Perched

I love Roman frescoes, their colors, and their usually fragmentary nature, which leaves room for the imagination to fill in.

I especially love this fresco, just now, because the birds perched in the delicate tree remind me of the well-fed quail that has been perching itself in the tiniest slip of a tree in our yard, outside the kitchen window, bending its willowy branch (one of only three) nearly to the ground when near the tip of it.  It doesn't seem bothered in the least by the precariousness of its perch or by the thought of tumbling off.

images:  I Require Art, (Detail) Wall fresco, Livia's villa at Prima Porta (near Rome), now in Palazzo Massimo museum, Rome. Photo: raggi di sole — with  Erika Vela.

Christie B. Cochrell, Quail Perching