THE VILLA OF P.

FANNIUS SYNISTOR AT

BOSCOREAL

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frescoes from Boscoreale, an area about a mile north of Pompeii, are among the most important to be found anywhere in the Roman world. Boscorealewas notable in antiquityfor having numerous aristocratic country villas. This tradition endured into the time of the Bourbon kings, as is attested by the region's name, the "RoyalForest,"which implies that Boscoreale was a hunting preserve. The villa was discovered in late 19()0 and excavated by Vincenzo De Prisco on the property of Francesco Vona. The paintings were cut from the excavated ruins, framed in wood, and then put up at auction; most of them went to the Metropolitan Museum, some remained in Naples, and others ended up in the Louvre and museums in the Netherlands and Belgium. Like so many excavationsof the period, this one was far from scientific and left much to be desired. The existing clues concerning the villa'sownership in antiquityare fragmentaryindeed, and it is riskyto base theories of ownership on brick stamps and graffiti, but all that survives points to the villa having been built shortly after the middle of the first century B.C. One piece of evidence, a graffito, indicates that the first auction of the villa took place on May 9, A.D. 12. There were at least two owners during the first century A.D. One was named Publius Fannius Synistor, as is known from
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23,24. BedroomM, the best-preserved room of thevilla, has beenreconstructed in theMetropolitanMuseum. The mosaicfloor, couch, and footstool comefrom other Roman villas and are of a later date. On thefacing page is a detailfrom the northwall, showing birdsat a fountain and garden architecture,all of whichmighthave beenseen throughtheroom's window.

an inscriptionon a bronze vessel found in Room 24. The other owner bore the name Lucius Herennius Florus;this fact was determined from a bronze stamp found in the villa and now in the MetropolitanMuseum. Although we know the names of later owners, no evidence enables us to identify the villa'soriginal owner or the man who commissioned the frescoes. For the sake of convenience, the villa is ordinarily referred to as that of Fannius. The surviving paintings are extremely fine examples of the late Second Style, the most renowned example of which is the Republicanperiod decoration of the so-called Villa of the Mysteriesat Pompeii. Throughout the frescoes from the villa at Boscoreale there are visual ambiguities to tease the eye, including architecturaldetails painted to resemble real ones, such as rusticatedmasonry,pillars,and columns that cast shadows into the viewer'sspace,and more conventionaltrompel'oeildeviceslike three-dimensional meanders. In and around the fanciful architectureof the villa'sBedroom M,

