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POMPEIA S FRESCOE IN THE METROPOLITANMUSEUMOF ART

Maxwell

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THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART B ULLETI N Winter1987/88 (ISSN0026-1521) VolumeXLV,Number3 Publishedquarterly(C)1987by The Metropolitan Museumof Art, FifthAvenueand 82nd Street,New York, N.Y.10028.Second-classpostagepaidat New York,N.Y. and AdditionalMailingOffices.The MetropolitanMuseum of Art Bulletin is providedas a benefitto Museummembersand availableby subscription.Subscriptions$18.00a year.Singlecopies$4.75. Fourweeks'noticerequiredfor changeof address.POSTMASTER: Send addresschangesto MembershipDepartment,The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, FifthAvenueand 82nd Street,New York,N.Y. 10028.Backissuesavailableon microfilm,fl-omUniversityMicrofilms,313 N. FirstStreet,Ann Arbor,Michigan.

VolumesI-XXVIII(1905-1942)availableas a clothbound reprintset or as individualyearlyvolumesfroln The Ayer Company,Publishers,Inc., 99 MainStreet,Salem,N.H., 03079, or from the Museum,Box 700, MiddleVillage, John P. N.Y.11379.(;eneralManagerof Publications: O'Neill.Editorin Chief of the Bulletitl:Joan Holt. Associate Editor:MeropeLolis.Design:MaryAnn Joulwan Statementof OwnershipManagementand Circulation Titleof publication: THE METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM OF ART BULLETIN

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

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82nd Street,New York,N.Y.10028 Names and addressesof publisher,editor,and maNagingedito-:

Publisher:The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, FifthAvenue and 82nd Street,New York,N.Y.,10028;Editor: Joan Holt, FifthAvenueand 82nd Street,New York,N.Y. 10028;ManagingEditor:None The MetropolitanMuseumof Art, FifthAsenue and 82nd Street,New York,N.Y.10028 0a!ner:

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Roman contributionsto government,jurisprudence,and engineering Weowe to the Romansthe basisfor an are commonlyacknowledged. efficientsystemof centralizedgovernment,and their structuralfeats still amazeus. Yetthe artisticlegacyof the Romanworldcontinuesto bejudged widelyas an echoof the magnificentGreektraditionsthatprecededit. The creativityof Romanarchitecture,design, portraiture,and the decorative artsis nonethelessindisputable.Paintingsin fresco,to cite the subjectof certainlyprovidestrongevidenceof technicalgenius;works thispublication, volcaniceruptions, in thiscomplicatedmediumhavesurvivedearthquakes, and are often in surprisinglygood conditionafterhavingwithstoodcenturiesof adverseconditions.But wallpaintingsalso vividlydemonstratethe originalityof Romanartwiththeirlivelyadmixtureof narrativeand decorativesubjects,often combinedwithingenioustrompel'oeildevices.Moreover, in their ambivalencetowardthe penetrabilityof the pictureplane, theseancientwallpaintingsforeshadowartisticconcernsthatwouldengage someof the mostcreativeartistsof our own tirne.

The MetropolitanMuseum'scollectionof Romanfrescoesis the largest outsideof Italy.An earlyappreciationof Romandecorativearts led the finewall Departmentof Greekand RomanArtto acquirethe exceptionally paintingsfrom Boscorealeand Boscotrecase,two townsnear Pompeii,in the firstquarterof thiscentury.They havebeen the focusof scholarlyattentionin the field of Romanart eyer since,and they are fascinatingto modernviewersas settingsof ancientlife. The dining room wallsof the Boscoreale villa surely witnessed elaborate banquets like those later (ca.A.D. 60). The bedroomwallsof describedby Petroniusin the Satyricon Boscotrecase,on the other hand,are personaland intimate,and provide a provocativeglimpseof the tasteof the familyof Rome'sfirstemperor, Augustus,and of his daughter,Julia,the villa'sowner. arethe subjectsof thisBulletin.The textwas BoscorealeandBoscotrecase preparedby MaxwellL. Anderson,Directorof the EmoryUniversityMuwhotellsthe storyof the twovillasandcharts seumof ArtandArchaeology, the transitionin the artof Romanwallpaintingfromthe baroqueexuberanceof the late Republicto the classicalrestraintof the earlyEmpire.

Wearedeeplygratefulto GiovanniAgnelli,whosegenerouscontribution frescoes.They madepossibletherestorationanddisplayof theBoscotrecase treasures. finest the'Metropolitan's among now taketheirplaceproudly Philippede Montebello

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few referencesto Romanpaintingin ancientliteratureusually concernportableexampleson materialssuch as woodand ivory.Becausetheseworkshavenotsurvived,theRomanpaintersmosthighlypraised in antiquityhave passedinto obscurity.Duringthe late Republic,portrait painterslike Iaiaof Kyzikos(late2nd-early 1stcenturyB.C.) commanded highprices,accordingto Pliny,highereventhan"themostcelebratedpainters 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 regrettablehabitof portrayinggoddessesin the imageof his mistresses.The sameauthoralsotells us that the emperorAugustusexhibitedtwo paintingsin his forum:the Visageof Warand Triumph.He displayedother paintingsin the Forumof JuliusCaesar,his adoptivefather,and it is clearthatthe mediumwasused for propagandaand warreportageas wellas for decoration.

