

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loomsat the lett behind 2. MountVesuvius commercial center, the theruinso+Pompeii's Forum. From AmedeoMaiuri, Pompeii (Rome, 1929), illus.p. 25.

for the thatStudius wasresponsible Somehavespeculated rivers, coastlines." in 19 B.C. completed in Rome,probably decoration of the VillaFarnesina, to Julia, daughterof the emperor marriage on the occasionof Agrippa's Augustus. evidence,we can assumethat some portable Despitea lackof physical paintingsdepictedthe same subjectsthat are found on paintedwallsin to supposethatRomanpanelpaintings, Roman villas.It is evenreasonable and adaptations of renownedlate whichincludedboth originalcreations in frescoes: subjects for the mostpopular Greekworks, werethe prototypes and Perseusand Andromeda, and Galatea, the Fallof Icarus,Polyphemus in thatartistsfrom Romespecializing the Deathof Actaeon.It is probable thatreproduced to otherpartsof Italywithcopybooks frescooftentraveled elements patterns. The decorative as wellas ornamental popularpaintings and in the regionof Naplesmakethis sharedby certainvillasin the capital explanation all but certain. The richest concentrationof survivingfrescoes has been found in on Campania, the regionaroundNaples.The eruptionof MountVesuvius the volsurrounding August24, A.D. 79, buriedmuchof the countryside aswellasdozensof and Herculaneum, cano,including the citiesof Pompeii

private residences nearby.As so often happens in archaeology,a disaster served to freeze a moment in the past and allowed excavatorsfrom the eighteenth century onward to delve into the life of the region's ancient inhabitants. The many examples of fresco painting that have survived as a result of the eruption of Vesuviusare nevertheless but a fraction of what existed in the Roman world. Pompeii was not even among the thirty greatest cities of the Roman Empire. Thus with each discoveryin the Vesuvianregion or in Rome, scholarsare forced to rethink issues related to chronology and style. Because of two major acquisitionsmade early in this century,the Metropolitan Museum has the finest collection of Roman frescoes outside of Italy. Sectionsof painted walls from villasof the first century B.C. in the Neapolitan suburbsof Boscoreale and Boscotrecasewere purchased and exported with the permission of the Italian government in 1903 and 1920 respectively.In the caseof the second group of paintings,discoveredin Boscotrecase in 1903 and acquiredin 1920, the sequence of events was fortunate indeed, for had the paintings not been removed from their original context and offered for sale, they might well have been lost forever during the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

3. Thevillaso+Boscoreale andBoscotrecase werelocated northo+Pompeii and wereburiedduringtheeruption o+Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.

recordof the The paintedwallsof Romanvillasprovidean unparalleled ago. They are not only of the well-to-do two millennia life and worldview the physicalremainsof a site, but also mirrorsof the Romans'cultural Romanhousesseemto have Frescoed wallsin private andartistic concerns. decorative, only rarelyappearingto have served been almostexclusively a culticor religiouspurpose. weredeeplyindebtedto the magnificent It is a truismthatthe Romans to paintings are often presumed legacyof Greekculture.Romannarrative periods,yet whenthey and Hellenistic copyworksfromthe GreekClassical are themespopularin the Greekworld,the paintings includemythological of earlierworks.We must revariations often casualand sentimentalized fascinaarthada historical patrons, as forus, Greek member thatfor Roman as the "ancients." The gap between tion;Latinauthorsrefer to the Greeks of the firstcentury centuryB.C. andthe Romans the Greeks of the mid-fifth and the Beaux-Arts the High Renaissance B.C. wasas greatas thatbetween periodof the late nineteenthcentury. villasof the firstcenturiesB.C. of Romanand Pompeian Our knowledge in the lastdecadeand a half throughsysand A.D. hasgrownconsiderably eleand study.It has becomeclearthat the decorative tematicexcavation ments of these privatehomes are more profitablyconsideredin their historical settingthan as echoes of lost Hellenistic(late 4th-lst century fascination with greatancient The nineteenth-century B.C.) masterpieces. scholarly yielded to a more objective cultural impulses has artists andshadowy method,which seeks to examineeach period and place as a particular milieuthatdrewto a greateror lesserextentfrom the past.It has become 4. The entrancevestibuleof the Samnite settingin Romanterms as a place of a Romanprivate possible to conceive displays typical decoHouseat Herculaneum declived in roomswithelaborately patrons who designed for first-century wallpaintrationof theFirstStyleof Roman oratedwalls,ceilings,floors,and furnishings. bya stucco ing, withan upperzonecrowned of Romanpaintingin four styleswasdiscernedby AuA development central and lower zones molding andpainted of 1882.AlthoughMau's seminal studyof Romanpainting gust Mau in his slabs. simulating colored-marble sound, recent researchhas revealedfrequentresystemis still basically of the progression vivalsof stylesin laterperiods,leadingto qualifications 5. An example of First Stylepainting,this fragment (30.142.5) in the Metropolitan described by Mau.The FirstStyle(ca.200-60 B.C.) waslargelyan exploraMuseum simulatesmarble. A comparable tion of the possibilities marbleof various colorsand typeson of simulating excavated in Turkey at fragment wasrecently paintedplaster.Artistsof the late Republic(2nd-lst centuryB.C.) drew maydate fromthe thesiteof Priene,and both and of earlyHellenistic (late4th-3rd centuryB.C.) painting uponexamples early f rstcentury B. C. architecture in order to simulatemasonrywalls.The wall was routinely wascrowned painted zones,andtheuppermost divided intothreehorizontal order by a stuccocorniceof dentils,based upon the Doric architectural floorsof thisperiodweremoreornatethanthe (fig.4). In generalthemosaic walls,whichlackedfiguraldecoration. of The declineof the FirstStylecoincidedwiththe Romancolonization been an Italic whathad essentially Pompeiiin 80 B.C., whichtransformed townwith Greekinfluencesinto a Romancity.Goingbeyondthe simple fromthe figartists borrowed of costlier buildingmaterials, representation of Hellenistic Greekwallpaintingto depictgods, mortals, uralrepertoire of the late marble portraits contexts. The stern-faced andheroesin various one to imaginethatit wasa timeof greatausterity Republic mightmislead age, but it wasin in contrast to the splendorand opulenceof the imperial of extravagant and populatedby art collectors fact as sociallyvariegated tasteas thatwhichfollowed.
6

In the earliest phase of the Second Style, prior to the middle of the first century B.C., the masonrywall of FirstStyle painting endured, but columns appeared 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 exceptional example of late Second Style decoration, teasing the eye with perspectival recessionand providingcopiesof lostbut presumably once-famousHellenistic paintings. In the architecturalvistas,deeply receding colonnades and projectionsof column basesinto the viewer'sspacebecamecommonplace.Often the wall was no longer acknowledgedand simply embellished, as had been the tendency in the First Style, but was instead painted in such a way as to seem knee-high. We are encouraged to look above this socle, the only barrier before us, and out into fantastic panoramas or architecturalconfections (see figs. 27, 28). The fact that the viewer's eye was methodically tricked on such a scale gives us insight into the nature and extent of aesthetic refinement ln the art of the late Roman Republic. In the Second Style copies of earlier paintings,as in the Boscorealepaintings of Room H, the intention was to create a picture gallery,of the kind we read about in ancient literature, that displayed elaborate reproductions of famous Hellenisticworks(fig.32). The combinationof paintingsin a gallery was occasionallymeaningful, as in the religious cycle of the Villa of the Mysteries, and occasionally haphazard,as in Boscoreale's Room H. At Boscoreale, the connection among some paintings is no greater than we would expect to find in a well-appointedresidence of the nineteenth century; the choice of subjectsappears to have been based on the qualityand renown of the original pictures rather than some mysteriousthread of meaning. With the politicaltransitionfrom Julius Caesar'srule to that of Emperor Augustus (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

of reli6. Thisroom, paintedwitha variety giousand culticscenes,gave the Villaof the Mysteries, nearPompeii, its name.Thelarge Style. f guresare characteristic of theSecond 7. Bedroom B of the Villa of the Mysteries Styletrompe l'oeil givesan example of Second in its depiction of a roundtemplebehinda columns. marble-faced wall and Corinthian

8,9. Below:The alcoveof the VillaFarnefor Agrippaand sina in Rome,constructed the last decorated about19 B.C., epitomizes phaseof the SecondStylein the diminished sizeof thecentral painting,whichrepresents the nymphLeucotheacradling the infant Dionysos. From Museo Nazionale Romano: 1982), pl. 62. Center: In Le Pitture (Rome, a ThirdStylewall of thediningroomof the periodCasadei Cubicoli probably Augustan thepaintingof Odysseus Floreali at Pompeii, simply one component at the left has become scheme. The dining of the wholedecorative closely on Bedroom 15 room seems to depend of theimperial villa at Boscotrecase.

