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@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 5:31 PM

"You can tell the sun in his jealous sky / When we walked in fields of gold." For #FrescoFriday, the House of #Livia on the #Palatine. Painted c. 30 BCE during the ascendancy of #Augustus, this Second Style wall depicts his Golden Age of perpetual abundance. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO WITH GARLANDS AND COLUMNS, HOUSE OF LIVIA, C. 30 BCE. PALATINE HILL

A section of ancient Roman fresco displaying the Second Style of wall painting. Though Livia only inhabited this house after Augustus's death in 14 CE, it was decorated circa 30 BCE, contemporary with the nearby House of Augustus. The flat wall is painted to create a three-dimensional illusion, with fluted columns framing a central panel. Suspended between them is a heavy garland of pine foliage, leaves, and round fruits. Crucially, these plants are shown fruiting and flowering simultaneously, defying the seasons. This impossible ripening is a visual manifesto of the Augustan Aurea Ætas or Golden Age of perpetual abundance. The artist painted subtle cast shadows behind the ribbon-tied garland to enhance the depth. Above is a horizontal yellow frieze featuring faintly-sketched, monochrome sacro-idyllic landscapes showing rural shrines.

@lindsaypowell.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 5:18 PM

For #FrescoFriday

@lindsaypowell.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 5:15 PM

A seated woman playing a kithara in one of three wall paintings from the villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, Main Reception Hall (H). Roman, Late Republican, ca. 50-40 BC. In the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 1903(03.14.5). Photo is my own.
#FrescoFriday

@druidtombraider.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 10:30 AM

Fresco of a Roman War Galley from Pompeii, 1st century CE, courtesy of Mary Harrsch. #FrescoFriday #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology #RomanArt #Art

@partialhistorians.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 10:16 AM

Found in the House of the Dioscuri at Pompeii, Pan seems to turn away from Hermaphroditus while Hermaphroditus seems to hold Pan closer…

#FrescoFriday

🏛️ MAN Napoli, inv. 27700.

@ideasroadshow.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 7:26 AM

🐴 Some of the magnificent horses in the The Procession of the Youngest King by Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1459-1464.

Read more about this wonderful artist & his unique art 🧲 🐎: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/three-hidd....

#frescofriday 🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #art #italy #horse

Details of a beautiful horse in the The Procession of the Youngest King by Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1459-1464.

Two beautiful horses, one white, one brown, in the The Procession of the Youngest King by Benozzo Gozzoli, c. 1459-1464.

@observethedate.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 7:12 AM

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

@ideasroadshow.bsky.social Oct 9, 2026, 6:28 AM

#Frescofriday 🗃️ #arthistory 🏺 #archaeology

@lucabergamasco.bsky.social Oct 8, 2026, 7:05 AM

#ThursGate #aDoorableThursday #FrescoFriday #fresco

@ilarialoi.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 12:48 PM

An extremely (and maybe surprisingly) cute Roman dolphin from the Villa of Orpheus in Tridentum (modern Trento in northern Italy).
#frescoFriday

@druidtombraider.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 12:09 PM

Section of a Roman fresco depicting participants in a Bacchanalia found at Rome; courtesy of TimeTravelRome. #FrescoFriday #RomanArchaeology #Archaeology

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 10:51 AM

Stairway to heaven. For #FrescoFriday we examine a rare #fresco from #Domitian's palace on the #Palatine. This yellow and purple staircase suggests staff used it to go from private imperial rooms to the magnificent state halls upstairs. Look for the ghostly figures. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FRAGMENT FROM THE PALACE OF DOMITIAN, 85-90 CE. PALATINE HILL

A detail of an ancient Roman wall featuring painted fresco decoration. The plaster is painted yellow, divided into rectangular panels by dark purple bands. In the central yellow panel, a delicate double garland hangs across the space, and two ghostly but beautiful female figures stand in the lower register. At the bottom left, the plaster is broken diagonally, revealing the rough wall and a fragment of cipollino marble baseboard. This is one of the few remaining traces of fresco work from Domitian's palace. It originally decorated a stairway ascending from the peltae courtyard to the now-lost upper ground floor, later removed to create a corridor. While the architect Rabirius favoured lavish opus sectile for imperial rooms, this simpler decoration suggests this specific route was used by staff to travel from the private rooms of the imperial family up to the magnificent state halls above.

@ideasroadshow.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 8:05 AM

#frescofriday 🗃️ #arthistory #medievalsky #skystorians

@johnnythin.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 7:38 AM

More from the Antibes archaeological museum, this time a charming little Cupid from the wall of a Roman townhouse for #FrescoFriday

Fragments of painted wall plaster representing a curly-haired Cupid with wings on his back

@observethedate.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 6:43 AM

@kpw1453.bsky.social Oct 2, 2026, 6:14 AM

3rd century wall plaster from the Romano-British villa at Tarrant Hinton in Dorset, possibly depicting Narcissus, a hunter from Roman mythology. Now part of the collections at East Dorset Museum in Wimborne, Dorset. 📷 My own. #FrescoFriday #RomanBritain #TarrantHinton

@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 6:30 PM

You were never mine, never mine. This #FrescoFriday we're admiring a #megalography, a large-scale #fresco, from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at #Boscoreale, now in the #MANN. Perhaps the lower woman is Stateira II, dejected that #Alexander preferred #Hephaestion. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO FROM BOSCOREALE, C1 BCE. MUSEO ARCHEOLOGICO NAZIONALE DI NAPOLI

A large Roman fresco from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor set against a brilliant red background. On the left an allegorical female figure representing Macedon sits on a rock wearing a greyish tunic, a purple cloak and a flat Macedonian kausia hat while grasping a tall spear. Between them rests a bronze shield embossed with the Argead star of the Macedonian royal house. On the right a seated woman representing defeated Persia wears a pale gown, a blue mantle and a yellow head wrap. She rests her chin on her hand sadly, looking up to seek female solidarity in the eyes of her captor but finding none. This figure of subjugated Persia may be a portrait of Stateira II, daughter of the defeated Persian King Darius III, taken as a political trophy wife by Alexander the Great. She had ample reason to be dejected, as Alexander's primary romantic devotion was to his companion and cavalry commander Hephaestion.

@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.