The Romanpaintingsthathavesurvivedare in the durablemediumof fresco,usedto adornthe interiorsof privatehomesin the Romancitiesand in the countryside.Accordingto Pliny,it wasStudius"whofirstinstituted that most delightfultechniqueof paintingwallswith representationsof villas,porticoesandlandscapegardens,woods,groves,hills,pools,channels, 3

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

4

SomehavespeculatedthatStudiuswasresponsiblefor the rivers,coastlines." decorationof the VillaFarnesina,in Rome,probablycompletedin 19 B.C. on the occasionof Agrippa'smarriageto Julia, daughterof the emperor Augustus.

Despitea lackof physicalevidence,we can assumethat some portable paintingsdepictedthe same subjectsthat are found on paintedwallsin Romanvillas.It is evenreasonableto supposethatRomanpanelpaintings, whichincludedboth originalcreationsand adaptationsof renownedlate Greekworks,werethe prototypesfor the mostpopularsubjectsin frescoes: the Fallof Icarus,Polyphemusand Galatea,Perseusand Andromeda,and the Deathof Actaeon.It is probablethatartistsfrom Romespecializingin frescooftentraveledto otherpartsof Italywithcopybooksthatreproduced popularpaintingsas wellas ornamentalpatterns.The decorativeelements sharedby certainvillasin the capitaland in the regionof Naplesmakethis explanationall but certain.

The richest concentrationof survivingfrescoes has been found in Campania,the regionaroundNaples.The eruptionof MountVesuviuson August24, A.D. 79, buriedmuchof the countrysidesurroundingthe volcano,includingthe citiesof Pompeiiand Herculaneum,aswellasdozensof

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 werelocatednortho+Pompeiiand wereburiedduringtheeruptiono+MountVesuviusin A.D. 79.

5

The paintedwallsof Romanvillasprovidean unparalleledrecordof the life and worldviewof the well-to-dotwo millenniaago. They are not only the physicalremainsof a site, but also mirrorsof the Romans'cultural andartisticconcerns.Frescoedwallsin privateRomanhousesseemto have been almostexclusivelydecorative,only rarelyappearingto have served a culticor religiouspurpose.

It is a truismthatthe Romansweredeeplyindebtedto the magnificent legacyof Greekculture.Romannarrativepaintingsare often presumedto copyworksfromthe GreekClassicaland Hellenisticperiods,yet whenthey themespopularin the Greekworld,the paintingsare includemythological variationsof earlierworks.We must reoften casualand sentimentalized memberthatfor Romanpatrons,as forus, Greekarthada historicalfascinaThe gap between tion;Latinauthorsrefer to the Greeksas the "ancients." the Greeksof the mid-fifthcenturyB.C. andthe Romansof the firstcentury and the Beaux-Arts B.C. wasas greatas thatbetweenthe High Renaissance periodof the late nineteenthcentury.

Our knowledgeof Romanand Pompeianvillasof the firstcenturiesB.C. and A.D. hasgrownconsiderablyin the lastdecadeand a half throughsystematicexcavationand study.It has becomeclearthat the decorativeelements of these privatehomes are more profitablyconsideredin their historicalsettingthan as echoes of lost Hellenistic(late 4th-lst century fascinationwith greatancient The nineteenth-century B.C.) masterpieces. yielded to a moreobjectivescholarly artistsandshadowyculturalimpulseshas 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 possibleto conceiveof a Romanprivatesettingin Romanterms as a place displaystypicaldecoHouseat Herculaneum patronswholivedin roomswithelaboratelydecdesigned for first-century rationof theFirstStyleof Romanwallpaintoratedwalls,ceilings,floors,and furnishings. ing, withan upperzonecrownedbya stucco A developmentof Romanpaintingin four styleswasdiscernedby Aumoldingandpaintedcentraland lowerzones gust Mauin his seminalstudyof Romanpaintingof 1882.AlthoughMau's slabs. simulatingcolored-marble systemis still basicallysound, recent researchhas revealedfrequentreof the progression vivalsof stylesin laterperiods,leadingto qualifications 5. An exampleof First Stylepainting,this fragment (30.142.5) in the Metropolitan describedby Mau.The FirstStyle(ca.200-60 B.C.) waslargelyan exploraMuseum simulatesmarble. A comparable tion of the possibilities of simulatingmarbleof variouscolorsand typeson fragmentwasrecentlyexcavatedin Turkeyat paintedplaster.Artistsof the late Republic(2nd-lst centuryB.C.) drew thesiteof Priene,and bothmaydatefromthe uponexamplesof earlyHellenistic(late4th-3rd centuryB.C.) paintingand earlyf rstcenturyB. C. architecturein order to simulatemasonrywalls.The wall was routinely dividedintothreehorizontalpaintedzones,andtheuppermostwascrowned by a stuccocorniceof dentils,based upon the Doric architecturalorder (fig.4). In generalthemosaicfloorsof thisperiodweremoreornatethanthe walls,whichlackedfiguraldecoration.

The declineof the FirstStylecoincidedwiththe Romancolonizationof Pompeiiin 80 B.C., whichtransformedwhathad essentiallybeen an Italic townwith Greekinfluencesinto a Romancity.Goingbeyondthe simple of costlierbuildingmaterials,artistsborrowedfromthe figrepresentation uralrepertoireof HellenisticGreekwallpaintingto depictgods, mortals, andheroesin variouscontexts.The stern-facedmarbleportraitsof the late Republicmightmisleadone to imaginethatit wasa timeof greatausterity in contrastto the splendorand opulenceof the imperialage, but it wasin fact as sociallyvariegatedand populatedby art collectorsof extravagant 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 presumablyonce-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 occasionallyhaphazard,as in Boscoreale'sRoom 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

6. Thisroom,paintedwitha varietyof religiousand culticscenes,gave the Villaof the Mysteries,nearPompeii,its name.Thelarge f guresare characteristic of theSecondStyle.

