Photos of the Best Roman Fresco Painting Art Antiquities

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Photos of the Best Roman Fresco Painting Art Antiquities

Photos of Roman Fresco wall art paintings from the great museums of Europe, Near East & North Africa.

Due to its fragile nature Roman Fresco Painting has only survived in tact at a few Roman sites. Of the vast body of Roman painting that would have been made over the lifetime of the Romans Empire we now sadly have so little to look at. Many documented style of Roman painting have not survived at all.

Roman Villa Fresco Painting Art

The interiors of Roman villas were highly decorated with mosaic floors and fresco painted wall art. The styles of the decoration changed with successive generations of Romans. Full trompe-l’œil was popular with the Romans. Surviving examples depicting gardens disappearing into the distance or painted pillars and marble panels.

Othe Roman Fresco styles were more restrained with large painted wall in sombre colours such as dark burgundies and even black. The walls were divided into panel by simple lines of repeating painted flowers garlands or lines of small figures. In the middle of these painted panels were small frescoes panels depicting scenes from mythology or even erotic depictions.

The end result was always sumptuous creating rooms with a great sense of style. The best descriptive fresco panels were well accomplished works of art with modelling and shadow detail creating a realistic image. Scenes from mythology were popular with the Romans and their pantheon of Gods was huge.

Pompeii & Herculaneum Roman Fresco Painting Art

The best known site where Roman Fresco painting has survived is at Pompeii & Herculaneum. The frescoes of Pompeii give a real insight into how the Romans decorated their Villas around 79 AD.

An incredible number of fresco painted panels survived the Volcano. Most depict scenes from Roman Pagan Mythology and are very accomplished works of art. The most controversial of these painting were seen to be pornographic and were locked away until recent times.

Pompeii Roman Erotic Fresco Paintings

Erotic fresco panels from mythology have been constantly mis interpreted by modern viewers as offensive. To Roman eyes most of these scenes depicted are moral tales from Roman pagan mythology. These would have been viewed by the Romans as moralistic stories.

The erotic panels from the brothels of Pompeii have become notorious. Even though many of these scenes depict events from Roman mythology, taking their setting in a brothel there must have been intention to titillate clients.

When Pompeii was excavated in the mid 1800’s, people were outraged by the explicit nature of some of the frescoes. This was at the height of the Enlightenment when Roman culture was being held up as the pinnacle of Civilisation. The debauched art of Pompeii went right against this and was locked away in a room of the Naples Archaeological Museum called the Cabinet of Curiosities. Access was only granted to vetted academics.

The cabinet was re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly 100 years. The secret room was briefly made accessible again at the end of the 1960s before being finally re-opened in 2000. Since 2005 the collection has been kept in a separate room in the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

You can judge for yourself from the Pompeii frescoes in our photo gallery if you think they are pornographic.

Rome Fresco Paintings of the National Roman Museum Rome

The National Roman Museum Rome has an incredible collection of Roman Vill Fresco paintings. The collection had whole walls from villas which really demonstrates the art of Roman Fresco Painting.

The fresco painted room from the Villa of Livia, wife of Augustus 1st Cent AD, depict a garden with painted fruit trees. Trees and shrubs had symbolic importance to the Romans. The painted garden of Livia contains plants linked to the Roman gods and others particularly venerated by Augustus and Livia.

The museum also contains wonderful wall from several rooms in the Villa Farnesia Rome, which show another typical style of Roman Villa decoration.

Roman Egyptian Fayum Mummy Paintings

In Roman Egypt painted wood panels known as Fayum mummy portraits were placed over the faces of Roman Egyptian mummies. Fayum mummy portraits have survived well in the dry conditions of Egypt and look as fresh today as when they were painted 2000 years ago.

The painting style is very direct with simple realistic depictions of the deceased. There is something quite intimate about Fayum mummy portraits and the artists seem to capture their subject very well.

Collectively the Roman Fresco paintings in this photo collections hint at the Roman fresco masterpieces that have been lost.