Tra luxuria e diligentia: decorazioni parietali dalla villa del podere San Marco (Isola d’Elba)

The investigations on the site of the San Marco farm, in the San Giovanni area of the island of Elba, started in 2012 in collaboration with the Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Pisa and Livorno. Archaeological excavations have brought to light a villa built in the second half of the 2nd century BC, almost exclusively in mud-bricks and destroyed in the 1st century AD by a fire that ensured the survival of the structures by “baking” them. The villa had a pars fructuaria on the lower floor, while the upper floor was reserved for residential purposes, with lavishly decorated rooms facing the sea. In particular, the collapsed fragments in room IX belonged to a paneled decoration with a white balustrade on a black background in imitation of marble barriers, widely attested as parapets of buildings or garden fences.