VAULT FRIEZE FROM THE DOMUS TRANSITORIA, 54-64 CE. PALATINE MUSEUM This frieze was found just below the vault of a room beneath the Domitianic dining hall of the imperial palace, in a room adjacent to the large nymphaeum Nero ordered constructed as a summer retreat for reclining in the shade on hot summer days. Discovered during the Farnese family's ownership of the Palatine hill in the C17, it was moved to Naples along with the rest of the family's antiquities collection and is now on long-term loan to the Palatine Museum from the MANN. Not surprisingly, the theme is Dionysiac, with a Maenad and a satyr, from left to right. The figures are very worn and damaged from years of contact with damp earth, so only the red underpainting in actual fresco survives, while the details painted in a secco have almost completely worn off. The Maenad holds a strange staff in low relief at centre, while the satyr carries a basket of grapes on his head.

#FrescoFriday gives us a trace, but just a trace, of the #fresco work done for #Nero in his short-lived #DomusTransitoria, a first attempt to build a palace linking the #Palatine to the imperial gardens on the #Esquiline. The Great Fire put an end to the palace, but left us this.