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Fresco panel

Roman
Imperial Period
about A.D. 14–62
Findspot: Italy, Campania, near Pompeii, Villa of the Contrada Bottaro

Medium/Technique Fresco
Dimensions Height: 1.35 m. width: 0.978 m.
Credit Line Ellen Frances Mason Fund
Accession Number33.501
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsPaintings

DescriptionThis panel comes from the north wall of a peristyle between 'windows' of two architectural fresco panels, in a house south of Pompeii and on the ancient shore of the Gulf of Naples. There is a yellow ground with decoration in red and white, and a dotted arc is swung between two diverging diagonal lines, starting from the red oblong area in the center of the field. The original crowning molding of the wall has been preserved.
Provenance1901/1902, excavated by Gennaro Matrone (d. 1927) in the peristyle of the Contrada Bottaro Villa, about a half-mile south of Pompeii; ownership granted by the Italian State to Gennaro Matrone. Between October 1925 and March 1926, sold by Prof. U. Marcellini (dealer), Naples, to Brummer Gallery, New York (stock no. P2577); May 25, 1927, sold by Brummer to William Randolph Hearst (b. 1863 – d. 1951), New York; December 30, 1929, returned by Hearst to Brummer Gallery; 1933, sold by Brummer Gallery to the MFA for $15,115 [see note]. (Accession Date: June 1, 1933)

NOTE: Eleven frescoes (MFA accession nos. 33.496 – 33.506) were purchased by the MFA for this amount. They were part of a lot of 53 frescoes that had been acquired by Brummer Gallery, sold en bloc to Hearst, and were returned before being sold to the MFA.