In Stabiano
Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite
Rare exhibition of ancient Roman frescos comes to SDMA.
Two thousand years ago, Stabiae, a community of lavish summer villas overlooking the Bay of Naples, was the most luxurious corner of the Roman Empire. It was there that the richest and most powerful Romans gathered for the summer months, enjoying the cooling sea breezes and magnificent views. Stabiae, along with Pompeii and Herculaneum, was destroyed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. Long buried in ash and cinder, mostly forgotten, and with only occasional exploration, the villas—beautifully preserved—are now planned for complete excavation and continue to yield great architecture, statuary, household furnishings, and fine frescoes. This winter the San Diego Museum of Art is hosting a rare traveling exhibition of these ancient Roman artifacts, presenting approximately 70 objects found in Stabiano, meaning the region of Stabiae, which date from 89 BCE to 79 CE.
Stabiae’s villas, with modern names such as Arianna, del Pastore, and San Marco, were the so-called powerhouses of Rome. They were as much instruments of social power as they were places of luxury and retreat. The villas were enormous: the Villa San Marco was approximately 120,000 square feet; the Villa Arianna about 150,000, and the Villa del Pastore more than 200,000. A decorative urn in the shape of a crater (a Greek pottery vessel used for mixing wine) originally graced the pool in front of the nymphaeum fountain of the Villa San Marco. The nymphaeum (a type of shrine connected with water) was located adjacent to the peristyle, a large columned courtyard where guests would stroll after elaborate parties, aiding digestion and offering a final opportunity to conduct business.
The villas reflected the erudition and sophistication of their owners and included art collections, libraries, exotic fishponds, jewels, and silverware in addition to a host of skilled cooks, poets, philosophers, and entertainers. A fresco of Flora from the Villa Arianna is from a two-room suite that probably belonged to the principal women of the house. Flora, the goddess of all that flowers, is identified by the small gold diadem and the woven basket into which she is collecting spring blooms. The fresco is one of four depicting Diana, Flora, Leda, and Medea. These mythological depictions deal with intimate trials of a woman’s life: fertility and childbirth, passion, betrayal, death, and the painful choices of love.
The frescoes found in Roman villas were generally based upon well-known, famous paintings in prominent art collections (such as the one Julius Caesar amassed). In the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, there had been a mania for art collecting, mainly paintings (alas, no longer extant) and sculpture looted from Greek cities. An industry of copyists sprang up to provide imitations of famous Greek originals. Many of the central vignettes of the villa walls in Stabiae (and throughout the empire) were, in fact, copies or pastiches of well-known panel pictures by famous Greek painters. The villa owners in Stabiae, and the artists they hired, could see many of the famous originals in collections in nearby Naples (or in Julius Caesar’s temple in Rome).
The exhibition In Stabiano includes approximately 24 preserved examples of these ancient frescoes, which along with sculptures, stucco reliefs, and decorative and utilitarian objects, attest to the elevated tastes, wealth, and power of their patrons.
The 70 objects in the exhibition represent just a sampling of the important finds that continue to be made and the important finds that continue to be made at the archaeological site of Stabiae. Only a small part of the known villas there are currently excavated, and acres more remain to be explored for the first time. The Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation has been charged with completing the excavations and transforming the site into a 150-acre archaeological park.
The exhibition is organized by the Archaeological Superintendancy of Pompeii and the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation, tour managed by International Arts & Artists, and partially sponsored by NIAF and the Grand Circle Foundation. Local presentation is made possible by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the County of San Diego Community Enhancement Program, and members of the San Diego Museum of Art.