Augustus) defeatedMarkAntonyat the Battleof Actiumin 31 B.C., there followeda trend towardopulencein publicmonuments,epitomizedby that he had found Romea cityof brickand left it Augustus's declaration waseschewed in elaboration Duringmuchof the Republic, a cityof marble. climateenbut in the earlyEmpire,a changein political publicbuildings, Roman of whatwasuniquely celebration couraged bothpublicand private artistic traditions. in art ratherthan purelyGreek-inspired asUnder Augustus,a new impulseto innovate,ratherthan re-create, and other artsas well. Augustus portraiture, serteditself in architecture, Order, order,theComposite of a newarchitectural oversaw thedevelopment andwasfirstapparent formswithRomaninnovations whichmixedclassical to officialporin the Forumof Augustusin Rome(19 B.C.). His approach by his portraiture, is exemplified influenced private traiture, whichquickly The Vatican statuefromPrimaPorta(ca.20-17 B.C.; MuseoChiaramonti, andHellenclassicism workfusesfifth-century Museums). Thismagnificent isticidealism, and suggestsby the calmvisageof the emperor,clad in the generalbut barefootlike a deity,the securityand armorof a victorious prosperity that his reignwouldguarantee. withAugustus's Duringthe Third Style(ca.20 B.C.-A.D. 20), coincident alsochangedabruptly. matter andstyleof frescopainting reign,the subject to Augustus of this new style mayin partbe attributed The introduction many andAgrippa, hisclosefriendanda patronof the arts,whosponsored

publicbuildings, such as the Pantheon in Rome. In fact, Agrippa'sown villa in Rome, the Villa Farnesina(ca. 19 B.C.; fig. 8), anticipatedthe Third Style. During this new phase of muraldecoration,wallsoften had a single monochrome background color such as red, black, or white and were decorated with elaborate architectural,vegetal, and figural details. These drew upon familiar forms, including mythicalbeasts like sirens and griffins, but the original mythologicalsymbolismof such animals seems to have been of practicallyno interest to the artists,who treated them as decorativedevices. In decorativearts, the same basic indifference to subjectmatter was characteristicof the so-calledNeo-Atticmovement,whichbegan to serve the Roman appetite for classicizingstyle as early as the late second century B.C. and was especially popular during the Augustan period. Additional evidence of this primarily decorative, rather than symbolic, approach to wall painting is the fact that the multiplicityof figural scenes characteristicof the Second Style ended, and only a few stock scenes were used. These usually appeared in the center of the wall. As in the Second Style, they may be understood to serve as the equivalent of framed paintings, in which figures and landscapes were shown in fairly natural spatial perspective.These later paintings lose the importance they had earlier enjoyed, however,and are only a part, not the dominant element, in the overall decorative scheme. The paintings' subjects, which during the Second Style had begun to matter less than the fame of the works copied, became

10. The paintingsof the ThirdStyle Villa (ca. 12 .c.) showcareImperiale at Pompeii to detailand havemuchin comful attention from Boscotrecase. Here an mon with those incenseburnerrises in front of a delicately andfantastic architecturalfeadescribedfrieze sideof the tures.Thesmallpaintingsto either are subordinated to the other incenseburner decorative elements.

11,12. Above: In a detailof thenorth wallr theBlackRoom JromBoscotrecase, Egyptian figures propitiate thedeity Anubis in thetorm ofajackal. Below: A similar scene witha crocodileis part r a predella in the ThirdStyle tablinum, or vestibule, in the Villa rthe

Mysteries. Augustus's deteatr Antonyand Cleopatra gave Egyptianizing motifsa symboliccharacter in Boscotrecase's imperial residence; in a privatehome suchas theVillar theMysteries theymerely refected thetaster theday.(Seealsofig. 48.)

10

less significant than the harmony of the paintings with the surrounding sections of the wall, the ceiling, and the mosaic floor. Interest in reproducing famous Hellenistic masterpiecesand portraying elaborate vistaswasreplacedby an acknowledgment of the two-dimensionality of the wall'spainted surface. Third Style artistswere preoccupied with artistic form rather than content and no longer fascinated with simulating depth. Although very skilled technically,they eschewed the perspectivalexaggerationsof the preceding style, except to poke fun at them, as on the northwallof Boscotrecase's BlackRoom (ca. 11 B.C.; figs.47-50, backcovers). Here the Second Style'sdistantlandscapesseen through massivepediments are parodiedby a miniaturepainting of a landscapeon the wall not in the distance and a spindly canopy barely protruding into the viewer'sspace. The Metropolitan'spaintings from the imperial villa at Boscotrecaseare among the finest anywhereof the Third Style, in some waysthe most revolutionaryphase because its insistent two-dimensionalityreflects a moment when artistsreactedagainsttraditionratherthan builtupon it. This impulse, which is familiarto students of modern painting, was rarely attested in the history of the classicalworld. It wasin large measure the perspectivalconceits and playful attitude governing the late Second and Third Styles that prompted the condemnation of Vitruvius,the late first-centuryB.C. architectand writer. In one passage of his book De Architectura,Vitruvius laments:
Imitationsbased upon realityare now disdained by the improper taste of the present.... Instead of columns there rise up stalks;instead of gables, striped panelswithcurled leavesand volutes. Candelabrauphold picturedshrinesand above the summitsof these, clusters of thin stalksrise from their roots in tendrils with little figures seated upon them at random.... Slender stalks with heads of men and of animals [are] attached to half the body. Such things neither are, nor can be, nor have been.... For how can a reed actuallysustain a roof, or a candelabrumthe ornaments of a gable?.... For pictures cannot be approved which do not resemble reality.(7.5.3,4)

13,14. The landscape from the east wall of theBoscotrecase villa'sBlackRoom(above) mayhave inspireda landscape of identical size in Pompeii's Casa dei Cubicoli Floreali (below). Thescene in eachshows a two-column structure neara tree,withfiguresapproaching theapparent sceneof sacrifice.

