1925.6.7: Wall Painting Fragment

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1925.6.7

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/292272

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Pigment on plaster

Technique

Fresco painting

Dimensions

H. 9 x W. 10.5 x D. 2.5 cm (3 9/16 x 4 1/8 x 1 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

1925.6.7

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This fragment depicts alternating waves of red, pink, and yellow, which radiate from a central yellow circle, outlined with a thin white border.

Commentary

The bright colors of this fragment are meant to imitate colorful marble and other stones that might have been used to decorate Roman interior spaces (1). This manner of decoration became popular in Rome during the late second century BCE when it represented generic stones or marble designs. Later panels can be recognized as specific marble-types such as giallo antico or porphyry.

This style of painting is commonly referred to as the First Style, Masonry Style, or International Incrustation Style (2). It is found in earlier Greek painting (for example in the houses at Delos), but is most known from its appearance in the houses of the Vesuvian region. The style continues far beyond Pompeii and the first century CE into the Roman East where it is found at such sites as Zeugma and Sardis.


Notes:
1. J. Clayton Fant, "Real and painted (imitation) marble at Pompeii," in the World of Pompeii, the Routledge worlds (London-Routledge 2007): 336-346.

2. For a review of Roman wall painting, including an accessible introduction to the First Style, consult Roger Ling, Roman Painting (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

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