7. BedroomB of the Villa of the Mysteries givesan exampleof SecondStyletrompel'oeil in its depictionof a roundtemplebehinda marble-faced wall and Corinthiancolumns.

7

8,9. Below:The alcoveof the VillaFarnefor Agrippaand sina in Rome,constructed the last decoratedabout19 B.C., epitomizes phaseof the SecondStylein the diminished sizeof thecentralpainting,whichrepresents the nymphLeucotheacradling the infant Dionysos.

FromMuseo Nazionale Romano: Le Pitture (Rome,1982), pl. 62. Center:In a ThirdStylewall of thediningroomof the probably AugustanperiodCasadei Cubicoli Florealiat Pompeii,thepaintingof Odysseus at the left has becomesimplyone component of the wholedecorativescheme.The dining roomseemsto dependcloselyon Bedroom15 of theimperialvilla at Boscotrecase.

8

Augustus)defeatedMarkAntonyat the Battleof Actiumin 31 B.C., there followeda trend towardopulencein publicmonuments,epitomizedby Augustus'sdeclarationthat he had found Romea cityof brickand left it a cityof marble.Duringmuchof the Republic,elaborationwaseschewedin publicbuildings,but in the earlyEmpire,a changein politicalclimateencouragedbothpublicand privatecelebrationof whatwasuniquelyRoman artistictraditions. in art ratherthan purelyGreek-inspired Under Augustus,a new impulseto innovate,ratherthan re-create,asserteditself in architecture,portraiture,and other artsas well. Augustus order,theCompositeOrder, oversawthedevelopmentof a newarchitectural whichmixedclassicalformswithRomaninnovationsandwasfirstapparent in the Forumof Augustusin Rome(19 B.C.). His approachto officialportraiture,whichquicklyinfluencedprivateportraiture,is exemplifiedby his The Vatican statuefromPrimaPorta(ca.20-17 B.C.; MuseoChiaramonti, classicismandHellenMuseums).Thismagnificentworkfusesfifth-century isticidealism,and suggestsby the calmvisageof the emperor,clad in the armorof a victoriousgeneralbut barefootlike a deity,the securityand prosperitythat his reignwouldguarantee.

Duringthe Third Style(ca.20 B.C.-A.D. 20), coincidentwithAugustus's reign,the subjectmatterandstyleof frescopaintingalsochangedabruptly.

The introductionof this new style mayin partbe attributedto Augustus andAgrippa,hisclosefriendanda patronof the arts,whosponsoredmany

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 Imperialeat Pompeii(ca. 12 .c.) showcareful attentionto detailand havemuchin comHere an mon with thosefrom Boscotrecase. incenseburnerrises in front of a delicately andfantasticarchitecturalfeadescribedfrieze tures.Thesmallpaintingsto eithersideof the to the other incenseburnerare subordinated decorativeelements.

9

11,12. Above:In a detailof thenorthwall°r theBlackRoomJromBoscotrecase, Egyptian figurespropitiatethedeityAnubisin thetorm ofajackal.Below:A similarscenewitha crocodileis part °ra predellain the ThirdStyle tablinum, or vestibule,in the Villa °rthe

10

Mysteries.Augustus'sdeteat°r Antonyand Cleopatragave Egyptianizingmotifsa symboliccharacterin Boscotrecase's imperialresidence;in a privatehomesuchas theVilla°r theMysteries theymerelyrefectedthetaste°r theday.(Seealsofig. 48.)

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 elaboratevistaswasreplacedby an acknowledgmentof 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'sBlackRoom (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 landscapefrom the east wall of theBoscotrecase villa'sBlackRoom(above) mayhave inspireda landscapeof identical size in Pompeii'sCasa dei CubicoliFloreali (below).Thescenein eachshowsa two-column structureneara tree,withfiguresapproaching theapparentsceneof 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. ll

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The decorationof a Romanvillawasa highlyorganizedenterprise.Wall paintingswerecarefullyplannedin advancewithintricatesystemsof proportionsand geometry,hintedat by Vitruvius.Privateinteriorswereprobablya cooperativeeffortof artistsin itinerantworkshopswhospecializedin paintingbackgrounds,landscapes,and figures,moldingelaboratestucco cornicesand ceilings,and creatingmosaicpavementsin conjunctionwith the wallpaintings.

Someof the bestevidencefor the techniquesof Romanartistsis in Pliny's Vitruviusdescribes manualDeArchitectura.

NaturalHistoryandin Vitruvius's theelaboratemethodsemployedbywallpainters,includingthe insertionof sheetsof lead in the wallto preventthe capillaryactionof moisturefrom attackingthe fresco,the preparationof as manyas sevenlayersof plaster on the wall,andthe use of marblepowderin the top layersto help produce a mirrorlikesheen 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 seemsthatpreliminarydrawingsor light incisionson the preparedsurfaceguided the artistsin decoratingthe wallsafresco(on freshplaster)withstrongprimary colors;the lightercolorswereapparentlyoften addeda secco(on dry plaster) in a subsequentphase,althoughthereis vigorousand continuingdebateaboutthe exactmethodsof Romanpainters.