The crusty rhetoric of Vitruvius'sconservativevoice echoed Republican distaste for the novel artisticdirection taken during the monarchy of Augustus, but the early Third Style, which was in effect the court style of the emperor Augustus and his friend Agrippa, eventuallygave way to a rekindled interest in elaborationfor its own sake. The color palette of the Third Style also evolved, so that the initial stark and restrained red, white, and blackbackgroundseventuallychanged to green, blue, and yellow.This progression signaled a gradual revival of the ostentation and flourish of late Republicantaste. During the Fourth Style (ca. A.D. 20-79) there was a revivalof interest in the simulationof depth on the painted wall and the depiction of fantastic panoramas,as well as a revivedemphasison narrativepainting. In theJulioClaudianphase of this style (ca. A.D. 20-54), a textilelike quality dominates and tendrils seem to connect all of the elements on a wall. The colors warm up once again, and they are used to advantage in the depiction of scenes drawn from mythology.A second subtype of the Fourth Style involves a flattening of the picture plane once more, and a third introduces a complete blanketing of the wall with painted images, a manifestation of the amorpleni (love of abundance)that is typicalof contemporaryFlavian(A.D. 69-96) architecturalsculpture and decoration.
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enterprise. Wall The decoration of a Romanvillawasa highlyorganized systems of proplannedin advance withintricate paintings werecarefully interiors wereprobhintedat by Vitruvius. Private portions and geometry, whospecialized in in itinerant workshops ablya cooperative effortof artists stucco landscapes, and figures,moldingelaborate paintingbackgrounds, in conjunction with cornicesand ceilings,and creatingmosaicpavements the wallpaintings. artists is in Pliny's of Roman Someof the bestevidencefor the techniques Vitruvius describes manual DeArchitectura. NaturalHistory andin Vitruvius's including the insertion of employed bywallpainters, theelaborate methods actionof moisturefrom sheetsof lead in the wallto preventthe capillary of as manyas sevenlayersof plaster attacking the fresco,the preparation to help produce powder in the top layers on the wall,andthe use of marble a mirrorlike sheen on the surface.Sectionsof each roomwere paintedat differenttimes,and the edges of each section(or giornata,meaningthe extentof a day'swork)are faintlyvisibleon the surface.It seemsthatpreliminary drawings or light incisionson the preparedsurfaceguided the withstrongprimary artists in decorating the wallsafresco(on freshplaster) often addeda secco(on dry plascolors;the lightercolorswereapparently deter) in a subsequent phase,althoughthereis vigorousand continuing bateaboutthe exactmethodsof Romanpainters. us aboutthecolorsusedbyRoman Vitruvius is helpfulaswellin informing drawnfrom the carboncreatedby muralpainters.Blackwas essentially or pine chips. Ocherwas extractedfrom minesand burningbrushwood red ocher,or servedfor yellow.Redswerederivedeitherfrom cinnabar, from heatingwhitelead. Bluesweremade from mixingsandand copper and bakingthe mixture.The deepestpurplewasby far the mostprecious alsodescribes less seawhelks, butVitruvius color,sinceit camefromcertain chalk withberries. purplepigment bydyeing expensive methods of obtaining B.C. and A.D. often had morethan AffluentRomans of the firstcenturies villa,andthoseof a housein thecityanda country one residence, including a higherstation,like senatorsand knights,frequentlyhad severalvillas. and furnishing of these The expenditure of vastsumson the construction notedsourlythatborecriticism; Lucretius homesprompted considerable dom drovethe rich from their city home to their countryone and back again. Such was the quest for creature comforts and diversionsthat a passion similar to the of fishin ponds became pisciculture thebreeding andmanyRoman writHolland, cultivation of tulipsin seventeenth-century sufferedbecauseof it. ers complained thatthe businessof government country estates of luxuriain Roman Certainly muchof the condemnation but had sevlip service; Cicerowasamongthe critics waspureRepublican activelyin searchof statuesfor his eral villashimselfand corresponded andearlyEmpire were retreats of the lateRepublic gardens. The elaborate to the wealthy. amenities thatseem to havebeen indispensable the ownerto oversee The villa rustica,or countryvilla,whichpermitted which musthaveoriginated earlyon in Campania, the farmsat hisdisposal, wasfirstcolonizedby the Greeksin the middleof the eighthcenturyB.C. Evidencefor such villasis preservedonly from the second centuryB.C. Onward, however, when prominentRomanslike ScipioAfricanusMaior for occasional stays. At that outsideof the capital hada secondary residence in Greecefilledthe fromRomanmilitary conquests time,imported objects

the White 15-17. Opposite: Thisdetailfrom pasRoomof Boscotrecase recallsVitravius's of thelate sagedescribing theplayfulconceits Secondand earlyThirdStyles,whichhe deGorgon plored.Above:TheJulio-Claudian mask(92.11.8) revealssomeof the technical layer features ofRoman fresco,witha colorful paintedon topof the a secco (on dryplaster) Below:A panel in white frescobackground. theMuseum of Art, RhodeIslandSchoolof Design,Providence, typifes thefantasticarchitecture paintedduringtheFourthStyle.

13

18. Vesuvius can beseento thenorthwest in this phototgraph of thevillaatBoscoreale taken duringits excavation, in September of 1900. In the foreground is theolearium (Room 24 on theplan,fig. 21)for themanufacture and storage of wineand oil. Thevilla'sentrance is at theright.Between theentrance and the olearium wa.sthe Roomof the MusicalInstruments, named afterthesubject of itsfrescoes;paintings from bothrooms are now in theLourre. Two columns oftheperistyle emerge fromthemound of earth at theright,stillunexcavated at thetime,andBedroom M isjust beyond thecolumn farthest fromtheobserver. FromF. Barnabei, La villa pompeiana di P. Fannio Sinistore (Rome, 1901), pl. III.

homesof Romanpatronsboth in the citiesand in the countryside. Such bootyfired the imagination of artistsworkingin the regionand accounts for muchof the imageryin villasof the secondand firstcenturiesB.C. Duringthe lateRepublic, the agricultural productivity of farmsadjacent to these villasbecameless important than the enjoymentthe ownersderivedfromthe residences themselves. This trendwasa sourceof irritation as earlyas the mid-second centuryB.C. to men like M. PorciusCato,who sawin the striving for luxuria a debasement of longstanding Romanvirtues associated withhardworkand devotionto the state. As the role of the countryvilla changed from a simple residencefor overseeing agricultural productivity to a comfortable retreat,more slaves werekeptyear-round on the groundsand more roomsand servicebuildingswereadded.Similarly, as the ownersgrewincreasingly sophisticated, it became fashionable to inviteGreekphilosophers andRoman literati to these retreats.The settingsin whichan ownerentertainedhis guestschanged accordingly, and simplepaintings imitating masonry wallsyieldedto scenes drawnfrom Greekmythology. The cultivated tastethatreplaced mereostentation wasin no smallmeasure responsible for the growthof the SecondStyle.The paintedwallsof diningrooms,libraries, and bedrooms, likethoseof the villaat Boscoreale, soon reflectedthe villaowners'intellectual and aestheticsavoirfaire and weremeantto be appreciated by visitorsfrom the neighboring Greekcity of Neapolis(ancientNaples).

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through the middle of the first century A.D., those who could sumptibus" lavishextravagance as the privateresidences livedin "profusis of the period attest. Condemnationsof such self-indulgence by writerslike Martialcontinued, but Campaniawas filled with sumptuous properties, including the imperialestate at Boscotrecase,and until the end of the Roman Empire remained an inviting resort area of thermal cures, glamorous social life, and intellectual stimulation. Each villa's extensive grounds provided ample space for innovative landscape design and architecturaland decorativeexperimentation,but the proliferationof such villasalso resulted in motifs shared from one to the next, which has facilitatedthe archaeologist's tasks of establishingrelative chronology and sorting out workshops. The discoveryof Roman villas in Campaniahas proceeded slowly,since so much of the countryside surrounding Vesuvius was covered over and subsequentlybuilt upon. By contrast, the remains of seaside villas often rusticae may be spotted underwaterto this day owned in addition to villae in the Bay of Naples, especially in the area around Posilipo, ancient Pausilypon. The chance discoveries of the two villas at Boscoreale and Boscotrecaseare especiallyimportant, since these were superb examples of late Republicanand early Empire interior design. Dozens of other extraordinaryvillasin the region,both imperialand private,awaitcarefulexcavation.
century

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21. Thevilla at Boscoreale is shownhere in a roofZess isometric plan that includes featuresknownonlyfrom the excavation report published byE Barnabei in 1901. RetainingBarnabei's unorthodox system of identification, we canproceed aroundthe villa clockwise:

M. Cubiculum with a north window, which mayhavebeenoriginalor addedafterthe earthquake of A.D. 62 (seefig. 23) L. An open exedra with three walls painted withgarlands.Thewallvisiblein the drawing is in the Muse'eRoyal et Domaine deMariemont, Morlanwelz, Belgium; the Metropolitan's panel (tg. 43) B. Interior entrance was on thefacing wall C. Passageway I. Thisroom wasdecorated with paintings D. Roomof theMusicalInstruments of rusticated masonry, now in theLourre 24. 01earium,for theproduction of wine and in theMariemont museum and oil H. Probably a diningroom.On thewall E. Peristyle. Thesix-column arrangement facing thesouth entrance were three paintwasimitated on thepainted wallsbelow the ings(leftto right): Dionysos andAriadne, cantilevered roofof thecourtyard. A large Aphrodite andEros,andtheThree Graces. bronze vase (tg. 39) waspaintedon the Onlythecenter panelis preserved; it is in wallacross theentrances of Rooms N and theMuseo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. O, and the Corinthian column(tg. 38) Above each painting were smaller triptychs; wasat thesoutheast corner of theperistyle twoof these, in very poorcondition, arein N. Winter triclinium (dining room) the Metropolitan Museum.On the right O. Sittingroom (east)wall weretheMetropolitan's paint-

ings (figs.34-36). A wingedGeniuswas at eachsideof thesouthern entrance from theperistyle; one is in theLourre,and the otheris in the Mariemont museum.On theleft (westwall), not visible,werethree paintingsnow in Naples G. Summer diningroom(?). Paintingsin theMariemont and Naplesmuseums 23. Passageway E Three paintingsof thisroom are in the Metropolitan (seefigs. 40, 42 ) 22. Uncertain function 20. Dressingroom 21. Frigidarium(coldbath) 17. Tepidarium (warmbath) 18-19. Caldarium(hotbath) 15. Colonnaded courtyard 1-12. Servants' quarters

