THE IMPERIAL VILLA AT

BOSCOTRE

Boscotrecase is the modern name of a small residentialarea to the south of Naples; the region's name may imply that there were once three houses of great importance in the area, which was originally wooded. In antiquityBoscotrecasecommanded a sweeping view of the Bay of Naples. All seventeen of the paintings from Boscotrecasein the Metropolitancome from a villa of the late first century B.C. that stood near Torre Annunziata. The distinctionof the villa at Boscotrecaseis that it was the country residence of certain members of the first Roman imperial family the family of the emperor Augustus. It was discovered on March 23, 1903, when the train line that runs from Naples around the base of Mount Vesuvius was under construction.The owner of the propertyon whichthe villawas found, CavaliereErnesto Santini, excavated it with the help of an eminent Italian archaeologist,Matteo Della Corte, and was richly rewarded for his efforts. The villa was large; the excavated area including bedrooms extended about 150 feet, and this was only part of the whole complex. Second Style paintings of columns decorated Peristyle B; in front of these were actual stucco-coveredbrickcolumns. This illusion of a double portico was used as well in the Boscoreale villa. The Second Style portion of the Boscotrecase villa was not, however, excavated. What was retrieved instead included
37

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several sections of painted walls from four bedrooms in the villa; of these the Metropolitanowns the greater part of three, including the Black Room. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples houses the fourth, as well as part of the Black Room. These paintings are presumed, on the basis of their remarkablesimilarityto paintings in Rome's Villa Farnesina,to have been executed by artists from the capital. The bedrooms had southern entrances that faced a long walkwayopening to a breathtakingview of the Bay of Naples. Most panels feature deliscenes cate ornamentalvignettesand landscapeswith genre and mythological set against richly colored backgrounds.Taken together, the paintings from Boscotrecase afford a glimpse into the taste of well-to-do Romans at the very end of the first century B.C. This glimpse is rendered especiallyimportant because of the discovery by M. I. Rostovtzeff in 1926 that the villa originally belonged to Agrippa, as did the Villa Farnesina. While the Boscotrecasevilla was probablyconstructedaround 20 B.C. and Peristyle B painted at that time, the paintings in the bedrooms are of the Third Style, or date sometime after 15 B.C. Because of Rostovtzeff'sinterpretation of some inscriptions from the villa, a date of 11 B.C. iS indicated for this second campaign of decoration. In 11B.C., the year after Agrippa's death, the villa then nominally passed into the hands of his posthumously born infant son, Agrippa Postumus. The child was only a few months old, and the completion of the villawould have been overseen byJulia,Agrippa's widow and the infant's mother. The emperor Augustus must have visited his beloved daughter Julia in this splendid summer house where she and his son-in-lawand good friend Agrippa had planned to live together. The date of 11 B.C. would place the paintings in the bedrooms at least a Second Stylepaintgenerationlaterthan those from Boscoreale.Boscoreale's ings of the 40s B.C. (and Boscotrecase'sSecond Style Peristyle B) exhibit more of an interest in the possibilitiesof trompe l'oeil. During the Third Style, as we have noted above, the wall's two-dimensionalitywas acknowledged, not denied, in the decoration; landscape vignettes were subordinated to the whole decorative scheme and rendered as paintings on a wall rather than as imaginaryviews out of rooms. The decorative scheme of the Black Room, or Room 15, with its subtly geometric socle and candelabra,is linked to those of other Third Stylecommissions, like the decorated interior of the probably contemporary Pyramid of Cestius in Rome (12 B.C.). One entered the Black Room and the other bedrooms of the villa from a walkway(D), facing south; the west wall was thus on the left (see drawing p. 36 and fig. 47). A slim entablature, painted on a black background, runs the length of the wall. Unobtrusive but colorful parakeetssurmount the entablatureat regular intervals;these and heads of Medusaare the principalfigural elements on the wall. A small landscape scene like those on the east and north sides of the room was in the center of the wall. The floor was entirely of white mosaic except for a pattern of nine hexagons in a box about three feet squarein the center of the floor and a smaller patternat the entrance;both designs were delineated by blacktesserae (tiles). The north wall of the Black Room (fig. 48) was visible from the terrace outside the bedroom. It was the central wall of the bedroom; the east (fig. 50) and west walls are essentially mirrorsof one another. A deep red socle runs along the bottom of the wall on all sides of the room.
38