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for example, objects of daily life were depicted in such a way as to seem real, with metal and glass vases on shelves and tables appearing to project out from the wall. Cumulatively,these trompe l'oeil devices reveal the Republican owners' evident pleasure in impressing their guests at this comfortable summer retreat. In 1964 excavationsbegan on the site of a villa known as Oplontis, in the modern town of Torre Annunziata, near Naples. The excavations, which continue to this day, have shed much light on the school that is in all likelihood responsiblefor the villa of Fanniusat Boscoreale.The frescoes at the villaof Oplontis include fanciful colonnades, rustic settings developed with improbablycomplex architecture,and various other subjectsand decorative schemes also found at Boscoreale.Oplontis has much to teach us about the decorativetraditionsof this period, since unlike the remainsof so many other villas in the region, it is well preserved in its original context. Oplontis is particularlyilluminatingabout the decoration of Boscoreale's nocturnum) in the villa. This bedRoom M, which was a bedroom (cubiculum diurnum) to the south, is exceproom, which had a sitting room (cubiculum tional for the degree of detail in its painted scenes, which are combined with actualarchitecturalfeaturesto create a very playfulatmosphere.Above the richlypainted wallsof imagined rustic architecturewas a stucco ceiling. Oplontispresentsa useful parallelnot for the landscapescenesof Boscoreale's Cubiculum M, but for the peristyle that opens out to those scenes. Both villas share the scheme in which red Corinthiancolumns with floral vines winding around them support a narrowentablaturedecorated with shields emblazoned with the so-called Macedonianstarburst. No less instructive is Pompeii's Casa del Labirinto, which bears a very close relation to Boscorealein scale as well as in decorativedetail. The landscape scenes with villa architecture,in particular,are quite similarto those of Bedroom M at Boscoreale. Bedroom M is especiallyenlightening for modern viewersbecause it provides a particularlyvivid picture of Roman luxury. The walls of the bedroom are painted in such a way as to conceal the fact that they are wallsand to make them appear as views of the grounds of the villa or an idealized version of the villa. The centers of the east and west wallsare divided from the side sectionsby the splendidred columns.Betweenthe columnswe see, on whichconsistsof a short entablature the left side, a shrine knownas a syzygia, supported by two pillars. In the shrine's center stands a goddess holding a flaming torch in each hand (fig. 27). The shrine is walled off from us and shrouded below with a dark curtain, as if to keep us away. To either side of the shrine are views of the entrance to a fantasticcountry villa. The central portal, which is double-doored, is as ornate as the remainder of the architecture and is apparently inlaid with tortoiseshell. The architecturethat spreads out beyond it is vast and complex, and at the very top the farthest extension of the villa'shigh enclosure wall is visible (cover). The complex is best understood as a pastiche of balconies, towers, and buildings ratherthan a literal image of a particulararchitecturalscene. Bedroom M exhibits an impulse to fantasy that is very telling about the taste of the original owner. The Second Style, in general, and the painted configurations of such walls as these, in particular,developed out of an early Hellenistic painting style, as the Tomb of Lyson and Kalliklesnear Lefkadiain Macedoniademonstrates,but this room is very much the vision

In thepaintingon theeast 25,26. Opposite: M, this ornatedoorstands wall o+Bedroom to atantasticvilla (seelarger at theentrance detail, tront cover).Thedoorhas decoration and bronze doorknockof inlaidtortoiseshell of lions'heads. Above is a comersin thetorm the villa at parabledoortromthe atriumr paintedbythe Oplontis, whichwasprobably sameworkshop.

OVERLEAF

thewestwallr 27,28. Lett:Thisdetailtrom to a sanctuBedroom M showsthe entrance statuer the goddess ary with an archaistic Hekatebearingtwo torches.The two-pillar is laterechoed structure withan entablature in the miniature landscapepaintings r Right:On theeastwallof BedBoscotrecase. or tholos, stands in room M, a roundtemple, sanctuary. An altar in thetorean open-air ortruit. groundis ladenwithan ortering
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of a late Republican landowner with grandiose pretensions who seeks to impress the viewer with the scope of his imagined grounds. There is little to be learned about ancient religion in this room, since divinitiesserve chiefly as part of the landscape. Images of gods, satyrs,and fishermenare not meaningfullydistinct.An urban sophisticatelike our villa owner was more concerned with displaying emblems of wealth than in appeasing gods in whom he may not have fully believed; the educated Roman middle class was superstitious but agnostic. Ampler confirmationof this agnosticismmay be found in the villa'slargest room, that described as H on the plan. (The elements preserved from that room are divided among the Metropolitan, the Museo Archeologico Nazionalein Naples, the Louvre,the MuseeRoyalet Domainede Mariemont 24

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in Belgium,and the AllardPiersonMuseum in Amsterdam.) RoomH was about twenty-five feetsquare, withdecoration consisting of eightmainpainted scenesthatshoweda figureor groupof figures.Eachscenewasseparated fromthe nextby a paintedcolumn,whichactedalmostas a frame.Thisset the decorative schemeapartfromthatof the Villaof the Mysteries of some yearsearlier, in whichthe columnsare behindthe figuresand thusdo not interrupt a narrative continuum. Heretheartists preferred to separate each main panel,as indicatedalso by the separateshrinepaintingsand architectural motifsin the upperzone aboveeach panel. In the centerof the northwallwas an imageof Aphrodite joined by a diminutive figureof Eros.To the left wasDionysos reclining on Ariadne's lap, and on the right were the Three Graces, in their familiar late Classicalpose. On the westwallwere,from southto north,a falsedoorway, an elderly beardedmanleaningon a walking stick,and a pairof figures,one seated and one standing,with a shield betweenthem. The figures have been variously identifiedand maybe eithermythological or historical. The eastwallfeaturedthreepaintings nowin the careof the Metropolitan. These are, from northto south (left to right),a citharist and a girl,a manand a woman(bothseated),and a singleimageof a womanbearinga shield(figs.34-36). As on the othersideof the room,the singlefigurewas in the panelinterrupted bya doorway thisone not false,butactually leading out of the room,provingthatthe painteddecoration conformedto the exigenciesof the room'sarchitecture.