22. Opposite:Detail of a maskof Panfrom the Metropolitan'ssection of Room L

16

THE VILLA OF P. FANNIUS SYNISTOR AT

BOSCOREAL

The

frescoes from Boscoreale, an area about a mile north of Pompeii, are among the most important to be found anywhere in the Roman world. Boscorealewas notable in antiquityfor having numerous aristocratic country villas. This tradition endured into the time of the Bourbon kings, as is attested by the region's name, the "RoyalForest,"which implies that Boscoreale was a hunting preserve. The villa was discovered in late 19()0 and excavated by Vincenzo De Prisco on the property of Francesco Vona. The paintings were cut from the excavated ruins, framed in wood, and then put up at auction; most of them went to the Metropolitan Museum, some remained in Naples, and others ended up in the Louvre and museums in the Netherlands and Belgium. Like so many excavationsof the period, this one was far from scientific and left much to be desired. The existing clues concerning the villa'sownership in antiquityare fragmentaryindeed, and it is riskyto base theories of ownership on brick stamps and graffiti, but all that survives points to the villa having been built shortly after the middle of the first century B.C. One piece of evidence, a graffito, indicates that the first auction of the villa took place on May 9, A.D. 12. There were at least two owners during the first century A.D. One was named Publius Fannius Synistor, as is known from
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23,24. BedroomM, the best-preserved room of thevilla, has beenreconstructed in theMetropolitanMuseum. The mosaicfloor, couch, and footstool comefrom other Roman villas and are of a later date. On thefacing page is a detailfrom the northwall, showing birdsat a fountain and garden architecture,all of whichmighthave beenseen throughtheroom's window.

an inscriptionon a bronze vessel found in Room 24. The other owner bore the name Lucius Herennius Florus;this fact was determined from a bronze stamp found in the villa and now in the MetropolitanMuseum. Although we know the names of later owners, no evidence enables us to identify the villa'soriginal owner or the man who commissioned the frescoes. For the sake of convenience, the villa is ordinarily referred to as that of Fannius. The surviving paintings are extremely fine examples of the late Second Style, the most renowned example of which is the Republicanperiod decoration of the so-called Villa of the Mysteriesat Pompeii. Throughout the frescoes from the villa at Boscoreale there are visual ambiguities to tease the eye, including architecturaldetails painted to resemble real ones, such as rusticatedmasonry,pillars,and columns that cast shadows into the viewer'sspace,and more conventionaltrompel'oeildeviceslike three-dimensional meanders. In and around the fanciful architectureof the villa'sBedroom M,

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for example, objects of daily life were depicted in such a way as to seem real, with metal and glass vases on shelves and tables appearing to project out from the wall. Cumulatively,these trompe l'oeil devices reveal the Republican owners' evident pleasure in impressing their guests at this comfortable summer retreat. In 1964 excavationsbegan on the site of a villa known as Oplontis, in the modern town of Torre Annunziata, near Naples. The excavations, which continue to this day, have shed much light on the school that is in all likelihood responsiblefor the villa of Fanniusat Boscoreale.The frescoes at the villaof Oplontis include fanciful colonnades, rustic settings developed with improbablycomplex architecture,and various other subjectsand decorative schemes also found at Boscoreale.Oplontis has much to teach us about the decorativetraditionsof this period, since unlike the remainsof so many other villas in the region, it is well preserved in its original context. Oplontis is particularlyilluminatingabout the decoration of Boscoreale's nocturnum) in the villa. This bedRoom M, which was a bedroom (cubiculum diurnum) to the south, is exceproom, which had a sitting room (cubiculum tional for the degree of detail in its painted scenes, which are combined with actualarchitecturalfeaturesto create a very playfulatmosphere.Above the richlypainted wallsof imagined rustic architecturewas a stucco ceiling. Oplontispresentsa useful parallelnot for the landscapescenesof Boscoreale's Cubiculum M, but for the peristyle that opens out to those scenes. Both villas share the scheme in which red Corinthiancolumns with floral vines winding around them support a narrowentablaturedecorated with shields emblazoned with the so-called Macedonianstarburst. No less instructive is Pompeii's Casa del Labirinto, which bears a very close relation to Boscorealein scale as well as in decorativedetail. The landscape scenes with villa architecture,in particular,are quite similarto those of Bedroom M at Boscoreale. Bedroom M is especiallyenlightening for modern viewersbecause it provides a particularlyvivid picture of Roman luxury. The walls of the bedroom are painted in such a way as to conceal the fact that they are wallsand to make them appear as views of the grounds of the villa or an idealized version of the villa. The centers of the east and west wallsare divided from the side sectionsby the splendidred columns.Betweenthe columnswe see, on whichconsistsof a short entablature the left side, a shrine knownas a syzygia, supported by two pillars. In the shrine's center stands a goddess holding a flaming torch in each hand (fig. 27). The shrine is walled off from us and shrouded below with a dark curtain, as if to keep us away. To either side of the shrine are views of the entrance to a fantasticcountry villa. The central portal, which is double-doored, is as ornate as the remainder of the architecture and is apparently inlaid with tortoiseshell. The architecturethat spreads out beyond it is vast and complex, and at the very top the farthest extension of the villa'shigh enclosure wall is visible (cover). The complex is best understood as a pastiche of balconies, towers, and buildings ratherthan a literal image of a particulararchitecturalscene. Bedroom M exhibits an impulse to fantasy that is very telling about the taste of the original owner. The Second Style, in general, and the painted configurations of such walls as these, in particular,developed out of an early Hellenistic painting style, as the Tomb of Lyson and Kalliklesnear Lefkadiain Macedoniademonstrates,but this room is very much the vision

In thepaintingon theeast 25,26. Opposite: M, this ornatedoorstands wall o+Bedroom to atantasticvilla (seelarger at theentrance detail, tront cover).Thedoorhas decoration and bronze doorknockof inlaidtortoiseshell of lions'heads. Above is a comersin thetorm the villa at parabledoortromthe atriumr paintedbythe Oplontis, whichwasprobably sameworkshop.

OVERLEAF

thewestwallr 27,28. Lett:Thisdetailtrom to a sanctuBedroom M showsthe entrance statuer the goddess ary with an archaistic Hekatebearingtwo torches.The two-pillar is laterechoed structure withan entablature in the miniature landscapepaintings r Right:On theeastwallof BedBoscotrecase. or tholos, stands in room M, a roundtemple, sanctuary. An altar in thetorean open-air ortruit. groundis ladenwithan ortering
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of a late Republican landowner with grandiose pretensions who seeks to impress the viewer with the scope of his imagined grounds. There is little to be learned about ancient religion in this room, since divinitiesserve chiefly as part of the landscape. Images of gods, satyrs,and fishermenare not meaningfullydistinct.An urban sophisticatelike our villa owner was more concerned with displaying emblems of wealth than in appeasing gods in whom he may not have fully believed; the educated Roman middle class was superstitious but agnostic. Ampler confirmationof this agnosticismmay be found in the villa'slargest room, that described as H on the plan. (The elements preserved from that room are divided among the Metropolitan, the Museo Archeologico Nazionalein Naples, the Louvre,the MuseeRoyalet Domainede Mariemont 24

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in Belgium,and the AllardPiersonMuseum in Amsterdam.) RoomH was about twenty-five feetsquare, withdecoration consisting of eightmainpainted scenesthatshoweda figureor groupof figures.Eachscenewasseparated fromthe nextby a paintedcolumn,whichactedalmostas a frame.Thisset the decorative schemeapartfromthatof the Villaof the Mysteries of some yearsearlier, in whichthe columnsare behindthe figuresand thusdo not interrupt a narrative continuum. Heretheartists preferred to separate each main panel,as indicatedalso by the separateshrinepaintingsand architectural motifsin the upperzone aboveeach panel. In the centerof the northwallwas an imageof Aphrodite joined by a diminutive figureof Eros.To the left wasDionysos reclining on Ariadne's lap, and on the right were the Three Graces, in their familiar late Classicalpose. On the westwallwere,from southto north,a falsedoorway, an elderly beardedmanleaningon a walking stick,and a pairof figures,one seated and one standing,with a shield betweenthem. The figures have been variously identifiedand maybe eithermythological or historical. The eastwallfeaturedthreepaintings nowin the careof the Metropolitan. These are, from northto south (left to right),a citharist and a girl,a manand a woman(bothseated),and a singleimageof a womanbearinga shield(figs.34-36). As on the othersideof the room,the singlefigurewas in the panelinterrupted bya doorway thisone not false,butactually leading out of the room,provingthatthe painteddecoration conformedto the exigenciesof the room'sarchitecture.