15, the 46. Thewestwall (top)of Bedroom BlackRoom,was on the left as one entered fromthesouth.At thefar leftwasa theroom 16. The with Bedroom connecting doorway patternsratherthan for delicate preference in thepaintedscheme f xedpointsof interest signalsthe new tasteof the ThirdStyle.The fromthetercouldbeseen wall(center) north It was the central race outsidethe bedroom. whilethe eastand west wall of the bedroom, On the east wall walls mirrorone another. those recalls in thecenter a landscape (bottom), of thenorthand westwalls,and theentablawalls friezeson thethree turesanddecorative as well. Unlikethedecoidentical are almost thaton the rationon thewestwall, however, it is unsince symmetrical eastwall is totally canopy central The bya doorway. interrupted to thecandelaof thenorthwall is connected brato its leftand rightbya seriesof horizonfriezes.Likethesocle,these tal linesandshort linkingthe room, theentire around continued room, pitchblack in this walls.Theeffect, three cage. was thatof a colorfulbutethereal

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47. Six sections of theBlackRoom's west wallsurvive, three of which arein theMetropolitan Museum.A seventh,the landscapesceneillustrated in blackand white on thispage, asnow lost but was oncein theMuseo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. Thepanelsat thefar left and right,published herefor thefirst time, arein thestorerooms of theNaplesmuseum. Thaton the left showsthe lowerpart of a tripod.The wall has a cornicein the center, whichis supported bythinstalklike supports witha slim entablature.The cornicefeatures griffinsand masks of Medusaat theends. A parakeet is perched at theouteredgeof eachentablature. Thetripods, closeto the endvs of thewalls,are deliberately depicted without anysenseof depth; thepreference for shallowdecoration is characteristic of thisThirdStyleinterior. Liketheswanson the northwall (fig. 49), the tripods may bea reference toApollo,whowaslinked to Augustus duringthisperiod.
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of thenorthwallhave sections 48. Thethree The to theiroriginalheaght. beenpreserved are salhouetted imatges fzgur(ltive miniature wall. 7he Egypof black lheexpanse atgainsl thediscenein theleftpanelshows tianizing bytw Apis,thebull,beingpropiticlted vinity thefigure (lt the rightis Anubis.A fzgures; Thesmalllandlhetable. under uncoils c()br(l a of themainpanelshows in lhecenter scape a tower before place taking ceremony religi()us (see detail,backcover).Closerto us in the supplane is a pair oJslimcolumns picture appediment The pediment. an ornate porting while or wood, metal of to be madeout pear.s and metal between alternate drums thecolumn below and column each Above sections. vegetal in a meenclosed is a portrait thepediment on the portrait the that likely seems It dallion. emperor of the daughter the Julia, left is of and thaton the rightis of Livia, Augustus, f gs. 56,57). There wife(seealso theemperor's knozun subjects of imperial images arenoother painting. in Roman

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The panels to the left and right of the main panel on the north wall are almost the same, showing a central candelabrum surmounted by a yellow panel with an Egyptianizingscene. Halfway up each candelabrum, a pair of swans holds up a fillet that stretches from their beaks. The yellow panels are loose evocations of motifs inspired by Egyptian art, whereas the swans may symbolize Augustus and his family. Swans appear in a very similar arrangement on the principal sculptural monument of this time, the Ara Pacisin Rome (constructedbetween 13 B.C. and 9 B.C.). The Ara Pacis,which was built to commemorateAugustus'spacificationof the known world, was methodicallydesigned with symbolsand imagery associatingAugustus with Aeneas, the founder of the Latin race. The large main panel has a small 44

