Roman wall paintings employ many of the same pigments ancient artists used for sculptural polychromy. Red and yellow ochers, Egyptian blue, and cinnabar have all been identified in the vibrant representations of architectural vistas in this first-century b.c. room. The painting was executed in the fresco technique, in which pigments are applied onto a freshly prepared damp plaster ground. It is those colors, skillfully applied in wide-ranging hues, that create the complex interplay of shifting perspectives and portray a rich array of materials. Golden statues of the goddess Hecate shine brightly in the portals of her sanctuary; jewel-encrusted flowers twine about deep-red marble columns of porphyry; gleaming bronze vessels flank altars; tortoiseshell veneer sheaths exterior doors; and a translucent glass vessel holding fruit sits on a ledge in a grotto on the back wall.
#1250. Cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
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1250. Cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
1251. Cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
116. The Director's Tour, First Floor: Cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
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Title:Cubiculum (bedroom) from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
Period:Late Republic
Date:ca. 50–40 BCE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Fresco
Dimensions:8 ft. 8 1/2 in. × 10 ft. 11 1/2 in. × 19 ft. 1 7/8 in. (265.4 × 334 × 583.9 cm)
Classification:Miscellaneous-Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1903
Accession Number:03.14.13a–g
Excavated at the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale, about a mile from Pompeii (Cavenaghi 1901, p. 5; Barnabei 1901, pp. 71-81).
1899-1900, frescoes excavated in Pompeii by Vincenzo de Prisco; [until 1903, with Cesare and Ercole Canessa, Naples and Paris]; acquired in 1903, purchased from C. and E. Canessa, Paris.
Barnabei, Felice. 1901. La Villa Pompeiana di P. Fannio Sinistore scoperta presso Boscoreale. pp. 71ff, figs. 17–19, pls. 9–10, Rome: Tipografia della Reale Accademia dei Lincei.
Cavenaghi Luigi. 1901. "I Dipinti di Boscoreale e la loro Tecnica." Rassegna d'Arte, 1. pp. 5 ff.
Mau, August. 1902. "Wandschirm und Bildtraeger in der Wandmalerei." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaölogischen Instituts, 17: pp. 190ff., 223ff.
Sambon, Arthur. 1903. Les Fresques de Boscoreale: Catalogue of C. and E. Canessa. pp. 21–26, pls. 8–10, Paris: Galerie Durand-Ruel.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1906. "The Boscoreale Frescoes." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1(7): pp. 95ff., fig. 2.
Ernst, Pfuhl. 1923. Malerei und Zeichnung der Griechen, Vol. 2. pp. 868ff, Munich: F. Bruckmann Verlag, Munich.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1927. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 222–23, fig. 155, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Beyen, Hendrik Gerard. 1927. "Uber ein Fragment einer Wanddekoration mit Stilleben aus Pompeji." Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 42: pp. 41 n.7, 50, fig. 1.
Curtius, Ludwig. 1929. Die Wandmalerie Pompejis: eine Einfuhrung in ihr Verstandnis. pp. 38, 103, 105, 114, 122, 138, 184, 279, figs. 70–73, Leipzig: E. A. Seemann.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1930. Handbook of the Classical Collection. pp. 222–23, fig. 155, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1933. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 5th ed. pp. 25, 27, fig. 29, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Beyen, Hendrik Gerard. 1938. Die Pompejanische Wanddekoration. pp. 141ff., figs. 56–58, 60–62, 64–66, Haag: M. Nijhoff.
Bieber, Margarete. 1939. The History of the Greek and Roman Theater. pp. 248–49, 250–52, figs. 344–47, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
McClees, Helen and Christine Alexander. 1941. The Daily Life of the Greeks and Romans: As Illustrated in the Classical Collections, 6th ed. pp. 25, 27, fig. 29, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1944, 1949. Greek Painting: The Development of Pictoral Representation from Archaic to Graeco-Roman Times. pp. 21–22, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Lehmann, Phyllis Williams and Herbert Bloch. 1953. Roman Wall Paintings from Boscoreale in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Monographs on Archaeology and the Fine Arts, Vol. 5. nos. 7–13, pp. 16, 83-85, 87-90, 95, 108, 114, 116-18, 125, 131, 146, 148, 151, 159, 161, 165, 169-72, 190-206, fig. 51, pls. 9B-9C, 10-33, Cambridge, Mass.: Archaeological Institute of America.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1955. Ancient Italy : a study of the interrelations of its peoples as shown in their arts. pp. 80, 82–83, figs. 251, 254, 257, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1958. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 2. p. 143, fig. 215, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
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Mercklin, Eugen von. 1962. Antike Figuralkapitelle. no. 755, pp. 307–8, fig. 1381, Berlin: W. de Gruyter & Co.
Cook, Brian. 1964. "The Boscoreale Cubiculum: A New Installation." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22(5): pp. 166–83, figs. 1–26.
Bandinelli, Ranuccio Bianchi. 1965. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale, Vol. 6. p. 361, fig. 389, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1966. The Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. p. 139, fig. 660, London: Phaidon Press.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1970. Perspective in Greek and Roman Art. p. 51 n. 3, fig. 210, New York and London: Phaidon Press.
Grose, David Frederick. 1977. "Early Blown Glass: The Western Evidence." Journal of Glass Studies, 19: pp. 28–29, fig. 10.
Reuterswärd, Patrik. 1980. Studien zur Polychromie der Plastik. p. 132 n. 325, Stockholm: Bokförlaget Svenska.
Liversidge, Joan. 1983. "Wall Painting and Stucco." A Handbook of Roman Art : A Survey of the Visual Arts of the Roman World, Martin Henig, ed. p. 99, pls. 6, 16, Oxford: Phaidon Press.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1984. Vol. 2: Aphrodisias-Athena. "Artemis/Diana," p. 810, no. 45, pl. 597, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. pp. 90–99, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Pfrommer, Michael. 1987. Studien zu Alexandrinischer und Grossgriechischer Toreutik frühhellenistischer Zeit, Archäologische Forschungen 16. pp. 25, 37, 41, ns. 125, 128, 162, 199, 207, 209, Berlin: Mann.
Anderson, Maxwell. 1987. "Pompeian Frescos in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 45(3): pp. 17–36, figs. 23–29.
Knauer, Elfriede R. 1990. "Wind Towers in Roman Wall Paintings?." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 25: pp. 8–11, figs. 6–7.
Clarke, John R. 1991. The Houses of Roman Italy, 100 B.C.-A.D.250: Ritual, Space, Decoration. p. 33, fig. 8, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Naumann-Steckner, Friederike and David Whitehouse. 1991. "Depictions of Glass in Roman Wall Paintings." Roman Glass: Two Centuries of Art and Invention, Martine S. Newby and K. S. Painter, eds. pp. 87–88, pl. XXI a, London: Society of Antiquaries of London.
Carratelli, Giovanni Pugliese and Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. 1994. Enciclopedia dell'Arte Antica, Classica e Orientale: Atlante delle Forme Ceramiche, Suppl. 2, Vol. 1. p. 724, fig. 796, Rome: Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
Grassinger, Dagmar. 1994. "Die Marmorkratere." Das Wrack: der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia, Gisela Hellenkemper Salies, ed. p. 278 n. 50, Köln: Rheinland-Verlag.
Sauron, Gilles. 1994. Quis Deum?: L'expression Plastique des Idéologies Politiques et Religieuses à Rome à la fin de la République et au Début du Principat. pl. XXXV–VIII, Rome: Ecole française de Rome.
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