An extraordinary summa of Pompeian paintings next to the art of Rome
This is the catalogue of the extraordinary exhibition housed in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, displaying the most important collection of Roman painting, including entire painted rooms belonging to Villa di Livia in Prima Porta and Farnesina. These are unique testimonies of the artistic culture in Rome between the Republic and the Empire. Next to them, frescoes from the towns around the Vesuvius – such as the famous examples of garden-paintings of the Casa del Bracciale d’Oro (the house of the golden bracelet) or the red and black walls of the triclinium recently discovered in Moregine – do not look out of place. Other paintings (also from Ercolano and Stabia), removed from the walls and framed during the Reign of the Bourbons, come from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples and witness the four styles and the variety of subjects depicted. Accurate texts and wonderful pictures create a great “fresco” of Roman life