Project « Reconstructing the villa of Boscoreale (Pompeii) »

At the end of the 19th century, landowners began exploring the subsoil of Boscoreale, a small locality north of Pompeii, in the hope of uncovering archaeological treasures buried beneath the ashes of Mount Vesuvius. Within a few years, around fifteen villas were excavated. One of them stood out for the exceptional richness and quality of its frescoes. It is conventionally referred to as the ‘Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor,’ following the discovery during the excavations of a bronze vessel bearing that name. The frescoes were quickly removed from the villa's walls, while the remaining parts of the villa were reburied at the end of the work. An auction held in Paris in June 1903 led to the dispersal of the frescoes across Europe and the United States. The eight panels preserved by the Royal Museum of Mariemont constitute the most significant collection of Roman wall paintings held in Europe outside of Italy.

The Boscoreale frescoes are the focus of a research project structured around two main objectives. The first one aims to refine the reconstruction of the villa’s original décor by gathering all available archaeological documentation (drawings, photographs, reports, descriptions). This involves consulting archival collections held in Rome, Paris, and Berlin. The second objective is to study the pigments used in the execution of the frescoes—such as Egyptian blue—and thereby reconstruct the workshop practices of ancient painters. A campaign of multispectral analyses will be conducted on panels preserved in nine museum institutions. The combination of archival and archaeometric approaches is intended to lead to the creation of a new 3D model of the villa.

Researchers: Nicolas Amoroso & Paolo Tomassini (UCLouvain)