3-035-809 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Wall Panel from a Black Ground Frescoed Room, A.D. 1-50. Additional Info: One of three fresco panels that decorated the same room (Room 4) of the Villa of Numerius Popidius Florus at Boscoreale . A figural scene on a yellow background decorates the center of this panel. The seated man’s unkempt beard, scanty clothing, bare feet, and staff suggest that he is a philosopher of the Cynic school, noted for asceticism and disregard for social norms. He converses with a woman, leading some to identify the philosopher instead as Socrates, speaking with Diotima, a character who teaches him the philosophy of love in Plato’s Symposium.