Harvard Art Museums > 1921.37: Wall Painting Fragment from the Villa at Boscotrecase Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Wall Painting Fragment from the Villa at Boscotrecase , 1921.37,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 16, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/292169. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 1921.37 Title Wall Painting Fragment from the Villa at Boscotrecase Classification Paintings Work Type painting Date 10 BCE-1 BCE Places Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Campania Period Roman Imperial period, Early Culture Roman Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/292169 Location Location Level 3, Room 3700, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Roman Art View this object's location on our interactive map Physical Descriptions Medium Pigment on plaster Technique Fresco painting Dimensions H. 47.5 x W. 75.8 cm (18 11/16 x 29 13/16 in.) with frame: H. 48.2 x W. 83 x D. 9.7 cm (19 x 32 11/16 x 3 13/16 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Albert Gallatin, New York, (by 1921) gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1921. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Albert Gallatin Accession Year 1921 Object Number 1921.37 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Description This wall painting fragment comes from the so-called 'Mythological Room' of the villa at Boscotrecase (room 19) where it would have decorated the top register of red-paneled walls. Preserved here is the upper golden register, framed by two narrow white bands in which appears a decorative fleur-de-lis in red pigment. The lower portion of the fragment preserves remains of the bright red panel that would have occupied the lower portion of the wall. Two vignettes appear in the gold register. On the left, in a square panel is a figure. She wears a blue headdress and red draped garment. In profile, the figure kneels on a green cushion with her arms raised at her waist (1). On the right, two birds stand in a puddle of water: one bends to drink while the second stands upright. The details of both vignettes are only partially preserved because the secco paint has worn. 1. Compare to figures in the Black Room from the Boscotrecase Villa in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20.192.2. Commentary This fragment is a fine example of what is commonly called the Pompeian Third Style, popular during Augustus' reign (r. 27 BCE-14 CE) in the late first century BCE and early first century CE. An inscription from the villa suggests the owner was Agrippa Postumus (b.12 BCE-d. 14 CE), the son of Augustus' daughter Julia and her husband Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the close advisor of the Emperor Augustus. Significant renovations occurred at the site following 12 BCE, suggesting a date for the paintings during the final decade of the first century BCE. The elegant and refined quality of this and other paintings at the villa provide some of the best examples of paintings, particularly outside of Rome, and certainly of the so-called Third Style. The Egyptianizing themes were favored by Augustus and other Roman elite during the years of the early Empire, following the victory over Cleopatra. The villa was partly excavated from 1903-1905 and subsequently published in 1922, by the Italian archaeologist Matteo della Corte (1). Other panels were divided between collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. A reconstructed panel combining the upper frieze from the west all with the primary, red register from the east wall of room 19 in the Metropolitan Museum of Art offers a model for this fragment's original wall context (2, 3). Notes: 1. M. Della Corte, "Scavi eseguiti da privati nel territorio di Pompei," Notizie degli Scavi 19, 1922, pp. 459ff. 2. P. von Blanckenhagen and C. Alexander, The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase, (Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1990), pl. 38. 3. Compare to the Metropolitan Museum of Art inv. 20.192.13, M. L. Anderson, "The Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase," The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 45.3 (1987): p. 51, fig. 55. Publication History Elizabeth Molacek, Kate Smith, Kathy Eremin, Lucy Cooper, and Georgina Rayner, Re-Discovering a Roman Wall Painting at Harvard: New Research on a Fragment from the Villa at Boscotrecase, Studies in Conservation (2020), vol. 65, no. 5, pp. 296-311 Exhibition History 32Q: 3700 Roman, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/13/2017 - 01/01/2050 Subjects and Contexts Roman Domestic Art Related Articles Back on the Wall Elizabeth Molacek November 20, 2017 Related Works Straus.8887 X-radiograph(s) of "Wall painting fragment from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase, room 19" Photographs Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