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landscape in its center that apparently shows a religious ceremony taking place before a tower.On a plane nearer to us in the picture is a psir of slim columns supportingan ornate pediment; above each column and below the pediment is a cameolike portrait set in a medallion. One can make out both here and on the other panels the artists'subtle differentiation of one wall from another by the use of shadows. Since the unique source of naturallight for the room was at the south end from the Bay of Naples the decorativeelements of the room cast shadows in directions consistentwith their situationrelativeto the sunlight;on the east wall, the wall on the right as one entered the room, the light raked across the surface from right to left, and the shadows are painted accordingly.
45

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Although the paintingsof the tripods are identical in almost every detail,including the direction of theshadows from rightto left, it waspossible to determine theposition of each bythecracks in thethree panelsat the right. The missingcornice abovethe centrallandscapewouldhave closelyresembled that on the westwall (fig. 47). The colorful frieze, surmounted by parakwets, appears todraw upon thesametraditions of lateArchaic Greek architecture thatareechoed in theForum ofAugu.stus (19 B.C.) in Rome.Thehistoricism of Augustanarchitecture and its consciousness of classicalforms separates ittromthebaroque, Hellenistic tendencies of late Republican architecture, such as that in Bedroom M of Boscoreale (f g. 23).

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On the westwall,the shadowsfall in the oppositedirection, and on the northwall,they fall in both directions awayfrom the center.This system of intimating the direction of lightis fairlycommonin Pompeian frescoes. Of the WhiteRoomonly two panelssurvive,and theseare in fragmentarycondition.Enoughremainsto show that the wallswere paintedoffwhite, with a red socle and blackpredella,and that the room included elaborate thymiateria, or incenseburners,whichwereprobably situatedon the left and rightdoorjambsof the room'ssouthernentrance. The White Roomwasthe bedroomto the left of the Mythological Room,Bedroom19. It hada doorway at the rightof theentrance, just as the Mythological Room had a doorwayto the left of its entrance;these side doors opened to a commoncorridor. In Bedroom 19,the Mythological Room,ornamental patterns areadmixed withmythological scenesandEgyptianizing panels;the ensemble is colorful andcomplex(figs.54, 55). Largered panelswithsirenssupporting spindly garlands framea centralpaintingon each long wall.Abovethe panelsare yellowfriezeswithsmallplaques similar to thosefoundin the BlackRoom. The centralpanelof the westwallshowsthe cyclopsPolyphemus seated in thecenterof a rocky outcropping, whichhe shares withsomeof hisgoats. Polyphemus hasstoppedplaying thesyrinx (panpipe) heldin hisrighthand, perhaps becausehe hasnoticedthe seanymphGalatea seatedon a dolphin 14
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listening to Polyphemus's song professing desire for her she hid with her lover, Acis,the son of Pan. Acisis his nowhere visible inwhile the painting; thisfactindicates thattheartists mayhavebeenrelying in parton Theocritus's versionof the story. EventhoughAcisdoes not appear, his fatherPanmay be at the lowerright, in the form of a statueon a tall base; this figure apparently cradlesa pedum (shepherd's crook)in the left hand, mirroring the pedumnext to Polyphemus. At thetoprightof thepainting thereis a reference to the taleof Odysseus, most likelyat the point when Polyphemus, blindedby Odysseusand his companions,hurled a boulder at them. This is probablyits intended significance ratherthan the tragicend of the storyof Galateaand Acis, when Polyphemus rose in rage and threwa boulderat Acisas he triedto escapeafter being discovered. A connectionbetweenthe scenes may be implied,however, sincein Ovid's versionof the storyGalatea does mention that Polyphemus was happywhen thinkingtenderlyof her, and that he then permitted shipsto come and go safely. The scenedepictedon the centerof thisbedroom's eastwallis even more dramatic thanthatof thewestwall.Herethestory of Perseus andAndromeda is told.The motherof Andromeda, Cassiope, hadboasted of her owngreat beauty. The Nereids complained to Poseidon, whofloodedherhomeland of Ethiopia anddispatched a seamonster there.Andromeda's father, Cepheus, consultedthe oracleAmmonand learnedthat the only way to avertthe land's desolation wasbychaining Andromeda to a rockandexposingherto the sea monster.Perseus,fresh from havingkilledMedusa,flies in from the left to rescueAndromedafrom the approaching sea monsteraSt the painting's lowerleft. In the next sequence,Perseusis shownat the top rightof the painting beingreceived andthanked byAndromeda's parents, Cassiope andCepheus.

