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The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase

• 
  Landscape with Polyphemus and Galatea: From the "Mythological Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c.; Augustan
  Roman
  Wall painting

  Fresco: 73 3/4 x 47 in. (187.33 x 119.38 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.192.17)

• 
  Aedicula with small landscape: From the "Black Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c.; Augustan
  Roman
  Wall painting
  

  Fresco: H. 91 3/4 in. (233.05 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.192.1)

  Egyptianizing scene: From the "Black Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c.; Augustan
  Roman
  Wall painting
  

  Fresco: H. 91 3/4 in. (233.05 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.192.2)

  Egyptianizing scene: From the "Black Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c.; Augustan
  Roman
  Wall painting
  

  Fresco: H. 91 3/4 in. (233.05 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.192.3)

• 
  Landscape with Perseus and Andromeda: From the "Mythological Room" of the Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase, last decade of 1st century b.c.; Augustan
  Roman
  Wall painting

  Fresco: 62 3/4 x 46 3/4 in. (159.39 x 118.75 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1920 (20.192.16)

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While earlier artists focused on creating an illusion of architectural depth with solid architectural forms, the artists at Boscotrecase presented the idea with whimsical, attenuated, and highly refined elements.

Related

Timelines (1)

• Italian Peninsula, 1000 B.C.–1 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (3)

• Augustan Rule (27 b.c.–14 a.d.)
• Boscoreale: Frescoes from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor
• Roman Painting

Other Thematic Essays (16)

• Architecture in Ancient Greece
• Art of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in Naples
• Frescoes and Wall Painting in Late Byzantine Art
• The Grand Tour
• Greek Gods and Religious Practices
• The Idea and Invention of the Villa
• Italian Painting of the Later Middle Ages
• List of Rulers of the Ancient Greek World
• List of Rulers of the Roman Empire
• Luxury Arts of Rome
• Neoclassicism
• Roman Egypt
• The Roman Empire (27 b.c.–393 a.d.)
• The Roman Republic
• Women in Classical Greece
• The Year One

Maps (2)

• Europe, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.
• World, 1000 b.c.–1 a.d.

Index Terms (11)

Art Movement/Style

• Augustan Art in Ancient Rome

Geography/Place

• Rome (Ancient)

Material and Technique

• Painting in Fresco

Object

• Secular Architecture from Europe

Subject Matter/Theme

• Archaeology from Europe
• Greek Poetry
• Interior
• Landscape from the Italian Peninsula
• Love
• Nymph
• Pastoral Landscape

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In antiquity, numerous Roman villas dotted the coast along the Bay of Naples. One of the most sumptuous must have been the villa at Boscotrecase built by Agrippa, friend of Emperor Augustus and husband of his daughter Julia. In 11 B.C., the year after Agrippa's death, the villa passed into the hands of his posthumously born infant son, Agrippa Postumus. As the child was only a few months old, Julia would have overseen the completion of the villa. The frescoes, which are among the finest existing examples of Roman wall painting, must have been painted during renovations begun at that time. Most of the panels feature delicate ornamental vignettes and landscapes with genre and mythological scenes set against richly colored backgrounds. On the basis of their remarkable similarity to paintings in the Villa Farnesina in Rome, the Boscotrecase frescoes most likely were executed by artists from the capital city.

The frescoes from Boscotrecase are masterpieces of the Third Style of Roman wall painting, which flourished during the reign of Augustus. While earlier artists focused on creating an illusion of architectural depth with solid architectural forms, the artists at Boscotrecase presented the idea with whimsical, attenuated, and highly refined elements. At Boscotrecase, spindly canopies rest on improbably thin columns that seem to be made of alternating vegetal and metal drums. These almost weightless columns embellished with jewel-like decorations support pavilions, candelabra, and tripods. Other frescoes from the villa depict mythological scenes and Egyptianizing panels, ensembles that are at once colorful and complex. The occupants and those who visited the villa at Boscotrecase were not greeted by grand vistas of architectural splendor, but by slender, elegant, and especially decorative architectural forms, playfully alluding to contemporary cultural and political concerns.

Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation Department of Greek and Roman Art. "The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bsco/hd_bsco.htm (October 2004) Further Reading Anderson, Maxwell L. Pompeiian Frescoes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. MMA Bulletin 45. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. Blanckenhagen, Peter H. von, and Christine Alexander. The Augustan Villa at Boscotrecase. Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern, 1990. Blanckenhagen, Peter H. von, and Christine Alexander. The Paintings from Boscotrecase. Heidelberg: F. H. Kerle, 1962. Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3d ed., rev. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Ling, Roger. Roman Painting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Milleker, Elizabeth J., ed. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Greece and Rome. Introduction by Joan Mertens. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987.

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Knauer, Elfriede Regina. "Roman Wall Paintings from Boscotrecase: Three Studies in the Relationship Between Writing and Painting." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 28 (1993). JSTOR | PDF Anderson, Maxwell L. "Pompeiian Frescoes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 45, no. 3 (Winter, 1987–88). JSTOR | PDFs "Director's Note" PDF "The Imperial Villa at Boscotrecase" PDF "Painting in Rome and Pompeii" PDF "The Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale" PDF