Viewing Frescoes from Agrippa's Villa Farnesina Like The Ancient Romans

I see that the National Museum at the Palazzo Massimo has added a new dynamic lighting system to the display of the frescoes recovered from the Villa Farnesina, thought to have been one of the residences of Augustus' friend, general and admiral, Agrippa.

"A sophisticated and unique lighting system that recreates daylight hours from dusk to dawn in 100-second cycles lets visitors hone in on the details of the frescoes and vault stuccoes, which depict mythological scenes as well as more mundane activities. “It’s akin to seeing through the eyes of ancient Romans,” said Stefano Cacciapaglia, one of the architects who worked on the project." - More: New York Times

I wish I could have examined the frescoes with the new system when I visited the National Museum back in March 2009.   I was particularly impressed with the detail the artist captured in the faces, still discernible after more than 2000 years.

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National Museum of Rome hosting exhibit featuring over 100 paintings from 1st century

I wish I could have seen this exhibition. The Romans seemed to love incorporating birds and flowers into many of their frescoes. The picture at left looks very similar to a garden fresco from the villa of Augustus' wife Livia and paintings adorning the walls of the villa at Oplontis that I visited in October.


"A unique exhibition of 2,000-year-old paintings called Pompeian Red has opened at the National Museum of Rome.

More than 100 paintings - including Nightingale (on the left) - shed light on the beliefs, home decorations, fashions, architecture, landscape, dining tables and people who lived in the ancient city of Rome and in Pompeii before its destruction by a volcanic eruption in AD79." - David Willey

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