Notes on the Mural Paintings From Boscoreale

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Notes on the Mural Paintings from Boscoreale

Author(s): Margarete Bieber and Dietrich von BothmerSource: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 60, No. 2 (Apr., 1956), pp. 171-172Published by: Archaeological Institute of AmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/500696

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rchaeological

o t e s

PLATES 66-67

NOTES ON THE

MURAL

PAINTINGS

FROM BOSCOREALE

The

large figures

in

the

main

room

of

the

villa

built near

Boscoreale in

the first

century

B.c.

have been

interpreted

in the

most diverse

ways.

Studniczka'

saw

members

of

the

Macedonian

royal family. Phyllis

Williams

Lehmann

refuted

this

theory

and

replaced

it with

embodiments

of

Aphrodite,

Adonis

and their

attendants.2

In

reviewing

this

important

book3 I

re-

fused

to see a

cycle

of sacred

representations

related

to the cult of

Aphrodite

and Adonis and

suggested

that the nine

large

figures

on

the two

side walls

of

the

room are

three

generations

of one

family,

probably

of

the owner

of

the

villa,

assembled

to venerate

the

gods represented originally

on the now lost rear

wall.

Erik

Sj6qvist

rejects

this

attempt

in

a

footnote.4

He

agrees

with

the

theory

of

Phyllis

Lehmann,

but

he

improves

it

in

one

important

point.

The

figure

inter-

preted

as

Antigonus

by

Studniczka,

as an

attendant

female

associated

with

Aphrodite

by

Phyllis

Leh-

mann,

Sj6qvist

proves

definitely

to be

male

by

enumer-

ating

a

number

of

male

statuettes

from

Cyprus

wear-

ing

the same

headgear.

This correct observation I wish again to modify. It

is not

an

effeminate

young temple

attendant, 5

but

a mature warrior

who

holds

a

spear,

wears

a sleeved

robe,

a

mantle,

and

a

cap

of

the

tam'o'shanter

type.

The features of the face

are serious and

developed,

with

deeply

sunk

eyes,

a

long

nose,

lean

cheeks,

nar-

row

lips

with

drooping

corners and

a

short

chin.

They

look to

me

highly

individualized,

as do

all the heads

in

the

Metropolitan

Museum

(pl.

66,

figs.

I,

2)

and

the

old

man

in

Naples.

The

individuality

of the

latter

has

never been

doubted,

and

he

has

been

given

the

names

of the

philosophers

Epicurus

and

Menedemos,

or of

Cinyras,

the

king

of

Cyprus.

The shield must

be-

long

to

the

man,

not to the

woman,

who

is his

mother

or his wife. His

counterpart

in the

Metropolitan

Muse-

um has

neither

dress,

nor

headgear,

nor

shield. His

shield

is

probably

the one

which

the

girl

belonging

to

the

right

side

(not

as now exhibited

in the

museum

to

the

left)

of

this central

panel,

is

carrying away.

She

moves toward

a small

door

and

looks

back

and

upward

with

a

pathetic expression.

I believe

that this is

the

shield which has

been

brought

back

from

the

battle-

field,

where

the

heroic

man found

his

death.

The

wom-

an next to him is

seated,

not on the same

bench,

as

Phyllis

Lehmann

believed,

but on

a

separate

lower

chair.

The

end of the

side rail

of

the

throne

of the

man

is seen

next

to

his

spear

below

her

left hand

(fig.

i,

below at the

right).

She must

be

his

wife,

for

she

displays

her

wedding

ring

on

the left

hand,

while she

sustains

her

head

with

her

right

hand.

Her

large eyes

look

mournfully

into

the

distance.

I

thus

believe that

the

two men

are the

two sons

of

the

old man

in

Naples.

Both sons

had

gone

to

war,

but

only

one re-

turned. The

war

took

place

in

a

country

with

a

cold

climate,

where

the soldiers

had

to wear

sleeved

tunics

and

protect

their

heads.

That

is

why

the

soldier

in

Naples

wears a

cap

with

long

lappets,

which can serve

as

earmuffs.

The

cithara

player

may

be a

sister with

her little

girl.

Both

she

and the

little

girl

have similar

individual

features

(fig.

2).

The

next

parallels

to

the

girls

are

on

vases

of

Centuripe,

already compared

with

the

shieldbearer

by

Gisela

Richter.6

Other

painted

portraits

of

the

second

style

which

could

be

compared

are

the

couple

in

Naples

from

Pompeii,7

the man

recalling

the

warrior,

the

woman

the

shieldbearer

while

the

poetess8

recalls

the

cithara

player.

These

certainly

are

individual

likenesses.

The

art

of

portraiture

flourished

in

Italy

in

the

first

century

B.c.

