The certainty of this city having been the ancient Herculaneum is said

to have materially increased the energy of the excavators. In the same

basilica were found the famous pictures of Hercules and Telephus,

Theseus and the Minotaur, and many others, together with bronze statues

of Nero and Germanicus, and a Vespasian, with two sitting figures of

marble, nine feet high. The streets of the city were paved with blocks

of lava, they were flanked with causeways, and lined with porticos. The

private buildings, which resembled those of Pompeii, were very difficult

of access, from the nature of the material that overwhelmed them, and

could only be examined in small portions at a time. No maps of

sufficient accuracy have been laid down of the earliest excavations, and

it will be better to reserve all accounts of domestic arrangements till

we can illustrate them by the Pompeian remains. One large villa,

however, seems to have been a very important structure. It was

surrounded by a garden enclosed within a square wall and ditch. The

floors were ornamented with beautiful mosaics and the halls contained a

rich variety of busts and statues. One of the chambers served the

purpose of a bath; another, supposed to have been a sacrarium, was

painted with serpents, and within it was found a brazen tripod,

containing cinders and ashes; but the most curious discovery of all, was

an apartment in this villa used as a library, and fitted up with wooden

presses around the walls, about six feet in height; a double row of

presses stood in the middle of the room, so as to admit of a free

passage on every side. The wood of which the presses had been made was

burned to a cinder, and gave way at the first touch; but the volumes,

composed of a much more perishable substance, the Egyptian or Syracusan

papyrus, were, although completely carbonised, through the effect of the

heat, still so far preserved as to admit of their removal. A number of

these supposed pieces of charcoal were at first carried off, which by

accidental fracture exposed the remains of letters and proved to be so

many ancient manuscripts. The Greek manuscripts consisted of rolls

scarcely a foot in length, and but two or three inches in thickness.

Some had a label in front, at one end of the roll, with the name of the

work or the author, which was visible from its place in the library.[51]

[51] See a Pompeian painting described at p. 50, Cubiculum 3.

The sixteen centuries during which the substances had been crushed

together, rendered it almost hopeless to unroll, and still less to

decipher them; but Camillo Paderni devoted twelve days to the occupation

underground, and succeeded in carrying away 337 manuscripts. Almost all

are in Greek, very few in Latin, and some of the rolls are forty or

fifty feet in length. The lines are arranged in columns across the

shortest surface, as in our newspapers, each line extending only about

two or three inches in length. The greater part of the works in this

collection relate to Epicurean philosophy. Their decipherment has

naturally occupied much of the attention of the learned, and many of the

manuscripts have been published at Oxford.

The condition of Herculaneum was at the period of its discovery more

interesting and much more worthy the notice of the traveller than it is

at present. The object of its excavation having unfortunately been

confined to the discovery of statues, paintings, and other curiosities,

and not carried on with a view to lay open the city, and thus to

ascertain the features of its buildings and streets, most of the latter

were again filled up with rubbish as soon as they were divested of

everything moveable. Even the marble was torn from the temples.

Herculaneum may therefore be said to have been overwhelmed a second time

by its modern discoverers; and the appearance it previously presented

can now only be ascertained from the accounts of those who beheld it in

a more perfect state. The existence of the large towns of Portici and

Resina overhead render it impossible for many parts of the excavations

to remain open to the sky; one portion, however, was allowed to be so

until the sinking of the main road, subject to incessant traffic,

compelled the government to have the undercuttings filled in, and the

apertures blocked up. A part of the city nearer to the mountain has been

thrown open and the sun is again permitted to shine upon gardens and

habitations now desolate and mouldering.

From the hard nature of the rock at Herculaneum, the city was for a long

time supposed to have been buried in lava, and the darkness and

obscurity of the passages prevented the discovery of the truth. But now,

since daylight has been admitted, the whole mass is found to be nothing

more than hard tufa, rendered, at the lower parts, still more compact by

the percolation of water, which in all cases leaves the finest possible

sediment. Lava is stone that has been actually melted, and flows over

the surface in the same way as molten iron issues from a furnace. The

beds of real lava may be easily distinguished in the upper levels of the

earth laid open in these excavations. All the timber of the houses has

been completely reduced to charcoal, but every beam was found perfect as

to shape and in its proper position; many of the bronzes, however, were

melted. These effects seem to be the result of an intense heat diffused

through the entire mass at a subsequent period; for, at the time of the

first eruption, great quantities of boiling water appear to have been

mixed with the fine dust and scoria, the same materials that fell dry

and loose upon Pompeii.

An entrance from the road at Resina to the excavations was formed in

1750. It is still the only means of access to the most important

buildings, and consists of a narrow passage cut through the solid lava.

The ancient city lies at a depth of seventy feet below the modern level.

The great difficulty of excavating Herculaneum, on account of the soil

above being occupied by crowded habitations, induced the government to

turn their attention more particularly to Pompeii.

“Nearly seventeen centuries had rolled away when the City of Pompeii was

disinterred from its silent tomb, all vivid with undimmed hues; its

walls fresh as if painted yesterday, not a hue faded on the rich mosaic

of its floors; in its forum the half-finished columns as left by the

workman’s hands; in its gardens the sacrificial tripod; in its halls the

chest of treasure; in its baths the strigil; in its theatres the counter

of admission; in its saloons the furniture and the lamp; in its

triclinia the fragments of the last feast; in its cubicula the perfumes

and the rouge of faded beauty; and everywhere the bones and skeletons of

those who once moved the springs of that minute, yet gorgeous machine of

luxury and of life.