Vitruviusis helpfulaswellin informingus aboutthecolorsusedbyRoman muralpainters.Blackwas essentiallydrawnfrom the carboncreatedby burningbrushwoodor pine chips. Ocherwas extractedfrom minesand servedfor yellow.Redswerederivedeitherfrom cinnabar,red ocher,or from heatingwhitelead. Bluesweremade from mixingsandand copper and bakingthe mixture.The deepestpurplewasby far the mostprecious color,sinceit camefromcertainseawhelks,butVitruviusalsodescribesless expensivemethodsof obtainingpurplepigmentbydyeingchalkwithberries.

AffluentRomansof the firstcenturiesB.C. andA.D. often had morethan one residence,includinga housein thecityanda countryvilla,andthoseof a higherstation,like senatorsand knights,frequentlyhad severalvillas.

The expenditureof vastsumson the constructionand furnishingof these homespromptedconsiderablecriticism;Lucretiusnotedsourlythatboredom drovethe rich from their city home to their countryone and back again. Such was the quest for creature comforts and diversionsthat pisciculture thebreedingof fishin ponds becamea passionsimilarto the Holland,andmanyRomanwritcultivationof tulipsin seventeenth-century ers complainedthatthe businessof governmentsufferedbecauseof it.

Certainlymuchof the condemnationof luxuriain Romancountryestates waspureRepublicanlip service;Cicerowasamongthe criticsbut had several villashimselfand correspondedactivelyin searchof statuesfor his gardens.The elaborateretreatsof the lateRepublicandearlyEmpirewere amenitiesthatseem to havebeen indispensableto the wealthy.

The villa rustica,or countryvilla,whichpermittedthe ownerto oversee the farmsat hisdisposal,musthaveoriginatedearlyon in Campania,which wasfirstcolonizedby the Greeksin the middleof the eighthcenturyB.C. Evidencefor such villasis preservedonly from the second centuryB.C. Onward,however,when prominentRomanslike ScipioAfricanusMaior hada secondaryresidenceoutsideof the capitalfor occasionalstays.At that time,importedobjectsfromRomanmilitaryconquestsin Greecefilledthe

15-17. Opposite:Thisdetailfromthe White pasRoomof Boscotrecase recallsVitravius's sagedescribingtheplayfulconceitsof thelate Secondand earlyThirdStyles,whichhe deplored.Above:TheJulio-ClaudianGorgon mask(92.11.8) revealssomeof the technical featuresofRomanfresco,witha colorfullayer a secco (on dryplaster)paintedon topof the Below:A panel in whitefrescobackground. theMuseumof Art, RhodeIslandSchoolof Design,Providence,typifes thefantasticarchitecture paintedduringtheFourthStyle.

13

18. Vesuviuscan beseento thenorthwest in thisphototgraph of thevillaatBoscoreale taken duringits excavation,in September of 1900.

In theforegroundis theolearium (Room24 on theplan,fig. 21)for themanufacture and storageof wineand oil. Thevilla'sentrance is at theright.Betweentheentranceand the oleariumwa.sthe Roomof the MusicalInstruments, namedafterthesubjectof itsfrescoes;paintingsfrom bothroomsare now in theLourre.Twocolumns oftheperistyle emerge fromthemoundof earthat theright,stillunexcavated at thetime,andBedroomM isjust beyondthecolumnfarthestfromtheobserver.

FromF. Barnabei,La villa pompeiana di P. Fannio Sinistore (Rome,1901), pl. III.

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homesof Romanpatronsboth in the citiesand in the countryside.Such bootyfired the imaginationof artistsworkingin the regionand accounts for muchof the imageryin villasof the secondand firstcenturiesB.C. Duringthe lateRepublic,the agriculturalproductivity of farmsadjacent to these villasbecameless importantthan the enjoymentthe ownersderivedfromthe residencesthemselves.This trendwasa sourceof irritation as earlyas the mid-secondcenturyB.C. to men like M. PorciusCato,who sawin the strivingfor luxuria a debasementof longstandingRomanvirtues associatedwithhardworkand devotionto the state.

As the role of the countryvilla changed from a simple residencefor overseeingagriculturalproductivityto a comfortableretreat,more slaves werekeptyear-roundon the groundsand more roomsand servicebuildingswereadded.Similarly, as the ownersgrewincreasinglysophisticated, it becamefashionableto inviteGreekphilosophersandRomanliteratito these retreats.The settingsin whichan ownerentertainedhis guestschanged accordingly, and simplepaintingsimitatingmasonrywallsyieldedto scenes drawnfrom Greekmythology.

The cultivatedtastethatreplacedmereostentationwasin no smallmeasure responsiblefor the growthof the SecondStyle.The paintedwallsof diningrooms,libraries,and bedrooms,likethoseof the villaat Boscoreale, soon reflectedthe villaowners'intellectualand aestheticsavoirfaire and weremeantto be appreciatedby visitorsfrom the neighboringGreekcity of Neapolis(ancientNaples).

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through the middle of the first century A.D., those who could livedin "profusissumptibus" lavishextravagance as the privateresidences 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 owned in addition to villaerusticae may be spotted underwaterto this day 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 isometricplan that includes featuresknownonlyfrom the excavation reportpublishedbyE Barnabeiin 1901.