26

The scenes in Boscoreale'sRoom H derive from the Greek tradition of or large-scalepainting, about which so much was written in megalographia, and Vitruvius antiquity;Apollinariusof Sidon, Petronius in the Satyricon, all shed light on the use of megalographia in a Roman villa. Copies of famous paintings of the past evidently appealed to the owners of these homes. Although it seems likely that at least three of the panels in Room H associatedwith Macedoniaand allude to historicalfiguresor personifications Asia, the remaindercannot be brought together in a unified context. Thus, while there are some undeniableassociationsamong three scenes, the others are paintingsof divinitiesand what is probablya portraitof a philosopher. The illustratedreconstructionof the room, undertaken for an exhibition in Essen at the Villa Hugel, gives a better idea of the relativeimportanceof or each major scene. The room may have served as the primarytriclinium, dining room. This suggestion has met with criticism by some who argue that dining rooms were usuallysmaller;the same scholarsbelievethat Room H was reserved for the celebrationof a cult, perhaps that of Aphrodite. Yet severalof the painted figures are open to interpretationsthat diminish the possibilityof an associationwith a cult. For example, the painting of a man

of Boscoreale's 31-33. The reconstruction below) wasfirstassembled RoomH (opposite, in theVillaHugelin Essen, for an exhibition (above), in 1979. The paintings West Germany, Nazionale, now in the MuseoArcheologico (perhaps ofAsia personifications Naples,with philosopher and an elderly and Macedonia) faced thepaintings,now (possibly Epicurus) in that are illustrated in the Metropolitan, figs. 34-36. Thepanels on thefar (north) Dionysos and Ariadne(now wall described and the infantEros(Museo lost),Aphrodite ArcheologicoNazionale), and the Three Graces (nowlost).Thepaintingof theThree above; MuseoArcheologico Graces (opposite, of Nazionale)servesto give an impression from of the missingversion the appearance eachlargepaintingwas thenorth wall.Above picture, two of which a small triptychlike in poorcondition. survive in theMetropolitan
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leaning on a walkingstickis thought by some to be a portraitof the philosopher Epicurusand therefore unrelated to the worship of Aphrodite. Other suggestions have included the philosophers Zeno, Menedemos of Eretria, or Aratos of Soli, as well as King Kinyras of Cyprus. Thus, the picture galleryin Room H revealsthe villa owner'sinterest in the painterlyforms of the late Classicaland Hellenistic periods, but the presence of unrelated figures that appear to be adapted from historicaland mythological paintings in a room that was in all likelihood the focus of gastronomic, rather

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than religious,ritualsuggeststhat there wasno veiled meaning in the room's decoration,but rather an overt one: these are images that attest to the cultivation of the man who entertained there. It was the custom of Campanianvillas at this time to decorate the peristyle with copies of classicalstatuary,and we may assume that this villa at Boscorealewas no exception. Boscoreale'spaintings of gods, philosophers, and kings may have been arranged in the same somewhat haphazardway that statuesof such subjectsadorned the exterior of a villa, as in the case of

woman 35. Thenudemanandhimation-clad king looking totherightmaybea Macedonian Thispaintand queenor a pair r divinities. ing and thaton thetacingpage areperhaps cycle; the copiestrom thesamelostHellenistic other paintings in Room H maybeunrelated.

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In the thirdpaintingfrom the east 36-39. a shieldbearholds H, a woman of Room wall maybea which man, theimageof a nude ing the Unlike refection. a or device decorative a only has panel this two(figs.34,35), other doora to adjacent was it because singlefigure, to wasprobably Thecolumnwithbosses way. H. Room to entrance eastof thesouthern the on upperpart of a columnreproduced The the of corner southeast the page is from this of and is theonlysurvivingexample peristyle the On enclosure. that of columns painted the N and O Rooms between of theperistyle wall above. vase bronze the of thepainting was

which has very recently been retheVilla of the Papiri at Herculaneum, openedfor excavation. Republicanvilla is that displaysof The message we receive from this late the Greek past. By appealing were best accompaniedby symbolsof wealth were as much in vogue in late Repubtothe forms of Hellenisticart, which the Roman patron signaled his aplicanvillas as were classicaltraditions, invited lengthy treatises of a classicalheritage and, incidentally, preciation decorativeintentions and sources. of modern scholarsin search of his true complicated;Room H is a display His intentions were almost certainly not to worship. His sources were, at this of erudition rather than a hall devoted the time of Julius Caesar'sdeath and pivotal time in Roman history,near anchored in a past civilizationthan the end of the Triumvirate,more firmly decoration stood in stark contrain the present. This approach to interior Republic, officiallysuspicious as it was diction to the politicalvalues of the in the succeeding reign of the emof Greek tradition, and was to be upset emperor was born the Third Style, peror Augustus. Under Rome's first best exemplified by the villa at Boscotrecase.
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40-42. The verticalpanels (opposite and below)reproduced on thesepages arefrom Boscoreale's RoomF, whichwassituatedbetweenthe dining area to the northand the baths to thesouth.The functionof RoomF is unknown.The elaborate upperzone of the largepanel includes paintingsof sirenssupporting thecornice, multicolored marble slabs, and a tortoiseshell-inlaid pilaster. Themagnificent architectural panorama at theleft,similar tothose in Bedroom M, isfrom RoomG, whichmayhave beenthe summer diningroom. Liketheviewsin Room M, these panels, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale,Naples,are largelyderived from paintedHellenistic stagedesigns.

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OVERLEAF

43. Thesuperb west walloftheexedra,Room L, includesa snakecrawling from a basket, a satyr's mask, and a cymbal, all of which are suspended below a massive garlandwithbull's heads.The upperzone consists of a delicate egg-and-dart register supported bya vegetal frieze.The polychromed marble slabs below rest above a cyma of leaves,and thecolored fauxmarbre panels are evenlyspacedbelowthe horizontal panelsof the upperzone.
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44. ThevillaatBoscotrecase, likethevilla atBoscoreale, wasorganized around a centralperistyle (B) with paintings of columns behind actualcolumns; this partof thevilla mayhavebeencompleted shortly afterthat of Boscoreale. Theservants' entrance was at thesoutheast part of the excavated remains.A lararium, or household shrine, stoodto the left of the entrance. Theservants'quarters lay to the east. Theseincludedan atriumandfountainbasin . 13. A kitchenstoreroom decorated with paintingsdescribed bytheexcavator as in theFourthStyle;theseincluded an image of Apollostringinghis Iyre 14. Bathroom, accessible byrampfrom 13 15. The Black Room, the easternmost

room,isfor themost partpreserved at the Metropolitan (seefigs. 47-50) 16. Preserved in theMuseoArcheologico Nazionale,Naples 17. Exedra 18. This bedroom was decorated with a frieze of garlands 19. TheMythological Room.On thewest wall was a panel with Polyphemus and Galatea;on the east wall were depicted Andromeda and Perseus (seefigs. 54,55) 20. The WhiteRoom. Only two panels from this bedroom are preserved in the Metropolitan (seefigs. 51-53) 45. Opposite: Maskof Medusa from the west wallof theBlack Room atBoscotrecase

36

THE IMPERIAL VILLA AT

BOSCOTRE

Boscotrecase is the modern name of a small residentialarea to the south of Naples; the region's name may imply that there were once three houses of great importance in the area, which was originally wooded. In antiquityBoscotrecasecommanded a sweeping view of the Bay of Naples. All seventeen of the paintings from Boscotrecasein the Metropolitancome from a villa of the late first century B.C. that stood near Torre Annunziata. The distinctionof the villa at Boscotrecaseis that it was the country residence of certain members of the first Roman imperial family the family of the emperor Augustus. It was discovered on March 23, 1903, when the train line that runs from Naples around the base of Mount Vesuvius was under construction.The owner of the propertyon whichthe villawas found, CavaliereErnesto Santini, excavated it with the help of an eminent Italian archaeologist,Matteo Della Corte, and was richly rewarded for his efforts. The villa was large; the excavated area including bedrooms extended about 150 feet, and this was only part of the whole complex. Second Style paintings of columns decorated Peristyle B; in front of these were actual stucco-coveredbrickcolumns. This illusion of a double portico was used as well in the Boscoreale villa. The Second Style portion of the Boscotrecase villa was not, however, excavated. What was retrieved instead included
37

