You must join the virtual exhibition queue when you arrive. If capacity has been reached for the day, the queue will close early.
Learn more
Jump to content tickets Member | Make a donation
- The Collection
- The American Wing Ancient Near Eastern Art Arms and Armor The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing Asian Art The Cloisters The Costume Institute Drawings and Prints Egyptian Art European Paintings European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Greek and Roman Art Islamic Art Robert Lehman Collection The Libraries Medieval Art Musical Instruments Photographs Antonio Ratti Textile Center Modern and Contemporary Art
Crop your artwork:
Scan your QR code:
Gratefully built with ACNLPatternTool
Roman
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 166
From the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase, the Mythological Room (19)
Landscape with Perseus and Andromeda
This fresco from the Imperial villa at Boscotrecase depicts two consecutive events from the myth of Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus is about to rescue Andromeda from the ketos, a snaky sea monster painted in a brilliant blue-green palette. The creature raises his head with gigantic open jaws and frightful teeth toward Andromeda, who stands with outstretched arms in the center of the panel. One hand appears to be chained to the crag; the other elegantly placed on the rocks. Perseus flies in from the left with his lyre in one hand, winged shoes on his feet, and a windblown cloak over his shoulder. In the upper right portion of the fresco, he is greeted by Andromeda's grateful father, a scene that alludes to the myth's happy ending–the marriage of hero and princess.
The fortunes of love and the ever-present sea are the themes that link this fresco and that of Polyphemus and Galatea (20.192.17) from the same cubiculum at Boscotrecase. The translucent blue-green background of both frescoes also unifies the disparate episodes combined in each painting, and must have brought a sense of coolness to the room.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
- Download image
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title: Wall painting: Perseus and Andromeda in landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
Period: Augustan
Date: last decade of the 1st century BCE
Culture: Roman
Medium: Fresco
Dimensions: H. 62 3/4 in. (159.39 cm.)
width 46 3/4 in. (118.75 cm.)
Classification: Miscellaneous-Paintings
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1920
Object Number: 20.192.16
Learn more about this artwork
Timeline of Art History
Essay
The Idea and Invention of the Villa
Chronology
Italian Peninsula, 1000 B.C.-1 A.D.
Museum Publications
The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West
The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings
Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome
"Roman Wall Paintings from Boscotrecase: Three Studies in the Relationship Between Writing and Painting"
"Pompeian Frescoes in The Metropolitan Museum of Art"
Related Artworks
- All Related Artworks
- In the same gallery
- Greek and Roman Art
- Frescoes
- Paintings
- From Roman Empire
- From 1000 B.C.–A.D. 1
Wall painting from Room H of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
ca. 50–40 BCE
Wall painting from the west wall of Room L of the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale
ca. 50–40 BCE
Wall painting on black ground: landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
last decade of the 1st century BCE
Wall painting: Polyphemus and Galatea in a landscape, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
last decade of the 1st century BCE
Wall painting on black ground: Egyptianizing scene and pair of swans, from the imperial villa at Boscotrecase
last decade of the 1st century BCE
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
Greek and Roman Art at The Met
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