RetainingBarnabei's unorthodox systemof identification, we canproceedaroundthe villa clockwise:

M. Cubiculum witha northwindow, which mayhavebeenoriginalor addedafterthe earthquake of A.D. 62 (seefig. 23) L. An open exedra with three walls paintedwithgarlands.Thewallvisiblein the drawing is in the Muse'eRoyal et DomainedeMariemont, Morlanwelz, Belgium; the Metropolitan's panel (tg. 43) B. Interiorentrance was on thefacing wall C. Passageway I. Thisroomwasdecorated withpaintings D. Roomof theMusicalInstruments of rusticatedmasonry,now in theLourre 24. 01earium,for theproduction of wine and in theMariemontmuseum and oil H. Probablya diningroom.On thewall E. Peristyle.Thesix-column arrangement facing thesouthentrancewerethreepaintwasimitatedon thepaintedwallsbelowthe ings(leftto right):DionysosandAriadne, cantilevered roofof thecourtyard.

A large Aphrodite andEros,andtheThreeGraces. bronzevase (tg. 39) waspaintedon the Onlythecenterpanelis preserved; it is in wallacrosstheentrancesof RoomsN and theMuseoArcheologico Nazionale,Naples.

O, and the Corinthiancolumn(tg. 38) Aboveeachpaintingweresmallertriptychs; wasat thesoutheastcornerof theperistyle twoof these,in verypoorcondition,arein N. Wintertriclinium (dining room) the MetropolitanMuseum.On the right O. Sittingroom (east)wall weretheMetropolitan's paint-

16

ings (figs.34-36). A wingedGeniuswas at eachsideof thesouthernentrancefrom theperistyle;one is in theLourre,and the otheris in the Mariemontmuseum.On theleft (westwall), not visible,werethree paintingsnow in Naples G. Summerdiningroom(?).Paintingsin theMariemontand Naplesmuseums 23. Passageway E Threepaintingsof thisroomare in the Metropolitan (seefigs. 40, 42 ) 22. Uncertainfunction 20. Dressingroom 21. Frigidarium(coldbath) 17. Tepidarium (warmbath) 18-19. Caldarium(hotbath) 15. Colonnadedcourtyard 1-12. Servants'quarters

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

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 17

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18

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 the left side, a shrine knownas a syzygia,whichconsistsof a short entablature 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: wall o+BedroomM, this ornatedoorstands at theentranceto atantasticvilla (seelarger detail,tront cover).Thedoorhas decoration and bronzedoorknockof inlaidtortoiseshell ersin thetormof lions'heads.Aboveis a comparabledoortromthe atrium째rthe villa at Oplontis,whichwasprobablypaintedbythe sameworkshop.

OVERLEAF

27,28. Lett:Thisdetailtromthewestwall째r BedroomM showsthe entranceto a sanctuary with an archaisticstatue째rthe goddess Hekatebearingtwo torches.The two-pillar structurewithan entablatureis laterechoed in the miniature landscapepaintings 째r Right:On theeastwallof BedBoscotrecase. roomM, a roundtemple,or tholos, standsin an open-airsanctuary.An altar in thetoregroundis ladenwithan orteringortruit.

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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 AllardPiersonMuseumin Amsterdam.)RoomH was abouttwenty-five feetsquare,withdecoration consistingof eightmainpainted scenesthatshoweda figureor groupof figures.Eachscenewasseparated fromthe nextby a paintedcolumn,whichactedalmostas a frame.Thisset the decorativeschemeapartfromthatof the Villaof the Mysteriesof some yearsearlier,in whichthe columnsare behindthe figuresand thusdo not interrupta narrativecontinuum.Heretheartistspreferredto separateeach main panel,as indicatedalso by the separateshrinepaintingsand architecturalmotifsin the upperzone aboveeach panel.

In the centerof the northwallwas an imageof Aphroditejoined by a diminutivefigureof Eros.To the left wasDionysosrecliningon Ariadne's lap, and on the right were the Three Graces,in their familiarlate Classicalpose.

On the westwallwere,from southto north,a falsedoorway,an elderly beardedmanleaningon a walkingstick,and a pairof figures,one seated and one standing,with a shield betweenthem. The figures have been variouslyidentifiedand maybe eithermythologicalor historical.

The eastwallfeaturedthreepaintingsnowin the careof the Metropolitan. These are, from northto south (left to right),a citharistand 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 panelinterruptedbya doorway thisone not false,butactuallyleading out of the room,provingthatthe painteddecorationconformedto 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, antiquity;Apollinariusof Sidon, Petronius in the Satyricon,and Vitruvius 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 allude to historicalfiguresor personificationsassociatedwith Macedoniaand 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 each major scene. The room may have served as the primarytriclinium,or 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 RoomH (opposite,below)wasfirstassembled in theVillaHugelin Essen, for an exhibition in 1979. Thepaintings(above), WestGermany, Nazionale, now in the MuseoArcheologico (perhapsofAsia Naples,withpersonifications and Macedonia)and an elderlyphilosopher (possiblyEpicurus)faced thepaintings,now in the Metropolitan,that are illustratedin figs. 34-36. Thepanels on thefar (north) wall describedDionysosand Ariadne(now lost),Aphroditeand the infantEros(Museo ArcheologicoNazionale), and the Three Graces(nowlost).Thepaintingof theThree Graces(opposite,above;MuseoArcheologico Nazionale)servesto give an impressionof the appearanceof the missingversionfrom thenorthwall.Aboveeachlargepaintingwas a small triptychlikepicture, two of which in poorcondition. survivein theMetropolitan 27

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34. Theseatedcitharaplayerandthegirl behind her maybe portraitsof a Macedonian Unqueenandherdaughterormaidservant. likethecycleoffiguresdepictedin theVillaof eachpaintingin RoomH is a theMysteries, columns; Corinthian distinctscenesetbetween part of one is visibleat the right. Figures 34-36 arefrom theeastwall of theroom.

