3-035-810 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Panel from a Black Ground Frescoed Room with Architectural Decoration, 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 . These frescoes display fanciful architectural compositions on a black background. Three attenuated columns topped by Corinthian capitals support a narrow decorative entablature with floral acroteria (architectural ornaments) at the corners. A slender candelabrum in the middle of the panel is surmounted by a swan. On the upper right corner of the fresco is a circular shield with ribbons and garlands. The painting style, categorized by scholars as the Third Style of Roman wall painting, features small vignettes and elegant ornamental architecture.The Villa of Numerius Popidius Florus was built in the early first century B.C., and underwent several modifications before it was destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.