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@bwallower.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 10:56 AM

#FrescoFriday
Noticed more English apples hitting the market and supermarkets now, so here's a basket of not so early ones from Casa dei Cervi in Herculaneum.

A fresco of a woven basket with a handle, tipped over spilling apples in shades of red and gold along the floor.
The image is on a light blue background with a dark red border along the bottom, with a base panel of dark pink.

@druidtombraider.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 9:49 AM

Fresco of a group of players engaged in a game of "Harpastum", a form of ball game played in the Roman Empire; courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. #FrescoFriday #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology #RomanArt #Art

@archaeohawke.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 9:19 AM

#FrescoFriday

Fragment of a Roman fresco depicting Harpocrates, the god of silence in the Hellenistic religion, 2nd century AD, Sirmijum, Panonija Inferior, Serbia.

@kpw1453.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 6:41 AM

A second century painting from a tomb at Ostia Antica depicting Thanatos (the personification of death). The painting is on display in the town’s site museum. 📷 My own. #FrescoFriday #Ostia #Roman

@observethedate.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 6:40 AM

#FoxFriday
#FrescoFriday
#FridayFaces
#FrogForFriday
#FrogFriday
#FungiFriday
#hff (photography - half frame Friday)
#PhallusFriday (Archaeology only)
#PharosFriday
#PhilatelyFriday
#PhoenicianFriday
#RomanRoadsFriday
#VikingFriday

@unsissel.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 5:42 AM

Lararium in bright colors. Miniature temple with Minerva enthroned.

Museo Archeologico di Stabia

📷 me

#FrescoFriday

Lararium, yellow (ochre) colored wall with miniature temple shaped shrine. A painted, seated Minerva with helmet, shield and patera in the niche. Large snake approaching an altar with eggs and pine cones (?) below the shrine. Vivid colors.

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 9:14 PM

I am shamelessly returning to the #CittàDipinta (late C1 CE) in the Museo delle Terme di #Traiano for #FrescoFriday. This upper left detail is the urban centre of the idealised cityscape: walls for strength, an emporium for commerce, a temple for piety, and a theatre for art.

DETAIL OF THE CITTÀ DIPINTA, LATE C1 CE. MUSEO DELLE TERME DI TRAIANO

Rather than serving as a literal topographical map, this section of the fresco functions as an ideological checklist of Romanitas. The painter has condensed the essential elements of civilisation into a single, idealised bird's-eye view. Heavily engineered walls and a naval gate project military and infrastructural strength, while an emporium portico and an adjacent open-air theatre symbolise commerce and the arts. A gabled temple topped with a statue represents civic piety, and the surrounding residential blocks feature rooftop pavilions for the otium of the elite. The physical history of the fresco itself is visible at the bottom left, where the painted plaster curves over the edge of a structural brick arch. Originally a window or doorway in this Neronian- or Flavian-era pavilion (a dating supported by stylistic ties to the nearby Domus Aurea, including the exquisite sfumatura of the Egyptian blue pigment of the water), the void was pragmatically walled up when Trajan's architects entombed the entire structure in darkness to serve as foundational terracing for his imperial baths.

@partialhistorians.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 9:11 PM

Andromeda is trapped and chained as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus. Turns out that some parents are not only willing to anger the gods but to also then offer up their child to get back in the gods’ good graces…

#AncientGreece #AncientBluesky🏺 #FrescoFriday

Description from The World History Encyclopaedia: “Fourth style fresco depicting Perseusfreeing Andromeda from her chains on the rock, from the House of the Dioscuri in Pompeii, National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
Andromeda, chained helplessly on the rock, a prey to pacify a sea monster sent by Poseidon to punish Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother, who had boasted of her daughter's beauty. Perseus comes face to face with the beautiful Andromeda, immediately falls in love with her and rushes off to kill the sea monster. Photo credit: Carole Raddato.”

@followinghadrian.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 1:29 PM

#FrescoFriday – Fresco depicting a Cupid hunting deer, from the cryptoporticus of the House of the Deer (Casa dei Cervi) at Herculaneum. Armed with a spear, the winged Cupid pursues two fleeing deer with hunting dogs.

@archaeohawke.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 12:00 PM

#FrescoFriday
Menades, wall painting, Style III, c. 20–45 AD. Medium: Fresco, 26.7 × 71.3cm. Found at Pompeii (Italy), Villa di Cicerone – Villa of Cicero. Now on display at the #Naples, National Archaeological Museum.