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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 lookingtotherightmaybea Macedonian and queenor a pair 째rdivinities.Thispainting and thaton thetacingpage areperhaps copiestromthesamelostHellenisticcycle;the otherpaintingsin RoomH maybeunrelated.

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which has very recently been retheVilla of the Papiri at Herculaneum, openedfor excavation.

Republicanvilla is that displaysof The message we receive from this late of the Greek past. By appealing wealthwere best accompaniedby symbols were as much in vogue in late Repubtothe forms of Hellenisticart, which the Roman patron signaled his aplicanvillas as were classicaltraditions, incidentally,invited lengthy treatises preciationof a classicalheritage and, 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 (oppositeand below)reproducedon thesepages arefrom Boscoreale's RoomF, whichwassituatedbetweenthe dining area to the northand the bathsto thesouth.Thefunctionof RoomF is unknown.The elaborateupperzone of the largepanel includespaintingsof sirenssupportingthecornice,multicolored marbleslabs, and a tortoiseshell-inlaid pilaster.

Themagnificent architectural panoramaat theleft,similartothosein Bedroom M, isfrom RoomG, whichmayhave beenthe summer diningroom.Liketheviewsin RoomM, these panels, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale,Naples,are largelyderivedfrom paintedHellenisticstagedesigns.

N apleS

OVERLEAF

43. Thesuperbwestwalloftheexedra,Room L, includesa snakecrawlingfrom a basket, a satyr'smask,and a cymbal,all of whichare suspended belowa massivegarlandwithbull's heads.The upperzone consistsof a delicate egg-and-dartregistersupportedbya vegetal frieze.Thepolychromed marbleslabsbelowrest abovea cymaof leaves,and thecoloredfauxmarbre panels are evenlyspacedbelowthe horizontalpanelsof the upperzone.

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44. ThevillaatBoscotrecase, likethevilla atBoscoreale, wasorganized arounda centralperistyle(B) withpaintingsof columns behindactualcolumns;thispartof thevilla mayhavebeencompleted shortlyafterthat of Boscoreale.Theservants'entrancewas at thesoutheastpart of the excavatedremains.A lararium, or householdshrine, stoodto the left of the entrance.Theservants'quarterslay to the east. Theseincludedan atriumandfountainbasin.

13. A kitchenstoreroomdecoratedwith paintingsdescribed bytheexcavatoras in theFourthStyle;theseincludedan image of Apollostringinghis Iyre 14. Bathroom, accessible byrampfrom13 15. The Black Room, the easternmost

36

room,isfor themostpartpreservedat the Metropolitan (seefigs. 47-50) 16. Preservedin theMuseoArcheologico Nazionale,Naples 17. Exedra 18. This bedroomwas decoratedwith a frieze of garlands 19. TheMythological Room.On thewest wall was a panel with Polyphemusand Galatea;on the east wall were depicted Andromeda and Perseus(seefigs. 54,55) 20. The WhiteRoom. Only two panels from this bedroomare preservedin the Metropolitan (seefigs. 51-53) 45. Opposite:Maskof Medusafrom the westwallof theBlackRoomatBoscotrecase

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

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 速 www.jstor.org

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 delicate ornamentalvignettesand landscapeswith genre and mythologicalscenes 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 generationlaterthan those from Boscoreale.Boscoreale'sSecond Stylepaintings 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

46. Thewestwall (top)of Bedroom15, the BlackRoom,was on the left as one entered theroomfromthesouth.At thefar leftwasa doorwayconnectingwith Bedroom16. The for delicatepatternsratherthan preference f xedpointsof interestin thepaintedscheme signalsthe new tasteof the ThirdStyle.The northwall(center)couldbeseenfromtheterrace outsidethe bedroom.It was the central whilethe eastand west wall of the bedroom, walls mirrorone another.On the east wall in thecenterrecallsthose a landscape (bottom), of thenorthand westwalls,and theentablafriezeson thethreewalls turesanddecorative are almostidenticalas well. Unlikethedecorationon thewestwall, however,thaton the sinceit is uneastwall is totallysymmetrical canopy central The bya doorway. interrupted of thenorthwall is connectedto thecandelabrato its leftand rightbya seriesof horizontal linesandshortfriezes.Likethesocle,these continuedaroundtheentireroom,linkingthe threewalls.Theeffect,in thispitchblackroom, was thatof a colorfulbutetherealcage.

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47. Six sectionsof theBlackRoom'swest wallsurvive,threeof whicharein theMetropolitanMuseum.A seventh,the landscapesceneillustratedin blackand white on thispage, asnow lost but was oncein theMuseoArcheologico Nazionale,Naples.

Thepanelsat thefar left and right,publishedhereforthefirsttime,arein thestoreroomsof theNaplesmuseum.Thaton the left showsthe lowerpart of a tripod.The wall has a cornicein the center,whichis supported bythinstalklikesupportswitha slim entablature.The cornicefeatures griffinsand masksof Medusaat theends.

A parakeetis perchedat theouteredgeof eachentablature.Thetripods,closeto the endvs of thewalls,are deliberately depicted withoutanysenseof depth;thepreference for shallowdecorationis characteristic of thisThirdStyleinterior.Liketheswanson the northwall (fig. 49), the tripodsmay bea referencetoApollo,whowaslinkedto Augustusduringthisperiod.

