A Roman polychrome wall-painting fresco fragment
circa 1st century BC - 1st century AD
Diameter: 19.2 cm
Provenance: Elletson Collection, Parrox Hall, Lancashire, England, acquired in the late 19th century, thence by descent
The fragment is painted with pigment on plaster, preserving the edge of a cream coloured border frame featuring scrolling tendrils in umber, with pink border above and a border of ovolo in green below. With on a red ground below, and the remnants of a border in green at the edge. With an old blue velvet mount, accompanied by a 19th / early 20th century label reading “Fresco wall painting. BC 200. From forum in Rome, discovered 1879…”