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several sections of painted walls from four bedrooms in the villa; of these the Metropolitanowns the greater part of three, including the Black Room. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples houses the fourth, as well as part of the Black Room. These paintings are presumed, on the basis of their remarkablesimilarityto paintings in Rome's Villa Farnesina,to have been executed by artists from the capital. The bedrooms had southern entrances that faced a long walkwayopening to a breathtakingview of the Bay of Naples. Most panels feature deliscenes cate ornamentalvignettesand landscapeswith genre and mythological set against richly colored backgrounds.Taken together, the paintings from Boscotrecase afford a glimpse into the taste of well-to-do Romans at the very end of the first century B.C. This glimpse is rendered especiallyimportant because of the discovery by M. I. Rostovtzeff in 1926 that the villa originally belonged to Agrippa, as did the Villa Farnesina. While the Boscotrecasevilla was probablyconstructedaround 20 B.C. and Peristyle B painted at that time, the paintings in the bedrooms are of the Third Style, or date sometime after 15 B.C. Because of Rostovtzeff'sinterpretation of some inscriptions from the villa, a date of 11 B.C. iS indicated for this second campaign of decoration. In 11B.C., the year after Agrippa's death, the villa then nominally passed into the hands of his posthumously born infant son, Agrippa Postumus. The child was only a few months old, and the completion of the villawould have been overseen byJulia,Agrippa's widow and the infant's mother. The emperor Augustus must have visited his beloved daughter Julia in this splendid summer house where she and his son-in-lawand good friend Agrippa had planned to live together. The date of 11 B.C. would place the paintings in the bedrooms at least a Second Stylepaintgenerationlaterthan those from Boscoreale.Boscoreale's ings of the 40s B.C. (and Boscotrecase'sSecond Style Peristyle B) exhibit more of an interest in the possibilitiesof trompe l'oeil. During the Third Style, as we have noted above, the wall's two-dimensionalitywas acknowledged, not denied, in the decoration; landscape vignettes were subordinated to the whole decorative scheme and rendered as paintings on a wall rather than as imaginaryviews out of rooms. The decorative scheme of the Black Room, or Room 15, with its subtly geometric socle and candelabra,is linked to those of other Third Stylecommissions, like the decorated interior of the probably contemporary Pyramid of Cestius in Rome (12 B.C.). One entered the Black Room and the other bedrooms of the villa from a walkway(D), facing south; the west wall was thus on the left (see drawing p. 36 and fig. 47). A slim entablature, painted on a black background, runs the length of the wall. Unobtrusive but colorful parakeetssurmount the entablatureat regular intervals;these and heads of Medusaare the principalfigural elements on the wall. A small landscape scene like those on the east and north sides of the room was in the center of the wall. The floor was entirely of white mosaic except for a pattern of nine hexagons in a box about three feet squarein the center of the floor and a smaller patternat the entrance;both designs were delineated by blacktesserae (tiles). The north wall of the Black Room (fig. 48) was visible from the terrace outside the bedroom. It was the central wall of the bedroom; the east (fig. 50) and west walls are essentially mirrorsof one another. A deep red socle runs along the bottom of the wall on all sides of the room.
38

15, the 46. Thewestwall (top)of Bedroom BlackRoom,was on the left as one entered fromthesouth.At thefar leftwasa theroom 16. The with Bedroom connecting doorway patternsratherthan for delicate preference in thepaintedscheme f xedpointsof interest signalsthe new tasteof the ThirdStyle.The fromthetercouldbeseen wall(center) north It was the central race outsidethe bedroom. whilethe eastand west wall of the bedroom, On the east wall walls mirrorone another. those recalls in thecenter a landscape (bottom), of thenorthand westwalls,and theentablawalls friezeson thethree turesanddecorative as well. Unlikethedecoidentical are almost thaton the rationon thewestwall, however, it is unsince symmetrical eastwall is totally canopy central The bya doorway. interrupted to thecandelaof thenorthwall is connected brato its leftand rightbya seriesof horizonfriezes.Likethesocle,these tal linesandshort linkingthe room, theentire around continued room, pitchblack in this walls.Theeffect, three cage. was thatof a colorfulbutethereal

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47. Six sections of theBlackRoom's west wallsurvive, three of which arein theMetropolitan Museum.A seventh,the landscapesceneillustrated in blackand white on thispage, asnow lost but was oncein theMuseo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Thepanelsat thefar left and right,published herefor thefirst time, arein thestorerooms of theNaplesmuseum. Thaton the left showsthe lowerpart of a tripod.The wall has a cornicein the center, whichis supported bythinstalklike supports witha slim entablature.The cornicefeatures griffinsand masks of Medusaat theends. A parakeet is perched at theouteredgeof eachentablature. Thetripods, closeto the endvs of thewalls,are deliberately depicted without anysenseof depth; thepreference for shallowdecoration is characteristic of thisThirdStyleinterior. Liketheswanson the northwall (fig. 49), the tripods may bea reference toApollo,whowaslinked to Augustus duringthisperiod.
20. 192.6

40

of thenorthwallhave sections 48. Thethree The to theiroriginalheaght. beenpreserved are salhouetted imatges fzgur(ltive miniature wall. 7he Egypof black lheexpanse atgainsl thediscenein theleftpanelshows tianizing bytw Apis,thebull,beingpropiticlted vinity thefigure (lt the rightis Anubis.A fzgures; Thesmalllandlhetable. under uncoils c()br(l a of themainpanelshows in lhecenter scape a tower before place taking ceremony religi()us (see detail,backcover).Closerto us in the supplane is a pair oJslimcolumns picture appediment The pediment. an ornate porting while or wood, metal of to be madeout pear.s and metal between alternate drums thecolumn below and column each Above sections. vegetal in a meenclosed is a portrait thepediment on the portrait the that likely seems It dallion. emperor of the daughter the Julia, left is of and thaton the rightis of Livia, Augustus, f gs. 56,57). There wife(seealso theemperor's knozun subjects of imperial images arenoother painting. in Roman

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20.192.1

43

The panels to the left and right of the main panel on the north wall are almost the same, showing a central candelabrum surmounted by a yellow panel with an Egyptianizingscene. Halfway up each candelabrum, a pair of swans holds up a fillet that stretches from their beaks. The yellow panels are loose evocations of motifs inspired by Egyptian art, whereas the swans may symbolize Augustus and his family. Swans appear in a very similar arrangement on the principal sculptural monument of this time, the Ara Pacisin Rome (constructedbetween 13 B.C. and 9 B.C.). The Ara Pacis,which was built to commemorateAugustus'spacificationof the known world, was methodicallydesigned with symbolsand imagery associatingAugustus with Aeneas, the founder of the Latin race. The large main panel has a small 44

i _ _X?-s_ _a_ __ l. k 49. a _ to are north In wzn beaks.SinceAugustusaskedforAp symbols this hzs wall subsequent detail of ofat the the this
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landscape in its center that apparently shows a religious ceremony taking place before a tower.On a plane nearer to us in the picture is a psir of slim columns supportingan ornate pediment; above each column and below the pediment is a cameolike portrait set in a medallion. One can make out both here and on the other panels the artists'subtle differentiation of one wall from another by the use of shadows. Since the unique source of naturallight for the room was at the south end from the Bay of Naples the decorativeelements of the room cast shadows in directions consistentwith their situationrelativeto the sunlight;on the east wall, the wall on the right as one entered the room, the light raked across the surface from right to left, and the shadows are painted accordingly.
45

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Although the paintingsof the tripods are identical in almost every detail,including the direction of theshadows from rightto left, it waspossible to determine theposition of each bythecracks in thethree panelsat the right. The missingcornice abovethe centrallandscapewouldhave closelyresembled that on the westwall (fig. 47). The colorful frieze, surmounted by parakwets, appears todraw upon thesametraditions of lateArchaic Greek architecture thatareechoed in theForum ofAugu.stus (19 B.C.) in Rome.Thehistoricism of Augustanarchitecture and its consciousness of classicalforms separates ittromthebaroque, Hellenistic tendencies of late Republican architecture, such as that in Bedroom M of Boscoreale (f g. 23).

