Step into a stunning painted garden that gives insight into the flora and fauna of ancient Rome.
Painted Garden, Villa of Livia, fresco, 30-20 B.C.E. (Museo Nazionale Romano, Palazzo Massimo, Rome)
The plant species depicted include: umbrella pine, oak, red fir, quince, pomegranate, myrtle, oleander, date palm, strawberry, laurel, viburnum, holm oak, boxwood, cypress, ivy, acanthus, rose, poppy, chrysanthemum, chamomile, fern, violet, and iris.
Marina Piranomonte, “The Villa of Livia on the Via Flaminia and Its Restoration at the Bimillenarius of Augustus (2014),” in Augustus: From Republic to Empire, edited by Grażyna Bąkowska-Czerner and Jarosław Bodzek (Summertown: Archaeopress, 2017), pp. 107–28.
Roman Painting on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Linda Farrar, Ancient Roman Gardens (Stroud: Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1998).
Roger Ling, Roman Painting (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
Donatella Mazzoleni and Umberto Pappalardo, Domus: Wall Painting in the Roman House (Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 2005).
Umberto Pappalardo, The Splendor of Roman Wall Painting (Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 2009).
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