174 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. VII. 



FRESCO. 24671. [Plate CXXVII.] 



Mural decoration of painted plaster, surmounted by a stucco cornice. 

 From the villa in which Nos. 24669, 24670 were found. 



The principal design of the painted surface consists of two rectangu- 

 lar compartments, upper and lower, the former on white and yellow 

 ground, the latter on red ground. They are connected by a tall cande- 

 labrum in the center. The background which surrounds them is yellow. 



The lower compartment is bounded on either side by an Ionic col- 

 umn, the flu tings of which are drab, the high parts a lighter shade of 

 the same color. It is uncertain whether they had bases. The capitals 

 are each surmounted by a profiled block like the end of an architrave. 

 The space between the columns is contracted by grayish green vertical 

 bands, edged with white, one at either side. They are connected with 

 the columns at the top by horizontal bands of the same color, except 

 that the edging of the upper side is black, and below the center by simi- 

 lar bands with white edging, two on either side. Above the panels 

 thus formed and extending across the intervening space is a drab band, 

 which is bordered by darker lines beneath and a white line on the upper 

 side. Next follow two bands of violet and drab with a red stripe between 

 them. Opposite the uppermost band there is over either column a 

 rosette poorly preserved. 



Just outside the columns there is on either side a vertical grayish 

 green band which is joined at the top by a similar horizontal band. 

 This border which, if continued, would enclose large rectangular panels, 

 has an edging of black on the outside and of white on the inside. Within 

 the panels there is a narrow dark red stripe with white edges, which 

 parallels the outer border. 1 Above the upper border there is at either 

 side a drab band which has a red stripe near each edge and, between the 

 stripes, an indistinct design in dark red. It is followed by a somewhat 

 narrower band of dark red. These bands join those which lie above the 

 lower compartment, and with them form the substratum of the basis 

 of the upper part of the design. 



The immediate basis of the upper compartment consists of two 

 elevations of reddish drab color with a dark red stripe on top, together 

 with a grayish green stripe, which extends over them and across the 

 intervening space. The elevations are in the axes of the above men- 

 tioned Ionic columns. The bands which enclose the compartment at 

 sides and top are of greenish gray trimmed with white. The interior 

 is divided by a narrow dark red stripe with white upper edge into two 



1 The discontinuation of the left stripe near the bottom and the change of alignment seen in the 

 other are evidently due to the repair and the resetting of plaster. 



