Watercolor reproductions of the murals from Room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii ongoing at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Watercolor reproductions of the murals from Room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii ongoing at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In 1924, Francis W. Kelsey commissioned an Italian artist, Maria Barosso, to reproduce the wall murals of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. Barosso chose watercolor as her medium. The entire project was finished in just over 18 months and later exhibited in the Villa Borghese with much fanfare by Benito Mussolini. After the exhibit, the life-sized watercolors were shipped to Kelsey in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But Kelsey died before the watercolors could be housed in a new museum and the works were stored away for decades. In 2008, the Kelsey Museum undertook an exciting conservation project to preserve these beautiful watercolors and they are now on display as part of the Kelsey's permanent exhibition in their new museum.


Image: Fresco from the Villa de Misteri in Pompeii 1st century CE courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Wolfgang Rieger

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