Three

special

painters

of

likenesses

are named for this period by Pliny (Nat. Hist. 35,

I47f):

Jaia,

Sopolis

and

Dionysius.

The

interest in

genealogy

also

was

at

its

height

in

this

period.'

The

pictures

of

ancestors

were

minted

on

coins,

and

Aemi-

lius

Paulus

dedicated

the

portraits

of

his

ancestors in

the

Basilica

Aemilia

(Pliny,

35,

13).

Timomachos,

who

lived in

the

time

of

Caesar,

painted

a

noble

fam-

ily

in

Greek

dress

(pallium),

partly

seated,

partly

standing

(Pliny,

35, 136:

Cognatio

nobilium,

palliati

quos

dicturos

pinxit,

alterum

stantem,

alterum

seden-

tem ),

which reads

like

a

description

of

the

family

in

Boscoreale.

All

these

portraits

seem

to

me

to

rep-

resent

contemporary

Italian

personalities.

The

headgear,

of

which

Sj6qvist

has

given

a

num-

ber

of

examples,

occurs,

beside

the

Cypriot

votaries,

in

some

terracotta

statuettes and in

the

man

of the stucco

relief

in

Munich,

standing

before

a

rustic

shrine

(pl.

67,

fig.

5)

.1

He

certainly

is

not a

boy '1

but

a

man,

and,

as I

believe,

a

soldier,

for

he

carries

a

lance

and

is

also

dressed

in

the

sleeved

tunic.

Other

examples

1

Jdl

38/39

(1923/24)

57-128.

2

Roman Wall

Paintings

from

Boscoreale

in

the

Metropolitan

Museum

of

Art

(1953)

3Iff.

3AJA

57

(I953)

237f.

4AJA59 (I955) 46f., note 8.

5

Sj6qvist, op.cit. 47.

6

Metropolitan

Museum Studies

2

(1929-1930)

187ff.,

pl.

fac-

ing p. 187,

figs.

2,

9,

16.

7

Curtius,

Die

Wandmalerei

Pompeiis,

376ff.,

pl. 41.

8ibidem,

pl.

II.

9

Vessberg,

Studien

zur

Kunstgeschichte

der

rdmischen Re-

publik, io9ff.

10

From

Lehmann,

op.cit.

61,

fig. 42.

11

Sj6qvist, op.cit. 47,

no.

23.



172

VON

BOTHMER AND BIEBER

[AJA

60

for

the

headgear

come

from

New

Comedy,

where

there is no

doubt

that

warriors

are

meant.

In

the lost

wall

painting

with

a

braggart

warrior

and

his

parasite

(pl. 67,

fig.

6),12

the

captain

wears the sleeved

tunic

and

mantle,

and

the

flat

cap

with a

narrow

brim,

and

he

holds

the

spear just

as

the

warrior

on

the

Boscoreale

wall painting. A bronze statuette found in Sorrento

also

represents

a

warrior

holding

a

large

sword

and

wearing

such

a

beret

(pl. 67,

fig.

7).13

The statuette

in

the British Museum

(pl.

67, fig.

8)14

wears

the

tunic,

the

chlamys

of

the

warrior,

and

the

same

cap

with

circular

crown

and narrow

brim

on his

bearded

head.

Hephaistos

in

his

fight

with Ares before Hera

wears,

besides

shield and

spear,

a similar

cap,

deco-

rated

with

a

tassel.15

Finally,

such

caps

are

worn

by

the

members of

a

chorus of

soldiers on

a relief found in

the

Agora

of

Athens,

which

will

be

published

by

Evelyn

Harrison

in

the

catalogue

of

sculptures

found

in

the

Agora.

I thus believe

that

the

figure

with

the

tam'o'shan-

ter is

a warrior

and

a

member of

an

outstanding

family,

which

was

painted,

venerating

the

gods

on

the

rear

wall,

by

some

outstanding

painter

of the

first

century

B.C.

Whether

it is

the

family

of Lucius

Heren-

nius Florus

or of

Publius

Fannius

Synistor,

who

owned

the

house

one

after the

other,

we

cannot

decide. The

master

who ordered

the

wall

paintings

must in

any

case

have been

a

cultured and

art

loving personality,

proud

of

his

family,

of

his

soldier

sons

and

his

beauti-

ful

daughters

and

daughters-in-law.

MARGARETE

IEBER

NEW

YORK

III

Except

for

certain murals which

the Canessa

broth-

ers

gave

to

the

Italian

government,

the

wall

paintings

and

mosaics

from Boscoreale were sold at auction

in

Paris

at

Durand-Ruel's

on

June

8th,

1903.