46

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On the westwall,the shadowsfall in the oppositedirection, and on the northwall,they fall in both directions awayfrom the center.This system of intimating the direction of lightis fairlycommonin Pompeian frescoes. Of the WhiteRoomonly two panelssurvive,and theseare in fragmentarycondition.Enoughremainsto show that the wallswere paintedoffwhite, with a red socle and blackpredella,and that the room included elaborate thymiateria, or incenseburners,whichwereprobably situatedon the left and rightdoorjambsof the room'ssouthernentrance. The White Roomwasthe bedroomto the left of the Mythological Room,Bedroom19. It hada doorway at the rightof theentrance, just as the Mythological Room had a doorwayto the left of its entrance;these side doors opened to a commoncorridor. In Bedroom 19,the Mythological Room,ornamental patterns areadmixed withmythological scenesandEgyptianizing panels;the ensemble is colorful andcomplex(figs.54, 55). Largered panelswithsirenssupporting spindly garlands framea centralpaintingon each long wall.Abovethe panelsare yellowfriezeswithsmallplaques similar to thosefoundin the BlackRoom. The centralpanelof the westwallshowsthe cyclopsPolyphemus seated in thecenterof a rocky outcropping, whichhe shares withsomeof hisgoats. Polyphemus hasstoppedplaying thesyrinx (panpipe) heldin hisrighthand, perhaps becausehe hasnoticedthe seanymphGalatea seatedon a dolphin 14
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listening to Polyphemus's song professing desire for her she hid with her lover, Acis,the son of Pan. Acisis his nowhere visible inwhile the painting; thisfactindicates thattheartists mayhavebeenrelying in parton Theocritus's versionof the story. EventhoughAcisdoes not appear, his fatherPanmay be at the lowerright, in the form of a statueon a tall base; this figure apparently cradlesa pedum (shepherd's crook)in the left hand, mirroring the pedumnext to Polyphemus. At thetoprightof thepainting thereis a reference to the taleof Odysseus, most likelyat the point when Polyphemus, blindedby Odysseusand his companions,hurled a boulder at them. This is probablyits intended significance ratherthan the tragicend of the storyof Galateaand Acis, when Polyphemus rose in rage and threwa boulderat Acisas he triedto escapeafter being discovered. A connectionbetweenthe scenes may be implied,however, sincein Ovid's versionof the storyGalatea does mention that Polyphemus was happywhen thinkingtenderlyof her, and that he then permitted shipsto come and go safely. The scenedepictedon the centerof thisbedroom's eastwallis even more dramatic thanthatof thewestwall.Herethestory of Perseus andAndromeda is told.The motherof Andromeda, Cassiope, hadboasted of her owngreat beauty. The Nereids complained to Poseidon, whofloodedherhomeland of Ethiopia anddispatched a seamonster there.Andromeda's father, Cepheus, consultedthe oracleAmmonand learnedthat the only way to avertthe land's desolation wasbychaining Andromeda to a rockandexposingherto the sea monster.Perseus,fresh from havingkilledMedusa,flies in from the left to rescueAndromedafrom the approaching sea monsteraSt the painting's lowerleft. In the next sequence,Perseusis shownat the top rightof the painting beingreceived andthanked byAndromeda's parents, Cassiope andCepheus.

48

The woman at the lower right of the panel may be a local nymph or Andromeda'smother. Like the painting showing Polyphemus and Galatea,this panel, cast in a blue-green hue recalling the sea, alludes to the fortunes of love. The missing landscape from the bedroom's north wall must have depicted a scene from mythologyas well, perhaps that of the Death of Actaeon or the Fallof Icarus, two popular themes in Third Style painting. Room 16 of Boscotrecaseis preserved almost in its entirety in the Museo ArcheologicoNazionale,Naples. There all three paintingssurvive,but they depict landscapeswith bucolic figures rather than scenes from mythology. Returning to the history of the villa's ownership, we must consider in some detail the two portraitmedallionsmentioned in the descriptionof the Black Room'snorth wall. As was long ago established,Julia'sconnection to Boscotrecasecontinued after her husband'sdeath in 12 B.C. It seems logical that the decorationwasoccasionedby her remarriageto Tiberius, which took place in 11 B.C., the year in which the paintings appear to have been done. With this in mind, the identificationof the two portraitmedallionsin the main panel of the Black Room as Agrippa or Augustus was recently challenged. Even though the second marriageof Julia was not a happy one, it would have been unusual to include images of her past husband in the villa meant to be a home for the new couple.

51-53. Opposite:The direction the shadows in each the two panels trom Bedroom 20, the WhiteRoom, suggests that the panel with the lower portion preservedis trom the westside of the roomand that with the upper portion istrom the east side. Theyare coincidentallybrokenin such a way that theywould almostJit together; trom their measurements we can determinethat the minimumheight the roomwas almosttwelvefeet.Above:In the black predella is a small bird about to peck at sometruit; atrieze abovethepredellashows a leaty vine, which may also be seen as a seriesorbirds'heads.The WhiteRoom,according to the description the excavator, was very similar in its decorative scheme to the Mythological Room,Bedroom 19, and included threelarge paintings on the west, north, and east walls.

49

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Scale in Meters

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2(). 192.14

54. In thedrawing below of thewestwallof Bedroom 19, theMythological Room, theupper zonehasbeenreconstructed on theexarrlple of that from theCasalei C5ubicoli Floreali(fig. 9). Thedrawing indicates thedoorwszy at the far left openingto thecorridor shared bythe White Room as wellas theposition of the four paintedsectionsthatsurvive from the wall. ThepanelwithPolyphemus anal Galatea (opposite) wasin thecenter, and theyellow frieze mayhave beeninterruptel bythe top of the painting. In thelrawingan attempt hasbeen madeto linkthetwopanelssharing a yellow frieze.A largeredpanel was at the rightof thewall,and onlythecenter portion withthe thymiaterion hassurvived (lower right). The excavation report of l922 describes a socle with paintings of offeringdishes, orpaterae;these havebeen added in thereconstruction drawing.

5l

55. TheMythological Room's eastwallmirrorsthe westwall except thatit is not interruptedbya doorway, so thattworedpanels flankthecentral paintingdepicting AndromedaandPerseus (opposite). Theentire red panel from the left end (below) survives;upon its excavationit was wrongly joined with the portion of yellow frieze from the right end of thewestwall (seep. 51, upperrzght), butthese havebeenreproduced hereas separatepanels.Thecenter of therightredpanel

(opposite)is preservedin the storerooms of theNaplesmuseum and is herepublished for thef rsttime. In describing thewallsof the Mythological Room, theexcavatorsuggests that the centralpaintingshad a large whitesurround,which couldhavebeento either sideof theputative columns restored in thedrawing, althoughno evidenceof whitepigmenthas beenfound. As in the reconstruction of the eastwall, allfeaturesotherthanthoseof the survivingsections are hypothetical.