48

The woman at the lower right of the panel may be a local nymph or Andromeda'smother. Like the painting showing Polyphemus and Galatea,this panel, cast in a blue-green hue recalling the sea, alludes to the fortunes of love. The missing landscape from the bedroom's north wall must have depicted a scene from mythologyas well, perhaps that of the Death of Actaeon or the Fallof Icarus, two popular themes in Third Style painting. Room 16 of Boscotrecaseis preserved almost in its entirety in the Museo ArcheologicoNazionale,Naples. There all three paintingssurvive,but they depict landscapeswith bucolic figures rather than scenes from mythology. Returning to the history of the villa's ownership, we must consider in some detail the two portraitmedallionsmentioned in the descriptionof the Black Room'snorth wall. As was long ago established,Julia'sconnection to Boscotrecasecontinued after her husband'sdeath in 12 B.C. It seems logical that the decorationwasoccasionedby her remarriageto Tiberius, which took place in 11 B.C., the year in which the paintings appear to have been done. With this in mind, the identificationof the two portraitmedallionsin the main panel of the Black Room as Agrippa or Augustus was recently challenged. Even though the second marriageof Julia was not a happy one, it would have been unusual to include images of her past husband in the villa meant to be a home for the new couple.

51-53. Opposite:The direction the shadows in each the two panels trom Bedroom 20, the WhiteRoom, suggests that the panel with the lower portion preservedis trom the westside of the roomand that with the upper portion istrom the east side. Theyare coincidentallybrokenin such a way that theywould almostJit together; trom their measurements we can determinethat the minimumheight the roomwas almosttwelvefeet.Above:In the black predella is a small bird about to peck at sometruit; atrieze abovethepredellashows a leaty vine, which may also be seen as a seriesorbirds'heads.The WhiteRoom,according to the description the excavator, was very similar in its decorative scheme to the Mythological Room,Bedroom 19, and included threelarge paintings on the west, north, and east walls.

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54. In thedrawing below of thewestwallof Bedroom 19, theMythological Room, theupper zonehasbeenreconstructed on theexarrlple of that from theCasalei C5ubicoli Floreali(fig. 9). Thedrawing indicates thedoorwszy at the far left openingto thecorridor shared bythe White Room as wellas theposition of the four paintedsectionsthatsurvive from the wall. ThepanelwithPolyphemus anal Galatea (opposite) wasin thecenter, and theyellow frieze mayhave beeninterruptel bythe top of the painting. In thelrawingan attempt hasbeen madeto linkthetwopanelssharing a yellow frieze.A largeredpanel was at the rightof thewall,and onlythecenter portion withthe thymiaterion hassurvived (lower right). The excavation report of l922 describes a socle with paintings of offeringdishes, orpaterae;these havebeen added in thereconstruction drawing.

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55. TheMythological Room's eastwallmirrorsthe westwall except thatit is not interruptedbya doorway, so thattworedpanels flankthecentral paintingdepicting AndromedaandPerseus (opposite). Theentire red panel from the left end (below) survives;upon its excavationit was wrongly joined with the portion of yellow frieze from the right end of thewestwall (seep. 51, upperrzght), butthese havebeenreproduced hereas separatepanels.Thecenter of therightredpanel

(opposite)is preservedin the storerooms of theNaplesmuseum and is herepublished for thef rsttime. In describing thewallsof the Mythological Room, theexcavatorsuggests that the centralpaintingshad a large whitesurround,which couldhavebeento either sideof theputative columns restored in thedrawing, althoughno evidenceof whitepigmenthas beenfound. As in the reconstruction of the eastwall, allfeaturesotherthanthoseof the survivingsections are hypothetical.

