The first, long awaited publication about one of the less known treasures of Roman painting.
This book illustrates the remains of the residence that the Emperor Augustus built near the temple of Apollo on Palatino hill. The book describes all the problems related to the excavations that revealed the floor plan of the domus, the difficult restoration that finally made possible to open again the palace to the public, the ideological meaning of subjects and motifs represented in the paintings. A special photographic collection describes the wonderful fresco cycles covering the walls, from the general composition to the smallest details: the room of the masks, very important for the study of the ancient perspective and the precise use of shades, the room of the pine-tree ornament and the very refined “studiolo”, with its extraordinary colours. Here, under a vault of stucco, the Emperor used to retire when he didn’t want to be disturbed, hiding away his Alexandrian “modernity” from all the people who believed he was a conservative.