The cata-

logue

by

Arthur

Sambon 1

lists

forty-eight

lots.

Of

these

the

Metropolitan

Museum

of

Art obtained

nos.

7-8,

12,

I6,

19-22,

24-25, 33-35, 39-46;

the Louvre

got

nos.

1-3,

IO;

Raoul

Warocqu6 bought

nos.

13, 15, 27-

31,

36-37

for

his

collection

at

Mariemont;

no.

26 went

to

Brussels,

and

nos.

i

i and

14

have

found

their

way

to

Amsterdam.

Mrs.

Lehmann

gives

the

present

loca-

tion of these

lots17

but leaves nos. 4-6, 9, 17-18, 23,

32, 38,

47-48

unaccounted for.

Three

of

them,

however,

are

in

public

museums: nos.

17-18

entered

the

Mus&e

de Picardie at

Amiens in

1927

with

the

Maignan

collec-

tion

and are

illustrated

here

for

the

first

time

(pl.

66,

figs.

3-4);

the

third,

no.

23,

is in the Muse

Bonnat at

Bayonne. 8

DIETRICH VON

BOTHMER

POSTSCRIPT

The

paper

by

Martin

Robertson,

The Boscoreale

Figure-Paintings (JRS 45

[19551 58-67,

pls.

11-13)

reached

us

when

this article

was

already

in

proof.

It

is therefore not

possible

to

discuss it

now as

fully

as

it deserves. It

is an

interesting

attempt

to

interpret

the

subject

of the

paintings

in the

big

hall as historic

and

symbolic

and

will

surely inspire

future

discussion.

M.B.

D.v.B.

12

Bieber,

History

of

the

Greek

and Roman

Theater,

175,

fig. 235 (from

Robert,

Masken

der

neueren

Komddie,

fig.

9).

13

Collection H.

Hoffmann,

Vente

Hdtel

Drouot,

15

mai

1899

ss. pl.

34,

no.

537,

whence

S.

Reinach,

Rip.

de

la Sta-

tuaire

3,

p.

58,

no. 2.

14

From a

photograph

of

the

British

Museum. C.

827;

also,

Pickard-Cambridge,The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, 208, fig.

138.

15

Bieber,

op.cit.

272ff, fig. 370.

1

Les

Fresques

de

Boscoreale,

Paris

1903.

17

op.cit.

passim.

18

Inv.

804.

Illustrated

by

Sambon,

op.cit. p.

I6,

whence

Lehmann,

op.cit.

p.

28,

fig. 23.

NOTES ON

AN

INSCRIPTION FROM

HESPERIA

In

1935

a

fragment

of an

inscription

was

published

in

Hesperia

4,

p. 174,

no.

139. Thinking

that this

belonged

to

IG

II2,

1952,

I

wrote to

Mr.

Eugene

Van-

derpool

of

the

American

School

of

Classical

Studies

at

Athens,

who

very kindly

examined the stone and

found

that it

joined fragment

C.

The

stone

was

later

examined

by

Mr.

David

Lewis,

of

the

British

School

of

Archaeology,

to

whose kindness

I

am

also

indebted,

and

by

myself.

,ME

Nil.

N

NIO

'

%

-

&R:L*

nl~lo

. ,

The

measurements

f

the

combined

fragmentsare:

overall

height,

approximately

.3

m.,

overall

breadth

.285

m. or a

little

less,

thickness

.18

m.

or

more,

back

not

preserved, average height

of letters and

spaces

.oi

m.,

the

breadth

of the

letters

and

spaces

varies between

.009

m.

and

.0069

m. The

breadth

of

the column

of

names was

at

least

.2

m., possibly

.201 m.

if

the

mark

opposite

line

49

is

part

of

a

sub-heading

in

the

next



BIEBER AND

VON BOTHMER

PLATE

66

FIG. I.

Woman

FIG.

2. Cithara

player

and

Girl

Frescoes from

Boscoreale,

The

Metropolitan

Museum of

New

York.

Courtesy

The

Metropolitan

Museum

of New

York

FIGS.

3

and

4:

Frescoes from

Boscoreale,

Collection

Maignan,

Mus&e

de

Picardie,

Amiens.

Courtesy

Mus&e

de

Picardie,

Amiens



PLATE

67

BIEBER

AND

VON

BOTHMER

FIG.

5.

Stucco

relief

in

Munich

FIG.

7.

Bronze

Statuette

of

a

warrior

from

Sorrento

FIG.

6.

Braggart

Warrior.

Lost

Wall

Painting

from

Pompeii

FIG. 8. Terracotta

Statuette

of

a

warrior.

Courtesy

of the Trustees

of

the

British

Museum

Documents

Notes on the Mural Paintings From Boscoreale