Wall Painting Fragment
160-250 CE
Description
Pink and red pigment on brown-white plaster. Pink ground with darker red-pink stripes. Samples of the pigments and plaster were taken and analyzed in the Straus Center in 2023. Ultraviolet-induced fluorescence imaging produced results consistent with madder lake pigment in the pink, while Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis resulted in the identification of gypsum in both the white and pink. The plaster was identified as gypsum plaster.
Dimensions
Irreg.: H. 6.3 × W. 8.1 × D. 2.5 cm (2 1/2 × 3 3/16 × 1 in.)
Provenance
Dura-Europos (near modern Salihiyeh, Syria), excavated [1]; by the Yale-French Excavations [2] (by 1937), gift; to Prentice Duell [3], Boston, MA, (by 1940), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1940. [1] The specific archaeological findspots (on the site) of the gifted wall painting fragments were not recorded (Letter, Clark Hopkins to Prentice Duell, June 9, 1940, Folder 13 ("Blue: Azurite"), Pigment File, Unspecified MS Box No. 3, Papers of Prentice Van Walbeck Duell, 1894-1960, Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA). [2] Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos (1928-1937), a collaboration between Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut) and the French Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Paris), in agreement with the High Commission of the French Republic (French Mandate of Syria). A portion of excavated finds were distributed to Yale under partage agreements. [3] Given as samples of ancient wall painting under the auspices of Clark Hopkins (1895-1976), field director of Yale-French Excavations at Dura-Europos, 1931-1935, to Prentice Duell (1894-1960). Duell was an architect, archaeologist, and scholar of ancient painting. Duell worked on archaeological field projects in the US, Greece, and Egypt (Saqqara); he was a research fellow of Etruscan art at the Fogg Museum from 1939 to 1960.
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