When it comes to the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology’s collections, not all artifacts are created equal. Some call out to us intellectually, others emotionally. To that end, we asked our curators to name their favorite Kelsey artifact or object. Here is the third in a series of seven.

BY ELAINE GAZDA, Curator of Roman and Hellenistic Collections, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan

Favorite Artifact. “The Room of the Mysteries”, A Watercolor Representation 1925-27 by Maria Barosso

Why. “As a historian of Roman art, I have long been interested in sculptures and paintings of the Roman era that have been labeled in museums and textbooks as Roman copies after lost Greek originals. The watercolors painted by Maria Barosso fascinate me as beautiful illustrations of how copies of works of art become works of art in their own right and take on lives of their own. Barosso’s paintings are aesthetically appealing evocations of the Roman paintings that still remain on the walls of the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, but they are also powerful visual statements of the ways in which this 20^th century artist’s own aesthetic sensibility transformed the “original” she copied. In her correspondence with Professor Kelsey, Barosso expressed her desire to capture the original beauty of the Roman paintings. This required her to look beyond the damage that the Roman paintings had suffered from the volcanic eruption of AD 79 and centuries of burial and creatively re-imagine them in an undamaged state. In the process, Barosso’s own style inflected the Roman imagery with an early 20^th-century Italian “accent.” Such subtle stylistic inflections can also be detected in ancient Roman works that emulate earlier Greek models.”

Background. The Villa of the Mysteries was situated in fertile farmland outside the walls of Pompeii, a short distance northwest of the city. It was discovered and partially excavated in 1909 by the owner of the land whose workmen first uncovered a lavishly adorned room containing murals that rapidly became famous. Later excavations in 1929-1930 by the archaeological authorities of Pompeii showed that approximately half of the villa had been devoted to agricultural and other utilitarian activities. The other half had been the proprietor’s residence, with splendidly decorated rooms, some with large windows, and terraces that provided vistas out to the countryside, the mountains, and the Bay of Naples.

Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 forever altered the landscape, some of the best views from the Villa of the Mysteries were to be enjoyed from a large reception and dining room known to archaeologists as Room 5. This room preserves monumental murals that relate to the Greek god Dionysos. The Romans knew this god of acriculture, wine, and the bacchanal as Bacchus or Liber. The roughly life-size, mostly female figures appear to enact rituals related to the mystery cult of this god, whose sacred rites were known only to initiates. The Villa of the Mysteries takes its modern name from the imagery in this room. The identity of the Roman owner of the villa is not known.

The murals in the Villa of the Mysteries have few counterparts in Roman art. Coincidentally, the villa of Publius Fannius Synistor near Boscoreale, from which the Kelsey Museum’s farming equipment, mill, and hardware come, had wall paintings of comparable scale and quality. Most of them are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. The murals of the Villa of the Mysteries remain in their original context in Pompeii.

About the Watercolors. The paintings in the Villa of the Mysteries became famous with a few years of their discovery in 1909. Although the murals were made known to the world through published black and white photographs, color reproductions were not available at that time. In 1924, before the villa was fully uncovered, Professor Francis W. Kelsey commissioned a large-scale color replica for the University of Michigan so that scholars, students, and the public would be able to study and enjoy the murals in all their glory. He contracted with an Italian artist, Maria Barosso, who was the head archaeological artist for the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill excavations in Rome, to paint the replica.

Although Kelsey wanted a full-scale replica, Maiuri agreed to allow Barosso to paint only a five-sixths scale version. The end result, nonetheless, evokes the monumentality of the Roman paintings. Professor Kelsey intended also to reproduce the floor in an installation that he planned for a new gallery at the University of Michigan. Kelsey unfortunately died in May 1927, before the paintings arrived in Ann Arbor. In partial fulfillment of his plan to suggest the original effect of the ancient room, the Kelsey Museum created a reduced-scale version of the outer border of the Roman floor.

Find It. Climb the center stairs to the second floor of the William E. Upjohn Exhibit Wing. Make a slight turn left, then right directly toward the end of the building. Then turn right again into the recreated room that showcases the murals, just as Professor Kelsey envisioned so long ago. Lights will come on as you enter.

Beginning on June 8, the University of Michigan’s Kelsey Museum of Archaeology will present a special exhibition, “A Man of Many Parts: The Life and Legacy of Francis Willey Kelsey,” that pays homage to the museum’s namesake. Much of the museum’s collections was collected by Kelsey or came from excavations he initiated in the 1920s.

Kelsey’s many leadership roles included:

• Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) president from 1907 to 1912,
• University of Michigan Department of Latin chair from 1890 to 1927,
• American Philological Association president from 1906 to 1907, and
• University Musical Society president from 1891-1927.

Professor of Latin at the University of Michigan from 1889 until his death in 1927, Kelsey was a man of exceptional intellect, great energy and irrepressible good humor, whose wide-ranging vision helped to build the University of Michigan into an internationally renowned center of learning.

Informed by John Griffiths Pedley’s new biography*, The Life and Work of Francis Willey Kelsey, the exhibition draws upon the Kelsey Museum’s extensive collection of archival photographs, slides, postcards, stereoscopic images and guidebooks used by Kelsey on his expeditions and upon Kelsey’s papers, now at the Bentley Historical Library.

From the Kelsey Museum’s library come the Kelsey family’s genealogy, annual reports of the professional organizations Kelsey advised and led, and a student’s well-used copy of Kelsey’s textbook edition of Julius Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War.

Gifts from members of Kelsey’s family — his copy of a rare 16th-century edition of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, recently given to the University by Kelsey’s grandson, and family papers and photographs given by his granddaughter — help paint a fuller picture of Kelsey’s love of rare books and his personal life.

Kelsey’s expeditions to Europe, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Tunisia encompassed scholarly exploration as well as humanitarian activity. His expeditions charted the course for much of the Kelsey Museum’s current archaeological fieldwork and yielded a large part of its artifact collection. Throughout the museum, the exhibition highlights objects that Kelsey was responsible for acquiring.                                                                                             

Beyond the Kelsey Museum’s own collection, the exhibition showcases examples of rare manuscripts and ancient papyri now housed in the Special Collections and Papyrology Collection at the Hatcher Graduate Library, many of them purchased with funds Kelsey raised from major donors in Detroit—among them Charles L. Freer and Horace H. Rackham.

From the Visual Resources Collection of the Department of the History of Art come lantern slides of archaeological sites and artifacts made by George R. Swain, the photographer with whom Kelsey collaborated for decades to build the University’s slide and photograph collection. Also on display is a selection of volumes of the University of Michigan Humanistic Series, which Kelsey was instrumental in establishing and editing. This series planted the seed of what is now the University of Michigan Press.

As a lover of music and president of the University Musical Society from 1891to 1927, Kelsey worked tirelessly to bring the best performers and programs to Ann Arbor. Vintage concert programs and archival photographs of the University’s Hill Auditorium and the Ann Arbor School of Music illustrate this side of Kelsey’s accomplishments. Few today realize that Hill Auditorium’s present location was decided in discussions between Kelsey and the architect, Albert Kahn, and that the Frieze organ now in Hill came there as a result of Kelsey’s fundraising efforts.

Educator, scholar, explorer, builder of collections, international figure in his profession, humanitarian, lover of music, and devoted family man, Francis Willey Kelsey was truly a man of many parts. This exhibition honors an extraordinary human being and his legacy, which shaped the University of Michigan and the archaeological profession of today.