Roman Frescoes from Boscoreale : The Villa of Plubius Fannius Synistor in Reality and Virtual Reality

by Bettina Bergmann, Stefano De Caro, Joan R. Mertens, and Rudolf Meyer

• ISBN13: 9780300155198
• ISBN10: 0300155190
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2010-06-15
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Summary

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in a.d. 79, burying much of the region around the Bay of Naples in lava, one of the extraordinary Roman villas thereby preserved was that of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale. Its discovery in 1899 revealed breathtaking wall paintings that were dispersed in 1903, with major portions acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The cleaning and reinstallation of these masterpieces has occasioned the creation of a virtual model that for the first time has allowed the authors to situate the surviving frescoes from the villa in their original relation to each other.

Author Biography

Bettina Bergmann is Helene Philips ’49 Professor of Art at Mount Holyoke College; Stefano De Caro is Director General for Archaeology at the Ministero per I Beni e le Attività Culturali in Rome; Joan R. Mertens is Curator of Greek and Roman Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Rudolf Meyer is a conservator affiliated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art.