Best Fresco Secco
The Dunhuang Mogao Caves contain remarkable fresco paintings created within a series of Buddhist temples in western China. These artworks represent a significant collection of narrative scenes dating from the 4th to 14th centuries. The murals, employing both wet-wall (fresco) and dry-wall (fresco-se...
The Ajanta Cave Paintings, located in Maharashtra, India, represent a remarkable collection of Buddhist narrative frescoes dating from the 5th century AD. These meticulously crafted works, executed using the fresco-secco technique, depict scenes from the Jataka tales and Buddha’s life. They are nota...
The Villa of the Mysteries frescoes offer a remarkable glimpse into first-century BC Roman life. Located near Pompeii, these remarkably preserved wall paintings depict a complex scene believed to represent an initiation ritual for a Dionysiac mystery cult. The artwork’s detail and survival provide v...
The frescoes from Livia’s Villa at Primaporta offer a remarkably preserved glimpse into Roman aristocratic life during the Augustan period. These secco wall paintings depict an elaborate garden scene, creating a seamless illusion of depth and space. The detailed depiction of plants and architectural...
The Livia’s Garden Room is an Augustan-era fresco depicting a meticulously rendered garden scene. Created around 60 BC, it showcases innovative secco techniques – painting on dry plaster – to achieve a remarkably realistic illusion of vegetation within the Villa Livia at Palazzo Massimo in Rome. Thi...
The frescoes of the House of the Vettii are an extensive ensemble of Roman wall paintings preserved in a large residence at Pompeii. Created before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, they decorate reception rooms, service areas, and private spaces with architectural frameworks, mythological na...
The Bonampak murals are a group of Late Classic Maya wall paintings preserved inside Structure 1 at Bonampak, an archaeological site in Chiapas, Mexico. Created around the end of the eighth century, the three painted rooms depict court ceremony, musicians and dancers, warfare, captives, bloodletting...
The Dura-Europos synagogue paintings are a cycle of biblical wall paintings created around the middle of the 3rd century CE in a synagogue at Dura-Europos, in present-day Syria. The surviving scenes depict figures and narratives from the Hebrew Bible, including Moses, Samuel, David, and Ezekiel. The...
The frescoes of the Villa of Oplontis decorate a large Roman residential complex at Torre Annunziata near Pompeii, traditionally associated with Poppaea Sabina. Buried during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, the villa preserves elaborate architectural paintings, especially examples of the Roman Se...
The Boscoreale frescoes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are Roman wall paintings removed from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor near Boscoreale, north of Pompeii. Painted during the first century BC, they are major examples of the Second Pompeian Style, which used architectural perspective, columns...
The Kizil Grottoes near Kucha, Xinjiang, are among the oldest Buddhist cave complexes in China, with murals dated from the 3rd to 8th centuries CE reflecting Serindian and Gandharan artistic traditions.
The Domus Aurea frescoes are surviving wall and vault decorations from the palace complex built for the Roman emperor Nero after the fire of Rome in 64 CE. Their painted architecture, delicate figures, animals, plants, and fantastical hybrids became influential after Renaissance artists explored the...
The Tepantitla murals are wall paintings from a residential compound at Teotihuacan, the major ancient city in central Mexico, and are generally dated to the city's Classic-period occupation. Their best-known composition, often called the Tlalocan mural, combines a richly equipped supernatural figur...
The Villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase preserves delicate Third Style frescoes from around 11 BC, prized for refined mythological panels on black and red grounds, largely now in New York's Met.
The Dambulla cave temple complex in central Sri Lanka contains five principal cave sanctuaries decorated with extensive Buddhist murals and numerous statues. Although the site has ancient origins, much of the surviving painted decoration reflects repeated renovation and repainting over later centuri...
The Odyssey Landscapes are fragments of a Roman wall-painting cycle discovered on the Esquiline Hill in Rome and now preserved in the Vatican Museums. Dating to the late Republican period, the surviving panels place episodes from Homer's Odyssey within expansive landscapes and identify figures with...
The House of the Vettii is a richly decorated Roman residence at Pompeii associated with the freedmen Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus. A celebrated frieze shows cupids performing adult trades and crafts, including activities connected with wine, metalworking, perfume, and commerce...
Villa Arianna is a large Roman residential complex at ancient Stabiae, near modern Castellammare di Stabia in Campania. It was buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and was explored during excavations that began in the eighteenth century. The villa takes its modern name from a fresco...
The House of the Tragic Poet is a Roman residence in Pompeii noted for its elaborate mythological decoration despite its relatively modest size. Its surviving paintings belong largely to the Fourth Style and include scenes associated with the Trojan War, sacrifice, marriage, and theatrical performan...
The Birth of Venus fresco is the principal garden painting in the House of Venus in the Shell at Pompeii, a Roman residence buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. It shows Venus reclining in a large shell on the sea, accompanied by figures associated with the marine setting, while a gard...
The Atetelco compound at Teotihuacan, Mexico, preserves wall paintings associated with residential and ceremonial spaces of the ancient city. Murals dated broadly to Teotihuacan's later occupation include repeated processional figures identified as jaguars, coyotes, or costumed warriors, together wi...
The House of the Gilded Cupids in Pompeii contains a room associated with the worship of Isis, decorated with Egyptianizing religious imagery. The paintings and cult objects found in the house demonstrate how Egyptian deities and visual motifs were incorporated into private religious practice in the...