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48. Thethreesectionsof thenorthwallhave beenpreservedto theiroriginalheaght.The miniaturefzgur(ltiveimatgesare salhouetted atgainsllheexpanseof blackwall. 7he Egyptianizingscenein theleftpanelshowsthedibytw vinityApis,thebull,beingpropiticlted fzgures;thefigure (lt the rightis Anubis.A uncoilsunderlhetable.Thesmalllandc()br(l scapein lhecenterof themainpanelshowsa takingplacebeforea tower ceremony religi()us (see detail,backcover).Closerto us in the pictureplane is a pair oJslimcolumnssupapportingan ornatepediment.Thepediment while or wood, metal of pear.sto be madeout metaland thecolumndrumsalternatebetween below and column each Above vegetalsections. mea in enclosed a portrait is thepediment the on portrait the that likely seems dallion.It emperor of the daughter the Julia, left is of Augustus,and thaton the rightis of Livia, wife(seealsof gs. 56,57). There theemperor's knozun subjects arenootherimagesof imperial in Romanpainting.

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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

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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.

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20.192 1()

Althoughthe paintingsof the tripodsare identicalin almosteverydetail,includingthe directionof theshadowsfrom rightto left, it waspossibleto determine thepositionof each bythecracksin thethreepanelsat the right.

The missingcorniceabovethe centrallandscapewouldhave closelyresembledthat on the westwall (fig. 47). The colorfulfrieze, surmounted byparakwets, appearstodrawupon thesametraditionsof lateArchaicGreekarchitecture thatareechoedin theForumofAugu.stus(19 B.C.) in Rome.Thehistoricism of Augustanarchitecture and its consciousness of classicalforms separates ittromthebaroque, Hellenistictendenciesof late Republicanarchitecture,such as that in BedroomM of Boscoreale(f g. 23).

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On the westwall,the shadowsfall in the oppositedirection,and on the northwall,they fall in both directionsawayfrom the center.This system of intimatingthe directionof lightis fairlycommonin Pompeianfrescoes.

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 elaboratethymiateria, or incenseburners,whichwereprobablysituatedon the left and rightdoorjambsof the room'ssouthernentrance.The White Roomwasthe bedroomto the left of the Mythological Room,Bedroom19.

It hada doorwayat the rightof theentrance,just as the Mythological Room had a doorwayto the left of its entrance;these side doors opened to a commoncorridor.

In Bedroom19,the Mythological Room,ornamentalpatternsareadmixed withmythological scenesandEgyptianizing panels;the ensembleis colorful andcomplex(figs.54, 55). Largered panelswithsirenssupportingspindly garlandsframea centralpaintingon each long wall.Abovethe panelsare yellowfriezeswithsmallplaquessimilarto thosefoundin the BlackRoom.

The centralpanelof the westwallshowsthe cyclopsPolyphemusseated in thecenterof a rockyoutcropping,whichhe shareswithsomeof hisgoats.

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listening to Polyphemus's song professing desirevisible for her she hid with her lover, Acis,the son of Pan. Acisis his nowhere inwhile the painting; thisfactindicatesthattheartistsmayhavebeenrelyingin 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 apparentlycradlesa pedum(shepherd'scrook)in the left hand, mirroring the pedumnext to Polyphemus.

At thetoprightof thepaintingthereis a referenceto the taleof Odysseus, most likelyat the point when Polyphemus,blindedby Odysseusand his companions,hurled a boulder at them. This is probablyits intended significanceratherthan the tragicend of the storyof Galateaand Acis, when Polyphemusrose in rage and threwa boulderat Acisas he triedto escapeafter being discovered.A connectionbetweenthe scenes may be implied,however,sincein Ovid'sversionof the storyGalateadoes mention that Polyphemuswas happywhen thinkingtenderlyof her, and that he then permittedshipsto come and go safely.

The scenedepictedon the centerof thisbedroom'seastwallis even more dramaticthanthatof thewestwall.Herethestoryof PerseusandAndromeda is told.The motherof Andromeda,Cassiope,hadboastedof her owngreat beauty.The Nereidscomplainedto Poseidon,whofloodedherhomelandof Ethiopiaanddispatcheda seamonsterthere.Andromeda's father,Cepheus, consultedthe oracleAmmonand learnedthat the only way to avertthe land'sdesolationwasbychainingAndromedato a rockandexposingherto the sea monster.Perseus,fresh from havingkilledMedusa,flies in from the left to rescueAndromedafrom the approachingsea monsteraStthe painting'slowerleft.

In the next sequence,Perseusis shownat the top rightof the painting beingreceivedandthankedbyAndromeda's parents,CassiopeandCepheus.

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.

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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 MythologicalRoom,Bedroom19, and included threelarge paintings on the west, north, and east walls.

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9). Thedrawingindicatesthedoorwszy at the far left openingto thecorridorsharedbythe WhiteRoomas wellas thepositionof thefour paintedsectionsthatsurvivefrom the wall.

ThepanelwithPolyphemus analGalatea(opposite)wasin thecenter,and theyellowfrieze mayhave beeninterruptelbythe top of the painting.In thelrawingan attempthasbeen madeto linkthetwopanelssharinga yellow frieze.A largeredpanel was at the rightof thewall,and onlythecenterportionwiththe thymiaterionhassurvived(lowerright).The excavation reportof l922 describes a soclewith paintingsof offeringdishes,orpaterae;these havebeenaddedin thereconstruction drawing.

