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Fresco fragment with miniature scene Painted plaster Pompeii, origin unspecified Pompeii Archaeological Park, Inv. N. 20615 13⅜ × 19¼ in.; thickness 1⅜ in.
1st century CE (Third Style) © MIC – Parco Archeologico di Pompei
A yellow and green rectangular volume held by a three-quarter cylindrical support stands out against a white background. On the visible side runs a reddish band, while at the center, on a purple background, is a scene that is difficult to interpret. There are three individuals dressed in white and represented in miniature. The first figure, from the right, is a man sitting on a sella curulis (a chair reserved for the highest state officials); in front of him a second figure, perhaps female, pays him homage by bowing and extend - ing an arm toward him; while a third figure’s gesture is not identifiable. Their volume is rendered through the use of one color (two at most): white is applied with light and broad brushstrokes a macchia to grant density to the bodies. This particular technique is often found in miniaturist paintings of the Third Style and is characterized by the use of large fields of color to express bodily volumes outlined in a red-brown color. —AC
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