1925.6.37: Wall painting fragment

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1925.6.37

Title

Wall painting fragment

Classification

Fragments

Work Type

wall painting fragment(s)

Date

1st century BCE-1st century CE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe

Period

Roman Republican period, Late, to Early Imperial

Culture

Roman

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/292241

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Pigment on plaster

Technique

Fresco painting

Dimensions

H. 9.2 x W. 11.2 x D. 2.1 cm (3 5/8 x 4 7/16 x 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Fausto Benedetti, Rome, (by 1925), gift; to the Fogg Museum of Art, 1925.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Fausto Benedetti

Accession Year

1925

Object Number

1925.6.37

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This fragment features a yellow circle on a white ground and concentric circles in shades of pink forming a target-like pattern that resembles the veining of marble.
Known as the First Style or Incrustation Style, this decorative tradition became popular in Rome during the late second century BCE. in some instances it is possible to identify the specific stone that is represented, but many early examples of this style do not imitate known marble (1). Instead, paintings such as the fragment represented here are an exploration of colors and forms to simulate generic masonry (2).

Originally from a larger wall painting, this fragment likely came from a lower horizontal frieze of a wall where it would have served as the dado for the series of architectural and figural panels above.

1. For painted imitation of known marble materials see the Second Style paintings in the Villa of Poppaei at Oplontis.

2. Compare to a similar example of generic imitation marble from the House of the Faun at pompeii (VI.12.2), which J. Clayton Fant refers to as "amoeba-like shapes" in "Real and Painted (Imitation) Marble at Pompeii," in World of Pompeii, edited by John Dobbins and Pedar Foss (New York, 2008), 336, fig. 22.1.

Exhibition History

• 32Q: 3620 University Study Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/20/2018 - 05/06/2018

Subjects and Contexts

• Roman Domestic Art

Verification Level