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55. TheMythological Room'seastwallmirrorsthe westwall exceptthatit is not interruptedbya doorway,so thattworedpanels flankthecentralpaintingdepictingAndromedaandPerseus(opposite).

Theentireredpanel from the left end (below)survives;upon its excavationit was wronglyjoined with the portion of yellow frieze from the right end of thewestwall (seep. 51, upperrzght), butthesehavebeenreproduced hereas separatepanels.Thecenterof therightredpanel

52 20.192.13

(opposite)is preservedin the storerooms of theNaplesmuseumand is herepublished for thef rsttime.In describing thewallsof the Mythological Room,theexcavatorsuggests that the centralpaintingshad a large whitesurround,whichcouldhavebeento eithersideof theputativecolumnsrestoredin thedrawing, althoughno evidenceof whitepigmenthas beenfound. As in the reconstruction of the eastwall, allfeaturesotherthanthoseof the survivingsectionsare hypothetical.

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56,57. Above:Theportraitmedallions of the BlackRoomareshownpriorto theirrestoration and overpainting.Each medallionappearsto bea cameoportrait;thepurplecolor of the backgrounds (as seen in Jig. 48) was reserved for imperialsubjectsin theRoman worldduringthisperiod.

58. Opposite:Thesea monster(ketos)from thepaintingwithAndromeda andPerseus(see p. 53, lowerleft) is amongthe mostaccomplishedpassagesof theMythological Room.

54

Untilrecentlybothmedallionswereassumedto be identicalportraitsof one man.A closerlook at the two portraitmedallionsrevealeda startling fact:in the medallionon the left (above),a restorerhad inadvertentlyalteredthe sitter'sfeatures,transformingthe originalportraitfromthatof a youngwomanintothatof a man,despitethe factthatphotographstakenin 1929,beforerestoration,clearlyshowthe left-handportraitto be thatof a woman.On the basisof comparisonswithother portraitsof womenfrom the Augustanperiod,it seemslikelythatthe portraiton the left represents Julia, the mistressof the villa,and the portraiton the right (below)is a womanas well,andrepresentsLivia,the wifeof the emperorAugustusand Julia'sstepmotherand new mother-in-law.

This new identificationof the portraitmedallionsprovidesfascinating insightintothe privatelivesof the imperialfamily,sincethereare no other imperialresidencesknownwithpaintedimagesof 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 haveattractedmuchattention.This is not an official portraitfor publicdisplay,but a smallprivateimage. We may speculate abouttheintendedoccupantof theroomon thebasisof theseidentifications, alongwithotherevidence:the room'sspareaspect,somewhatout of characterwiththe othercubiculaand reminiscentof the houseof Augustusin Rome;its use of a distinctivedecorativeemblem the swan thoughtto symbolizeAugustusand his familyand featuredin the principalofficial monumentof the day,the Ara Pacis;its importantlocationas the easternmost bedroom;and the fact that the emperorwas a close friend of the villa'sformerowner,the dotingfatherof thatowner'swife,and the grandfatherof the subsequentinfantowner.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 situatedportraits,displayed like photographsin bedroomstoday,of his beloveddaughterand wife.

Othermembersof the imperialfamily,likeTiberiusor AgrippaPostumus, shouldalsobe consideredas possibleoccupants.

Whoeverthe intendedoccupantmayhavebeen,the sparedecorationof the BlackRoomis instructiveabout the decorativedevicesappealingto Augustusand his entourage.The firstemperorof Romeencouragedthe creationof a newstylethatabandonedthe imposingdisplaysof wealthand eruditioncommonin the SecondStyleand took a differentview of the paintedwall.The occupantsand thosewhovisitedthe villaat Boscotrecase were not greetedby vistasof architecturalsplendor,but shallowarchitecturalelementsand slender,elegantdecorativeforms,playfullyallusiveto contemporary culturalandpoliticalconcerns.The ornamentalrestraintgoverning the decorationof the cubiculais especiallynoteworthyin light of whathadprecededit in the villaat Boscoreale,andit speaksvolumesabout the aesthetically sophisticated imaginationof the age of Ovid,as opposedto the somewhatindiscriminate appetitesof prominentRepublicanssuch as Cicero,whoorderedlargequantitiesof statuesfor hisvillagarden.It wasat this momentin Westernculturethatart beganto look backon itselfwith humorand intelligenceratherthanaweand thata nativeRomansecularismproduceda 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: Treasuresfrom 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.

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).

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

GENERAL WORKEi Mau, A. 1882. Geschichteder dekorativenWandmalerei in Pompeii. Berlin.

Schefold, K. 1957. Die WandePompejis.Topografisches Verzeichnisder 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 Vesuvausbruch79 n. Chr. verschuttetenStadten.

Recklinghausen .

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. ThePaintingsfromBoscotrecase.

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.

TECHNIQUE

ILLUSTRATIONS Augusti, S. 1967. I colori pompeiani. Rome.

Mora, P., L. Mora, and P. Philippot. 1977. La conservationdes peintures murales. Bologna.

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 Vesuvausbruch79 n. Chr. verschuttetenStadten. 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 Vesuvausbruch79 n.

Chr. verschuttetenStadten. Ed. by B. Andreae and H. Kyrieleis. Recklinghausen. 93-100.

Thompson, D. L. 1982. "The Picture Gallery at Boscoreale," AmericanJournal of Archaeology 86: 288.

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

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

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