In pictures: Ancient Roman paintings

This fresco comes from the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii and was reconstructed from fragments.

It shows a battle between a gryphon, a legendary beast with the head, talons and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, and a hooded figure, trying to protect himself from the gryphon claws with his leather shield.

It dates from about 120 years before the eruption which detroyed Pompeii in AD79.