From the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase, the Mythological Room (19) Landscape with Perseus and Andromeda
This fresco from the Imperial villa at Boscotrecase depicts two consecutive events from the myth of Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus is about to rescue Andromeda from the ketos, a snaky sea monster painted in a brilliant blue-green palette. The creature raises his head with gigantic open jaws and frightful teeth toward Andromeda, who stands with outstretched arms in the center of the panel. One hand appears to be chained to the crag; the other elegantly placed on the rocks. Perseus flies in from the left with his lyre in one hand, winged shoes on his feet, and a windblown cloak over his shoulder. In the upper right portion of the fresco, he is greeted by Andromeda's grateful father, a scene that alludes to the myth's happy ending–the marriage of hero and princess.
The fortunes of love and the ever-present sea are the themes that link this fresco and that of Polyphemus and Galatea (20.192.17) from the same cubiculum at Boscotrecase. The translucent blue-green background of both frescoes also unifies the disparate episodes combined in each painting, and must have brought a sense of coolness to the room.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Wall painting: Perseus and Andromeda in landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
Period:Augustan
Date:last decade of the 1st century BCE
Culture:Roman
Medium:Fresco
Dimensions:H. 62 3/4 in. (159.39 cm.) width 46 3/4 in. (118.75 cm.)
Classification:Miscellaneous-Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1920
Object Number:20.192.16
From an imperial villa in Boscotrecase, near Pompeii (Santini 1905; Alexander 1929).
1903-4, excavated by Ernesto Santini from an imperial villa on his property at Boscotrecase; from 1904, collection of E. Santini; acquired February 3, 1921, purchased from the estate of E. Santini.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1926. "The Classical Collection: Rearrangement and Important Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 21(4), part 2: p. 11.
Alexander, Christine. 1928–1929. "Wall Paintings of the Third Style from Boscotrease." Metropolitan Museum Studies, 1(2): pp. 180–83, figs. 7–8.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1936[1934]. A Guide to the Collections, Part 1: Ancient and Oriental Art, 2nd edn. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richter, Gisela M. A. 1955. Ancient Italy : a study of the interrelations of its peoples as shown in their arts. p. 79, p. 242, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1981. Vol. 1: Aara-Aphlad. "Andromeda I," p. 778, no. 32, pl. 629, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Anderson, Maxwell. 1987. "Pompeian Frescos in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 45(3): pp. 53, 55, figs. 55, 58.
Knauer, Elfriede R. 1993. "Roman Wall Paintings from Boscotrease: Three Studies in the Relationship between Writing and Painting." Metropolitan Museum Journal, 28: pp. 28–29, fig. 37.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1994. Vol. 7: Oidipous-Theseus. "Perseus," pp. 342–43, nos. 178a, 185, pl. 303, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Merkelbach, Reinhold. 1995. Isis regina, Zeus Sarapis: die griechisch-ägyptische Religion nach den Quellen dargestellt. p. 324, pl. 1, Abb. 69 (pg. 550), Stuttgart: B. G. Teubner.
Small, Jocelyn Penny. 1999. "Time in Space: Narrative in Classical Art." The Art Bulletin, 81: p. 568, fig. 8.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 2000. The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West no. 29, pp. 49, 205, New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Richardson, Jr., Lawrence. 2000. A Catalog of Identifiable Figure Painters of Ancient Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. pp. 3, 36–9, 46, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
Bruno, Vincent. 2002. "Color in Hellenistic Painting." Color in Ancient Greece: The Role of Color in Ancient Greek Art and Architecture 700-31 B.C., Michalis A. Tiverios and Despoina S. Tsiafakis, eds. pp. 216–7, fig. 5, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Woodford, Susan and Cambridge University Press. 2003. Images of Myths in Classical Antiquity. p. 131, fig. 98, Cambridge.
Buxton, Richard. 2004. The Complete World of Greek Mythology. p. 217, London: Thames and Hudson.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 403, pp. 348–49, 485, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Kleiner, Fred S. 2007. A History of Roman Art. p. 77, fig. 5–26, Belmont, CA: Thomson and Wadsworth.
Small, Jocelyn Penny. 2008. "Visual Copies and Memory." Orality, Literacy, Memory in the Ancient Greek and Roman World. pp. 239–41, fig. 9, Leiden: Brill.
Coleman, Kathleen M. 2015. "Approaching the Visual in Ancient Culture: Principles." Images for Classicists, Loeb Classical Monographs, vol. 15, Kathleen M. Coleman, ed. pp. 4–5, fig. 1.2, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Galitz, Kathryn. 2016. The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings. no. 28, p. 34, New York: Skira.
Plantzos, Dimitris. 2018. The Art of Painting in Ancient Greece. pp. 324–25, p. 313, Atlanta: Lockwood Press.
Zanker, Paul. 2019. "The Frescoes from the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Art of the Hellenistic Kingdoms from Pergamon to Rome, Seán Hemingway and Kyriaki Karoglou, eds. p. 204 n. 16, New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 35, pp. 111, 113–16, fig. 66, New York: Scala Publishers.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2020. ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History. p. 276, New York: Phaidon Press.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
