TESTIMONIANZE PITTORICHE DAL MUNICIPIUM AUGUSTUM VEIENS ALCUNI ESEMPI DAL COMPLESSO ARCHEOLOGICO DI CAMPETTI, AREA SUD-OVEST, A VEIO (RM)

Abstract

This paper presents two attestations of paintings belonging to the therapeutic-healing complex of
Campetti, south-west area, at Veii. The first is found inside a semi-underground room with walls in
opus reticulatum, a mosaic floor in black tesserae only partially visible beneath a later floor, traces of
paintings on all the walls and a barrel-vaulted ceiling originally decorated with mosaic tesserae. The
entrance is on the west side and the room has been interpreted as a winter triclinium. Based on the
stratigraphic relations, its construction is dated to the mid-1st century AD. The wall paintings represent
rare evidence of painting at Veii in the Roman period. The upper zone of the wall has been lost. The
median zone is divided into panels; a pinax painted within one of these was removed after discovery. A
garden with ornamental plants and a little bird on a branch are painted on the red socle. The second
attestation belongs to the decoration of the central niche of a porticoed area. These new finds have
been compared with the known evidence for painting from Roman Etruria.