Friday, November 13, 2009

A painted Garden


There are many stunningly beautiful paintings to be found in the Campania, but it's important to remember that neither Pompeii nor Herculaneum were Rome.

There must have been magnificent pieces in the city and when I want to see one such example I always return to the same painting, one from Livia's villa at Prima Porta.

This is one part of a much larger painting (late 1st century Bc). You find other scenes that have been posted earlier here and here. You may also want to compare it to this painting from the villa at Oplontis (which may have belonged to Poppaea, Nero's wife. The evidence is not very convincing though)

2 comments:

Björn Nilsson said...

Vet du om fåglarna är identifierade? Den vänstra ser rätt otydlig ut medan den högra faktiskt påminner om en (suddig, men i alla fall) biätare Merops apiaster!

Patrik Klingborg said...

Jag vet faktiskt inte men det är mycket troligt. Studier kring det antika väx-och djurlivet har varit väldigt populära ett tag och man har gjort noggranna undersökningar av de växter och djur som finns på Augustus Ara Pacis.

(http://ancientandold.blogspot.com/2009/05/day-48.html)