Centaur from Cicero's Villa

Le pitture antiche d’Ercolano e contorni incise con qualche spiegazione. Volume 1 (Naples, 1757), Plate 25, p. 135

This vignette of a Bachante riding a centaur belongs to a series of small frescoes found in the so-called Villa of Cicero (later known as the Villa of Diomedes), outside Pompeii. The ercolanesi, a group of fifteen academics responsible for the erudite commentaries in Le pitture antiche d’Ercolano, saw little scientific value in these images. Yet, in their eyes, the paintings' delightful elegance warranted inclusion in Le pitture. First published in 1757, the floating figures from the Villa of Cicero were an immediate hit among artists and viewers. They quickly became a popular decorative motif, frequently reproduced in a variety of media and objects, including porcelain tea sets made by the Royal Factory of Capodimonte in Naples. Despite their aesthetic appeal, these wall paintings were largely neglected in contemporary scholarly discussions of ancient art, which focused almost exclusively on large mythological compositions whose subject could be traced to classical texts.