#art #Roman #painting #Archaeology #beauty

@bwallower.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 11:44 AM

#FrescoFriday 🏺
Herculaneum HQ of College of the Augustales: society of freedmen dedicated to imperial cult of Augustus.
Shrine room likely held statue of emperor on pillar in blind arch w laurel wreath above.
On right Hercules + River Achelous in dispute over Deianira.
#Roman

Two walls of the shrine room of the College of the Augustales in Herculaneum. On left is a wide shallow arch with a plinth in the centre that once held a statue, which would have been framed by the square painting behind it. Also within the arch are 2 other faint paintings. On either side of the arch are further paintings of decorative objects, and above these are bands of darker paintings with ?animal figures. Above those two more rectangular ones, with architectural features. Another broad painting above the arch has mostly been removed. The background to this wall is an intense bright blue.
The right wall has a red background. The large main image is painted within a painted arch with three figures. To the left are two paintings: the one at the top shows a winged male driving a chariot with two horses.
The lower part of the image shows bare walls where plaster has been removed. The floor has the remains of opus sectile coloured marble flooring.

@druidtombraider.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 9:53 AM

Roman Fresco from the Casa dei Quadretti Teatrali (House of Theatrical Vignettes), courtesy of Sailko. #FrescoFriday #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology #RomanArt #Art

@tonydivey.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 8:14 AM

Probably doesn’t strictly qualify for #FrescoFriday, but this is my favourite from Berlin’s East Side Gallery. My 📷

@observethedate.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 7:18 AM

@carausius286.bsky.social Sep 18, 2026, 6:10 AM

This fresco depicts Cerberus, guardian of the underworld with Hercules left, who subdued him, and Mercury right. It was buried in a tomb for 2,000 years and only uncovered in 2023, which makes its vibrancy even more remarkable.

🕰️C1stBC-2ndAD
🏛️Tomb of Cerberus, Giugliano
#FrescoFriday

@lucabergamasco.bsky.social Sep 12, 2026, 8:06 PM

#FrescoFriday #fresco

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 11:10 AM

For #FrescoFriday, the astonishing "Città Dipinta" unveiled this week at the #Oppian Hill. Painted on the exterior of a pre-Trajanic basilican hall, it might have been an ideological billboard promoting good government, before being buried as a foundation wall for Trajan's Baths. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO OF THE CITTÀ DIPINTA, LATE C1 CE. MUSEO DELLE TERME DI TRAIANO

This large fresco fragment depicts a rare bird's-eye view of a fortified city. Defensive walls with crenellated towers enclose a dense urban landscape featuring residential buildings, a theatre, and porticoes rendered in sophisticated perspective. The artwork was painted on the exterior wall of a three-aisled hall on the Oppian Hill. This building perhaps functioned as an administrative basilica connected to a nearby schola for a collegium of scribes. While the adjacent mosaic hall follows a strict north-south orientation aligning with the Domus Aurea and the Sette Sale reservoir, this hall sits on a different axis. In an administrative context, the fresco would have served as an ideological billboard projecting Roman urban prosperity to those conducting business. Dating to the Neronian or Flavian period, the building and its masterpiece of urban topography were later deliberately buried to serve as retaining walls for the Baths of Trajan.

@druidtombraider.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 10:20 AM

Fragment of a Roman fresco representing a gazelle drinking. Found in the library of Asinius Pollio, built in 38 BC. and now in the Geneva Musée d'art et d'histoire. Image: Codex. #FrescoFriday #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology #RomanArt #Art

@unsissel.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 10:06 AM

Listening to the episode this morning reminded me of this great light-reconstruction of Polyphemus and Galatea in the house of Livia that I saw in July.

#frescoFriday
📸 me

@partialhistorians.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 9:42 AM

Let’s hope your weekend doesn’t all take a turn like this riot in the amphitheatre at Pompeii which led to the closure of the amphitheatre in 59 CE! There’s partying hard and then whatever brawl *this* turned into!

#FrescoFriday #Pompeii

This fresco depicts fighters in the arena but also outside the arena. Fighting for displays seems to have turned into a a riot that broke out in 59 CE during games involving people from Pompeii and Nuceria. This riot led to the closure of the amphitheatre for ten years. The fresco was found in the house of Actius Anicetus in Pompeii. It is now held in the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Photo credit to Carole Raddato via The World History Encyclopedia.