52
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56,57. Above: Theportrait medallions of the BlackRoomareshown priorto theirrestoration and overpainting. Each medallion appearsto bea cameo portrait; thepurplecolor of the backgrounds (as seen in Jig. 48) was reserved for imperial subjects in theRoman worldduringthisperiod. 58. Opposite: Thesea monster (ketos)from thepainting with Andromeda andPerseus (see p. 53, lowerleft) is amongthe mostaccomplished passages of theMythological Room.
54

Untilrecently bothmedallions wereassumedto be identical portraits of one man.A closerlook at the two portraitmedallions revealeda startling fact:in the medallion on the left (above), a restorerhad inadvertently alteredthe sitter's features, transforming the originalportrait fromthatof a youngwoman intothatof a man,despitethe factthatphotographs takenin 1929,beforerestoration, clearlyshowthe left-handportrait to be thatof a woman.On the basisof comparisons withother portraits of womenfrom the Augustan period,it seemslikelythatthe portrait on the left represents Julia, the mistressof the villa,and the portraiton the right (below)is a woman as well,andrepresents Livia, the wifeof the emperorAugustus and Julia'sstepmother and new mother-in-law. This new identification of the portraitmedallionsprovidesfascinating insightintothe private livesof the imperial family, sincethereare no other imperial residences known withpaintedimagesof the owners.It shouldnot surpriseus thatJulia'sportraitwas not removedwhen she was exiled in 2 B.C.; by then the villamayhave passedinto the handsof the villamanager and wouldnot haveattracted muchattention.This is not an official portraitfor publicdisplay, but a smallprivateimage. We may speculate abouttheintended occupant of theroomon thebasis of theseidentifications, alongwithotherevidence:the room'sspareaspect,somewhat out of characterwiththe othercubicula and reminiscent of the houseof Augustus in Rome;its use of a distinctive decorative emblem the swan thoughtto symbolize Augustusand his familyand featuredin the principal official monument of the day,the Ara Pacis;its important locationas the easternmost bedroom;and the fact that the emperorwas a close friend of the villa's formerowner,the dotingfatherof thatowner's wife,and the grandfatherof the subsequent infantowner.Oneis obligedto askwhetherCubiculum 15 was decoratedto acknowledgethe taste and interests of the fifty-two-year-old emperorof Rome,who might,when risingand retiring on a visitto the villa,glanceat unostentatiously situated portraits, displayed like photographs in bedroomstoday,of his beloveddaughterand wife. Othermembers of the imperial family, likeTiberius or AgrippaPostumus, shouldalsobe considered as possibleoccupants. Whoever the intendedoccupant mayhavebeen,the sparedecoration of the BlackRoomis instructive about the decorative devicesappealingto Augustusand his entourage.The firstemperorof Romeencouraged the creation of a newstylethatabandoned the imposing displays of wealthand eruditioncommonin the SecondStyleand took a differentview of the paintedwall.The occupants and thosewhovisitedthe villaat Boscotrecase were not greetedby vistasof architectural splendor,but shallowarchitecturalelementsand slender,elegantdecorative forms,playfully allusiveto contemporary cultural andpolitical concerns. The ornamental restraint governing the decoration of the cubiculais especially noteworthy in light of whathadpreceded it in the villaat Boscoreale, andit speaksvolumes about the aesthetically sophisticated imagination of the age of Ovid,as opposedto the somewhat indiscriminate appetitesof prominentRepublicans such as Cicero, whoorderedlargequantities of statues for hisvillagarden.It wasat this momentin Western culturethatart beganto look backon itselfwith humorand intelligence ratherthanaweand thata nativeRomansecularismproduced a culturetied to the formsof the pastbutalsoweddedto the greatfutureof the Empire.

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