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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 x width: 118 x 108 cm (46 7/16 x 42 1/2)
Credit Line
Ellen Frances Mason Fund
Accession Number33.504
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsPaintings
DescriptionThis yellow ground fresco shows an oblong, window-like structure in center framed by a wreath surmounted by a landscape panel with figures and a tomb on a high pedestal in front of colonnaded buildings. An amphora with asymmetrical handles stands on top of the landscape panel. Bands and garlands connect the central "window" to the lateral structures. A tambourine hangs in the center, and a drinking horn or rhyton hangs from garland at upper left while a bird walks on the white band below.
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.
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.