‘Il Nilo in Adriatico’: scene di paesaggio nilotico nel complesso edilizio di Via Fanti ad Ancona

Found in 1955/1957 in Ancona Via Fanti during some civil works, the paintings decorated an apsidal room whose remains are 2,90 m high. The structure was related to a set of Roman private buildings laying on distinct level and belonging to at least two different chronological phases. The paintings which date back to first late Republican period consist of three registers: a continuous frieze with nilotic landscape in the lower part, a scenographic architecture in the middle one and panels with vegetable scrolls surmounted by masks on the upper level. Although the subject is in line with the II period style, the technical features and the combination of different elements suggest that the paintings could be the result of a local interpretation of an Urban prototype, probably linked to the functional destination of the complex.