Image Details

A disfigured face stares blankly, detached from whatever it once decorated. Molded of stucco (a kind of wall plaster often used for ornamental reliefs), the profile retains a painted eye and nose, mouth and chin. Thick curls drape the head at upper right. Excavators found the fragment on the floor of the Roman villa’s triclinium, or formal dining room. Other stucco fragments found in the room bear representations of flowers and geometrical designs.