26

The scenes in Boscoreale'sRoom H derive from the Greek tradition of or large-scalepainting, about which so much was written in megalographia, and Vitruvius antiquity;Apollinariusof Sidon, Petronius in the Satyricon, all shed light on the use of megalographia in a Roman villa. Copies of famous paintings of the past evidently appealed to the owners of these homes. Although it seems likely that at least three of the panels in Room H associatedwith Macedoniaand allude to historicalfiguresor personifications Asia, the remaindercannot be brought together in a unified context. Thus, while there are some undeniableassociationsamong three scenes, the others are paintingsof divinitiesand what is probablya portraitof a philosopher. The illustratedreconstructionof the room, undertaken for an exhibition in Essen at the Villa Hugel, gives a better idea of the relativeimportanceof or each major scene. The room may have served as the primarytriclinium, dining room. This suggestion has met with criticism by some who argue that dining rooms were usuallysmaller;the same scholarsbelievethat Room H was reserved for the celebrationof a cult, perhaps that of Aphrodite. Yet severalof the painted figures are open to interpretationsthat diminish the possibilityof an associationwith a cult. For example, the painting of a man

of Boscoreale's 31-33. The reconstruction below) wasfirstassembled RoomH (opposite, in theVillaHugelin Essen, for an exhibition (above), in 1979. The paintings West Germany, Nazionale, now in the MuseoArcheologico (perhaps ofAsia personifications Naples,with philosopher and an elderly and Macedonia) faced thepaintings,now (possibly Epicurus) in that are illustrated in the Metropolitan, figs. 34-36. Thepanels on thefar (north) Dionysos and Ariadne(now wall described and the infantEros(Museo lost),Aphrodite ArcheologicoNazionale), and the Three Graces (nowlost).Thepaintingof theThree above; MuseoArcheologico Graces (opposite, of Nazionale)servesto give an impression from of the missingversion the appearance eachlargepaintingwas thenorth wall.Above picture, two of which a small triptychlike in poorcondition. survive in theMetropolitan
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leaning on a walkingstickis thought by some to be a portraitof the philosopher Epicurusand therefore unrelated to the worship of Aphrodite. Other suggestions have included the philosophers Zeno, Menedemos of Eretria, or Aratos of Soli, as well as King Kinyras of Cyprus. Thus, the picture galleryin Room H revealsthe villa owner'sinterest in the painterlyforms of the late Classicaland Hellenistic periods, but the presence of unrelated figures that appear to be adapted from historicaland mythological paintings in a room that was in all likelihood the focus of gastronomic, rather

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than religious,ritualsuggeststhat there wasno veiled meaning in the room's decoration,but rather an overt one: these are images that attest to the cultivation of the man who entertained there. It was the custom of Campanianvillas at this time to decorate the peristyle with copies of classicalstatuary,and we may assume that this villa at Boscorealewas no exception. Boscoreale'spaintings of gods, philosophers, and kings may have been arranged in the same somewhat haphazardway that statuesof such subjectsadorned the exterior of a villa, as in the case of

woman 35. Thenudemanandhimation-clad king looking totherightmaybea Macedonian Thispaintand queenor a pair r divinities. ing and thaton thetacingpage areperhaps cycle; the copiestrom thesamelostHellenistic other paintings in Room H maybeunrelated.

