Murals – paintings on walls – have been around with us ever since Paleolithic man decorated his cave dwellings. In the UK advertising murals became very popular in the nineteenth century and murals with political messages have been a streetscape feature of Northern Ireland for many years. Increasingly, urban areas are again being enhanced by murals often focusing on historical and popular aspects of local life. Less common in northern Europe are interior murals although these have been making a considerable comeback. For example there are the intoxicating murals by Red Whistler at Plas Newydd, Wales and London’s Tate Britain and, more recently, a delightful mural has been created in Greenwich’s Fan Museum’s orangery in our area of London. I have mentioned an interior mural artist who regulary comes to our area and who is currently undertaking a major project at Marchmont house, Scotland in a post this month.

In Italy interior murals have continued to be created ever since Etruscan times as the rich decorations of the tombs of Tarquinia mentioned in my post at https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/etruscan-faces/ display so magnificently. In domestic interiors murals have been the Italian equivalent of wallpaper and in religious buildings they have attained the highest levels of artistic inspiration as anyone who has visited the Sistine chapel in Rome or the Brancacci chapel in Florence must agree.

In our area of Lucca there are fine religious murals using the fresco technique in the church of San Frediano and in several of the city’s palaces. Domestic interiors will also contain murals although these, except in the case of aristocatic villas and palaces, are rather less well known and, indeed, hidden away. For example, near Diecimo, a town in our Serchio valley famous for its beautiful romanesque church, I, quite fortuitously, came across these frescoes tucked away in a largely abandoned and decrepit dwelling.

Clearly these murals are in rococo style and probably date back to the second half of the eighteenth century. They are the only visible murals in the house, although others may be hidden under whitewash, and decorate a room which may have been used as a ballroom on occasion as the lyre on the ceiling hints at.

The pastoral landscapes reflect the area in which the mansion is located and which may well have belonged to a rich merchant from Lucca who used it as a country retreat. I particularly liked the figures in the pictures enjoying the rural pleasures of fishing and rambling.

I wonder how many other old buildings in our area conserve these charming glimpses from another age. Like so many lovely features in our part of the world which have no protection from goverment agences they are truly at the mercy of those who own them. Let us hope that they will appreciate these relics from a past, more leisurely time.