Admetus and Alcestis

An interior scene in a muted earth-tone palette. In the right foreground a nude figure with drapery across his lap holds a small rectangular board that tells the fate of the man at left. This man, Admetus, is nude from mid-thigh up, with a robe covering his legs and a sword balanced against his right knee. At the center, his wife, Alcestis, wears robes and listens with her left hand under her chin. Admetus points to the scroll at the center of the painting. At the left, the god Apollo is behind a wall. He has persuaded the Fates to save Alcestis’s life if someone will take his place. At the far right in the background are an elderly couple, Alcestis’s parents.

Admetus and Alcestis

Medium:
Fresco
Dimensions:
95.3 cm wide, 115.3 cm high
Context:
House of the Tragic Poet, tablinum 8, east wall, central section, Pompeii
Date:
1st century CE
Inventory Number:
MANN 9026
Lender:
National Archaeological Museum of Naples
Credit:
Image © Photographic Archive, National Archaeological Museum of Naples