52
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56,57. Above: Theportrait medallions of the BlackRoomareshown priorto theirrestoration and overpainting. Each medallion appearsto bea cameo portrait; thepurplecolor of the backgrounds (as seen in Jig. 48) was reserved for imperial subjects in theRoman worldduringthisperiod. 58. Opposite: Thesea monster (ketos)from thepainting with Andromeda andPerseus (see p. 53, lowerleft) is amongthe mostaccomplished passages of theMythological Room.
54

Untilrecently bothmedallions wereassumedto be identical portraits of one man.A closerlook at the two portraitmedallions revealeda startling fact:in the medallion on the left (above), a restorerhad inadvertently alteredthe sitter's features, transforming the originalportrait fromthatof a youngwoman intothatof a man,despitethe factthatphotographs takenin 1929,beforerestoration, clearlyshowthe left-handportrait to be thatof a woman.On the basisof comparisons withother portraits of womenfrom the Augustan period,it seemslikelythatthe portrait on the left represents Julia, the mistressof the villa,and the portraiton the right (below)is a woman as well,andrepresents Livia, the wifeof the emperorAugustus and Julia'sstepmother and new mother-in-law. This new identification of the portraitmedallionsprovidesfascinating insightintothe private livesof the imperial family, sincethereare no other imperial residences known withpaintedimagesof the owners.It shouldnot surpriseus thatJulia'sportraitwas not removedwhen she was exiled in 2 B.C.; by then the villamayhave passedinto the handsof the villamanager and wouldnot haveattracted muchattention.This is not an official portraitfor publicdisplay, but a smallprivateimage. We may speculate abouttheintended occupant of theroomon thebasis of theseidentifications, alongwithotherevidence:the room'sspareaspect,somewhat out of characterwiththe othercubicula and reminiscent of the houseof Augustus in Rome;its use of a distinctive decorative emblem the swan thoughtto symbolize Augustusand his familyand featuredin the principal official monument of the day,the Ara Pacis;its important locationas the easternmost bedroom;and the fact that the emperorwas a close friend of the villa's formerowner,the dotingfatherof thatowner's wife,and the grandfatherof the subsequent infantowner.Oneis obligedto askwhetherCubiculum 15 was decoratedto acknowledgethe taste and interests of the fifty-two-year-old emperorof Rome,who might,when risingand retiring on a visitto the villa,glanceat unostentatiously situated portraits, displayed like photographs in bedroomstoday,of his beloveddaughterand wife. Othermembers of the imperial family, likeTiberius or AgrippaPostumus, shouldalsobe considered as possibleoccupants. Whoever the intendedoccupant mayhavebeen,the sparedecoration of the BlackRoomis instructive about the decorative devicesappealingto Augustusand his entourage.The firstemperorof Romeencouraged the creation of a newstylethatabandoned the imposing displays of wealthand eruditioncommonin the SecondStyleand took a differentview of the paintedwall.The occupants and thosewhovisitedthe villaat Boscotrecase were not greetedby vistasof architectural splendor,but shallowarchitecturalelementsand slender,elegantdecorative forms,playfully allusiveto contemporary cultural andpolitical concerns. The ornamental restraint governing the decoration of the cubiculais especially noteworthy in light of whathadpreceded it in the villaat Boscoreale, andit speaksvolumes about the aesthetically sophisticated imagination of the age of Ovid,as opposedto the somewhat indiscriminate appetitesof prominentRepublicans such as Cicero, whoorderedlargequantities of statues for hisvillagarden.It wasat this momentin Western culturethatart beganto look backon itselfwith humorand intelligence ratherthanaweand thata nativeRomansecularismproduced a culturetied to the formsof the pastbutalsoweddedto the greatfutureof the Empire.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my gratitude for the very helpful suggestions of Professors Peter von Blanckenhagen, Eugenio La Rocca, Bernard Andreae, and Mariette de Vos. I am also grateful to Elizabeth Wahle, who executed the reconstruction drawings, Mary AnnJoulwan, who designed this volume, and Joan Holt, Editor in Chief of the Bulletin, who produced and edited it with the able assistance of a former staff member, Joanna Ekman. Any errors are my own. This publication is dedicated to the late Professor George M. A. Hanfmann, my teacher and mentor.

La Rocca, E., M. de Vos and A. de Vos. 1976, 1981. Guida archeologicadi Pompei. Milan. McKay, A. G. 1977. Houses, Villas and Palaces in the Roman World. Ithaca. Pompeii, A.D. 79: Treasures from the National ArchaeologacalMuseum, Naples, and the Pompeii Antiquarium. 1978. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Leach, E. W. 1982. "Patrons, Painters, and Patterns. The Anonymity of Romano-Campanian Painting and the Transition from the Second to the Third Style," in Literaryand ArtisticPatronage in Ancient Rome. Austin. 135-173. de Vos, A. and M. de Vos. 1982. PompeiErcolano Stabia: Guide archeologicheLaterza. Rome. Barbet, A. 1985. La peinture murale romaine:Les stylesdecoratifspompeiens. Paris.

THE IMPERIAL VILLA OF BOSCOTRECASE Della Corte, M. 1922. Notizie degli Scavi di Antichita, vol. 19: 459-78. von Blanckenhagen, P. H. and C. Alexander. 1962. ThePaintings fromBoscotrecase. Romische Abteilung,Mitteilungen.Erganzungsheft 6. Heidelberg. Schefold, K. 1962. Vergessenes Pompefi. Berne and Munich. 59-65,69. von Blanckenhagen, P. H. 1968. "Daedalus and Icarus on Pompeian Walls," Romische Mitteilungen, Deutsches Archaologisches Institut, vol. 75: 106-43. Anderson, M. L. 1987. "The Portrait Medallions of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase," AmericanJournalofArchaeology91: 127-35.

CREDITS
First Style fragment: Acquired in 1930 (30.142. 5). Gorgon mask: Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1892 (92.11.8). Boscoreale frescoes: Rogers Fund, 1903 (03.14.1-13 A-G); Gift of C. & E. Canessa, 1908 (08.264). Boscotrecase frescoes: Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.192.1-17). TECHNIQUE

ILLUSTRATIONS
Augusti, S. 1967. I colori pompeiani. Rome. Mora, P., L. Mora, and P. Philippot. 1977. La conservationdes peintures murales. Bologna. Drawings by Elizabeth Wahle. Map by Irmgard Lochner. Photographs of the Boscoreale and Boscotrecase frescoes by WalterJ. F. Yee, Chief Photographer, Metropolitan Museum of Art Photograph Studio. Other photographs as noted: Figs. 1, 31: Scala/Art Resource. Figs. 4, 10, 12, 14, 19, 20, 26: Maxwell L. Anderson. Figs. 5, 16, 56-57: Metropolitan Museum of Art Photograph Studio. Fig. 6: Interdipress, Naples. Fig. 7: Courtesy of the author. Fig 9: Deutsches Archaologisches I nstitut, Rome. Fig. 17: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Fig. 23: Schecter Lee. Fig. 32: Bernard Andreae. Figs. 33, 41; and Naples frescoes in figs. 47, 50, 55: Foto Foglia, Naples. Fig. 47: Monochrome courtesy of Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples

SELECTEDBIBLIOGRAPHY
There are few comprehensive studies of Pompeian frescoes, especially in English. Some major works in various languages are listed below.

THE VILLA OF P. FANNIUS SYNISTOR, BOSCOREALE Barnabei, F. 1901. La villa pompeianadi P. Fannio Sinistore. Rome. Lehmann, P. W. 1953. Roman WallPaintingsfrom Boscoreale in the MetropolitanMuseum of Art. Cambridge, Mass. Winkes, R. 1973. "Zum Illusionismus romischer Wandmalerei der Republik." Autstieg und Niedergang des romische Welt, vol. 1, no. 4: 927-44. Andreae, B. 1975. "Rekonstruktion des grossen Oecus der Villa des P. Fannius Synistor in Boscoreale," in Neue Forschungen in Pompefi und den anderen vom Vesuvausbruch 79 n. Chr. verschutteten Stadten. Ed. by B. Andreae and H. Kyrieleis. Recklinghausen. 71-92. Fittschen, K. 1975. "Zum Figurenfries der Villa von Boscoreale," in Neue Forschungenin Pompeji und den anderen vom Vesuvausbruch 79 n. Chr. verschutteten Stadten. Ed. by B. Andreae and H. Kyrieleis. Recklinghausen. 93-100. Thompson, D. L. 1982. "The Picture Gallery at Boscoreale," AmericanJournal of Archaeology 86: 288.

GENERAL WORKEi Mau, A. 1882. Geschichteder dekorativenWandmalerei in Pompeii. Berlin. Schefold, K. 1957. Die WandePompejis.Topografisches Verzeichnis der Bildmotive. Berlin. Peters, W. J. T. 1963. Landscape in RomanoCampanian Mural Painting. Assen. Maiuri, A. 1964. Pompei. Itinerari dei Musei, Gallerie e Monumenti d'Italia. Rome. D'Arms, J. H. 1970. Romanson theBay of Naples. Cambridge, Mass. Grant, M. 1971. Cities of Vesuvius:Pompeii and Herculaneum. London. Andreae, B., and H. Kyrieleis, eds. 1975. Neue Forschungen in Pompeji und den anderen vom Vesuvausbruch 79 n. Chr. verschutteten Stadten. Recklinghausen .

BACK COVER: Detail from a section (20.192.6) of the west wall of the Black Room fromBoscotrecase. BACK COVER: Landscape from the center panel (20.192.1)of the north wall of the Black Room INSIDE

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