Dim. 45 x 45 cm
Full color affresco; minor restorations
Roman art, Julio-Claudian period, III style, 20 BC. - 20 a.d. J.-C.
Origin
Former collection of Dr. Athos Moretti (1907-1993), Bellinza, Switzerland, in the 1950s-1960s
Former collection of Pino Donati, Molinazzo di Montaggio, Switzerland, acquired in the late 1970s
Reference literature
ANDERSON, ML, Pompeian Frescos, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winter 1987/88 Bulletin
On symbolism: BRUNEAU, P., The motif of confronting roosters in ancient imagery, Bull. of Corr. Hellenic, 1965, 89-1, pp. 90-121
On an intense red background, the scene features two roosters clashing, heads lowered in a fanciful setting of a Roman city.
In the background, we see on a tower, a man who observes the scene.
This fresco is to be placed in the 3rd style (20 BC - 20 AD) and coincides with the reign of Augustus. From then on, a sudden change of style and theme took place. During this new phase of wall decoration, the walls often had a single
background color such as red, black or white and were decorated with elaborate architectural, vegetal and figurative details.
The motif of confronting roosters in ancient imagery is maintained throughout Antiquity, adapted according to the supports and the evolution of styles; and has various meanings.
It is in Orientalizing art that the motif of confronting roosters appears; it is found in the ceramics of the Greek world. Sometimes the roosters are confronted directly, sometimes they are separated by a character or by an ornamental motif.
Later, this representation will be properly represented by a cockfight, and thus take on the value of a real scene with the appearance of Eros in its representations, thus bringing a new allegorical and symbolic value.
This symbolism refers to the warlike ardor manifested in certain Greek customs of victory (Aelian, Var.hist, II,28; "After their victory over the Persians, the Athenians prescribed by law that public cockfights should take place on a day of per year at the theatre".) which will continue in the Hellenistic and Roman period (fig.1 - mosaic of Naples). This allegory of victory later extends to the ideology of imperial victory, the art of the imperial era happily represents the image of Victoria Augusti.
By extension, and as demonstrated by the recurrence of the theme in the imagery of Pompeian frescoes, the move towards a funerary symbolism, and in this specific case of immortality (triumph over death) as explained by F. Cumont (Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains, Paris, 1942, p. 398), "the victory of the rooster like that of the athlete or the charioteer has been interpreted, from the eschatological point of view, as a symbol of immortality".
A Roman Pompeian Fresco depicting two fighting roosters. 3rd Style, 20 BC - 20 AD
On an intense red background, the scene features two roosters clashing, heads lowered in a fanciful setting of a Roman city.
In the background, we see on a tower, a man who observes the scene.
This fresco is to be placed in the 3rd style (20 BC - 20 AD) and coincides with the reign of Augustus. From then on, a sudden change of style and theme took place. During this new phase of wall decoration, the walls often had a single
background color such as red, black or white and were decorated with elaborate architectural, vegetal and figurative details.
The motif of confronting roosters in ancient imagery is maintained throughout Antiquity, adapted according to the supports and the evolution of styles; and has various meanings.
It is in Orientalizing art that the motif of confronting roosters appears; it is found in the ceramics of the Greek world. Sometimes the roosters are confronted directly, sometimes they are separated by a character or by an ornamental motif.
Later, this representation will be properly represented by a cockfight, and thus take on the value of a real scene with the appearance of Eros in its representations, thus bringing a new allegorical and symbolic value.
This symbolism refers to the warlike ardor manifested in certain Greek customs of victory (Aelian, Var.hist, II,28; "After their victory over the Persians, the Athenians prescribed by law that public cockfights should take place on a day of per year at the theatre".) which will continue in the Hellenistic and Roman period (fig.1 - mosaic of Naples). This allegory of victory later extends to the ideology of imperial victory, the art of the imperial era happily represents the image of Victoria Augusti.
By extension, and as demonstrated by the recurrence of the theme in the imagery of Pompeian frescoes, the move towards a funerary symbolism, and in this specific case of immortality (triumph over death) as explained by F. Cumont (Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains, Paris, 1942, p. 398), "the victory of the rooster like that of the athlete or the charioteer has been interpreted, from the eschatological point of view, as a symbol of immortality".
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