LOT 0123

Roman Polychrome Wall Painting Fragment with Winged Siren

LATE 1ST CENTURY B.C.-EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.

6 1/4 in. (979 grams total, 16 cm high including stand).

Decorated with a frieze of partially preserved acanthus volutes from which emerges a figure of a winged female, possibly a siren, the body and the head of a woman with brown hair, the outstretched wings in pink and yellow; ochre background, cream-coloured line border with a green raised edge (part of the wall) below; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

From a European collection formed in the 19th century or earlier, based on the custom-made tooled leather box similar to another fragment kept in a case of similar manufacture with a label reading 'Fragment de Pompéi provenant de la vente Préat 1868' sold at Sotheby's New York, 12 December 2013, lot 84.
Mitsukoshi department store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, by 1974.
Japanese art market, 1974-1978.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no 11828-207723.

Cf. Gullini, G., La pittura romana, Torino, 1969, pp.72ff.; Gullini, G., Problemi di pittura romana, Torino, 1972, pp.60ff.; De Franciscis, A., The Pompeian Wall paintings in the Roman Villa of Oplontis, Recklinghausen, 1975, pls.17,23; Barham, N., ‘Theorizing Image and Abstraction in Ancient Rome: the Case of the Villa Farnesina’, in Association for Art History, 2021, pp.165-185, fig.3; for the iconography of the sirens in Roman paintings see a wall painting in the British Museum accession no.1867,0508.1354 in Hinks, R.P., Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan & Roman Paintings & Mosaics in the British Museum: Paintings, London, 1933, fig.27.

This painted stucco was probably part of a decorative frame. Such decorations can be seen on the famous Villa of Oplontis, where the painted walls of the Triclinium nr. 14 have been divided thrice by columns with a sphinx as ornament on the top of the pillar, decorated with acanthus scrolls and sirens beneath the sphinxes.