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In the thirdpaintingfrom the east 36-39. a shieldbearholds H, a woman of Room wall maybea which man, theimageof a nude ing the Unlike refection. a or device decorative a only has panel this two(figs.34,35), other doora to adjacent was it because singlefigure, to wasprobably Thecolumnwithbosses way. H. Room to entrance eastof thesouthern the on upperpart of a columnreproduced The the of corner southeast the page is from this of and is theonlysurvivingexample peristyle the On enclosure. that of columns painted the N and O Rooms between of theperistyle wall above. vase bronze the of thepainting was

which has very recently been retheVilla of the Papiri at Herculaneum, openedfor excavation. Republicanvilla is that displaysof The message we receive from this late the Greek past. By appealing were best accompaniedby symbolsof wealth were as much in vogue in late Repubtothe forms of Hellenisticart, which the Roman patron signaled his aplicanvillas as were classicaltraditions, invited lengthy treatises of a classicalheritage and, incidentally, preciation decorativeintentions and sources. of modern scholarsin search of his true complicated;Room H is a display His intentions were almost certainly not to worship. His sources were, at this of erudition rather than a hall devoted the time of Julius Caesar'sdeath and pivotal time in Roman history,near anchored in a past civilizationthan the end of the Triumvirate,more firmly decoration stood in stark contrain the present. This approach to interior Republic, officiallysuspicious as it was diction to the politicalvalues of the in the succeeding reign of the emof Greek tradition, and was to be upset emperor was born the Third Style, peror Augustus. Under Rome's first best exemplified by the villa at Boscotrecase.
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40-42. The verticalpanels (opposite and below)reproduced on thesepages arefrom Boscoreale's RoomF, whichwassituatedbetweenthe dining area to the northand the baths to thesouth.The functionof RoomF is unknown.The elaborate upperzone of the largepanel includes paintingsof sirenssupporting thecornice, multicolored marble slabs, and a tortoiseshell-inlaid pilaster. Themagnificent architectural panorama at theleft,similar tothose in Bedroom M, isfrom RoomG, whichmayhave beenthe summer diningroom. Liketheviewsin Room M, these panels, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale,Naples,are largelyderived from paintedHellenistic stagedesigns.

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OVERLEAF

43. Thesuperb west walloftheexedra,Room L, includesa snakecrawling from a basket, a satyr's mask, and a cymbal, all of which are suspended below a massive garlandwithbull's heads.The upperzone consists of a delicate egg-and-dart register supported bya vegetal frieze.The polychromed marble slabs below rest above a cyma of leaves,and thecolored fauxmarbre panels are evenlyspacedbelowthe horizontal panelsof the upperzone.
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44. ThevillaatBoscotrecase, likethevilla atBoscoreale, wasorganized around a centralperistyle (B) with paintings of columns behind actualcolumns; this partof thevilla mayhavebeencompleted shortly afterthat of Boscoreale. Theservants' entrance was at thesoutheast part of the excavated remains.A lararium, or household shrine, stoodto the left of the entrance. Theservants'quarters lay to the east. Theseincludedan atriumandfountainbasin . 13. A kitchenstoreroom decorated with paintingsdescribed bytheexcavator as in theFourthStyle;theseincluded an image of Apollostringinghis Iyre 14. Bathroom, accessible byrampfrom 13 15. The Black Room, the easternmost

room,isfor themost partpreserved at the Metropolitan (seefigs. 47-50) 16. Preserved in theMuseoArcheologico Nazionale,Naples 17. Exedra 18. This bedroom was decorated with a frieze of garlands 19. TheMythological Room.On thewest wall was a panel with Polyphemus and Galatea;on the east wall were depicted Andromeda and Perseus (seefigs. 54,55) 20. The WhiteRoom. Only two panels from this bedroom are preserved in the Metropolitan (seefigs. 51-53) 45. Opposite: Maskof Medusa from the west wallof theBlack Room atBoscotrecase

36