Fragment of a Yellow Fresco Panel with Muse

A muse, one of the goddesses of the arts and learning, reaches up and adjusts the wreath on her head in the scene on this fresco fragment. She carries a tragic theater mask in her left hand, and probably represents Melpomene, the muse of Tragedy. Her slightly windblown clothing and the position of her feet give the impression that she is floating against the broad expanse of the yellow background. This fragment is only a small section of a painting that once covered an entire wall of a room.

The Romans frequently decorated their homes with images drawn from the theater. Theatrical references found in wall-painting range from entire stage scenes to isolated theatrical masks, from portraits of playwrights to images of the Muses. A floating figure in the center of a fresco panel was a typical artistic device in Roman wall painting of the first century A.D. Many such examples come from the country villas of wealthy Romans. This fresco may have come from Boscoreale, one of the towns located at the base of Mount Vesuvius that was destroyed when the volcano erupted in A.D. 79.