Pompeii Eternal

Pompeii Wall Art: Roman Frescoes and Mosaics at Home

What Is Pompeii Art?

Pompeii art usually means the wall paintings and mosaics found in the Roman towns buried by Vesuvius in 79 AD: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae and the country villas around them, such as Boscoreale. Most of the paintings are frescoes, made with mineral pigments on wet lime plaster so that the color became part of the wall. Excavations began in 1748, and many of the finest pieces were cut from the walls and taken to the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, where Flora and Artemis from Stabiae hang today. Others, like the great frieze of the Villa of the Mysteries, are still in place in Pompeii. For the history and meaning behind them, read our guide to Pompeii frescoes and Pompeian wall painting.

The Frescoes in This Collection

Our best seller is the Flora fresco from Stabiae: a young woman in a yellow mantle, seen from behind, picking flowers on a pale green ground. Around her you will find Artemis with her bow, the portrait of a young woman holding a stylus and wax tablets traditionally called Sappho, Psyche on a deep blue background, Melpomene the muse of tragedy, Medea, a flying maenad and Cupid from Boscoreale. Several prints show daily life in a wealthy Roman home: a young girl reading, a woman having her hair done, another pouring perfume or playing the lyre. For more drama, the fresco detail from the Villa dei Misteri sets its figures against the deep Pompeian red of the room.

Roman Mosaics and Wall Fragments

Mosaics were made differently: thousands of small cubes of stone and glass, called tesserae, pressed into mortar, most often on floors. The collection includes a mosaic of Mediterranean sea creatures and a mosaic portrait, along with fresco fragments: a Nilotic landscape full of river life, a chariot drawn by a parrot and weathered wall details where the old plaster itself becomes the picture. The Romans liked sea scenes in their baths and dining rooms, and they still suit a bathroom or a kitchen today.

How to Decorate with Pompeii Wall Art

Roman painters worked with large fields of flat color, a few precise figures and plenty of empty space, which is why their frescoes sit so easily in modern rooms. A single figure on green or blue brings calm to a bedroom; a sea mosaic or a fresco fragment fits a bathroom, a nod to the Roman baths. Above a sofa, hang two or three frescoes of the same size side by side: Flora, Artemis and Sappho work well together. If your room already has terracotta, rust or brick tones, our red posters pick up the same Pompeian red.

Sizes, Paper and Frames

Every Pompeii print is made on thick archival paper by the print partner closest to you, in sizes from 21 x 30 cm (8 x 12 in) to 70 x 100 cm (28 x 39 in), or from 30 x 30 cm to 70 x 70 cm for the square mosaics. Choose it unframed or in a black metal, white oak or natural oak frame: oak echoes the warm plaster colors, black metal gives a sharper gallery look. The framing itself is free: you only pay for the frame.