“In the house of Diomed, in the subterranean vaults, twenty skeletons

(one of a babe) were discovered in one spot by the door, covered by a

fine ashen dust, that had evidently been wafted slowly through the

apertures, until it had filled the whole space. There were jewels and

coins, candelabra for unavailing light, and wine hardened in the amphoræ

for a prolongation of agonised life. The sand, consolidated by damps,

had taken the forms of the skeletons as in a cast; and the traveller may

yet see the impression of a female neck and bosom of young and round

proportions.

“It seems to the inquirer as if the air had been gradually changed into

a sulphurous vapour; the inmates of the vaults had rushed to the door to

find it closed and blocked up by the scoria without, and, in their

attempts to force it, had been suffocated with the atmosphere.

“In the garden was found a skeleton with a key by its bony hand, and

near it a bag of coins. This is believed to have been the master of the

house, who had probably sought to escape by the garden, and been

destroyed either by the vapours or some fragment of stone. Beside some

silver vases lay another skeleton, probably of a slave.

“The houses of Sallust and of Pansa, the temple of Isis, with the

juggling concealments behind the statues--the lurking place of its holy

oracles--are now bared to the gaze of the curious. In one of the

chambers of that temple was found a huge skeleton with an axe by the

side of it: two walls had been pierced by the axe--the victim could

penetrate no farther. In the midst of the city was found another

skeleton, by the side of which was a heap of coins and many of the

mystic ornaments of the fane of Isis.”[52]

[52] Bulwer’s “Last Days of Pompeii.”

Linen and fishing nets; loaves of bread with the impress of the baker’s

name; even fruits, as walnuts, almonds, peach-stones, and chestnuts,

were distinctly recognisable. Eggs have been found whole and empty, and

a jar of oil had olives still floating in it; the oil burnt upon

application of flame, but the fruit was flavourless. Very few jewels

were discovered, which shows that the inhabitants had time to escape; a

wooden comb was found with teeth on both sides, closer on one side than

the other. Lace fabricated of pure gold, a folding parasol similar to

those now in use, a case of surgeon’s instruments, balances, sculptors’

tools, chisels and compasses, writing materials, vessels of white cut

and coloured glass, coals collected for fuel, and wine still remaining

in jars, may all be found in the curious catalogue of articles that had

braved the lapse of time. Other circumstances there are which claim our

better feelings. At the city gate, the sentinel, faithful to his trust,

was found in his sentry box, a skeleton, clothed in

“The very armour he had on,”

when his dreadful doom overtook him; in the barracks, near the

triangular forum, malefactors were found in the public stocks; the

crumbling remains of prisoners were discovered in the dungeons near the

temple of Jupiter, no one in that hour of general horror and confusion

having thought of them or of their wretchedness, in being thus immured

alive. The bones of the ass, that worked the baker’s mill, were found

there; the skeletons of horses remained in the cribs in which they had

been stabled for the last time.

The discoveries that had been made long before the arrival of Prince

Elbœuf, and which were communicated to the French Academy of Science,

1689, were remembered by the Neapolitan Government, and in the beginning

of the year 1749 we have the first authentic reference to the ancient

city of Pompeii. “On the 18th of January, at a place called Civita,” so

runs the official announcement, “not far from Torre dell’ Annunciata,

where the ancient Pompeii may have been, was found an apartment

decorated with sixteen charming little dancing females brightly

coloured, two centaurs and figures, bands of arabesques forming panels

with Cupids in the midst, and twelve fauns dancing on a rope, all upon a

black ground.” (Pitture d’Ercolano, vol. i., p. 93, tavole 17 to 28, and

vol. iii., tavole 28 to 35 inclusive.) They are very small figures, and

have since been removed to the Museo Borbonico. About the same time a

labourer, whilst ploughing in the neighbouring fields, found a statue of

brass.

Among the earliest buildings excavated at Pompeii was the Amphitheatre;

it was cleared in 1755, and seems to have been capable of holding ten

thousand people (Pompeiana, p. 259). In the amphitheatre, games were

held, gladiators fought for their lives with wild beasts, or with one

another, and these savage spectacles were under the particular

superintendence of an edile. We are informed by Dion Cassius, that the

eruption came on whilst the populace were assembled in the theatre, but

which of the theatres is meant, as there were several, remains doubtful.

Thus far is certain, that sufficient time was left for escape, as no

skeletons were found in either of them. From the seats of this

amphitheatre may certainly be obtained the grandest view of the

mountain, and if, as Bulwer’s admirable romance “the Last Days of

Pompeii” depicts it, the assembly was held on this spot, the first signs

of the coming destruction would have been seen by all the multitude. An

announcement connected with these performances has since been discovered

upon the walls of the Basilica. A placard--the playbill of those

times--announced that the troops of gladiators belonging to Ampliatus

would contend in the amphitheatre on the 17th of May, and that another

exhibition would take place on the 31st, exactly three months before the

destruction of the city.

The Temple of Isis was accidentally discovered in 1765, by some workmen

employed in making a subterraneous aqueduct to Torre dell’ Annunciata.

These discoveries induced Charles III. to transfer his attention

exclusively to Pompeii (Pompeiana, p. 5). The Triangular Forum, the

Temple of Æsculapius, and the two great theatres were all laid open in

the course of two or three successive years. These buildings are all in

the same quarter of the town, but quite remote from the great forum and

public buildings which were not discovered until 1816.

It is a remarkable fact that Fontana, the great architect, carried a

subterraneous canal in 1592 directly under the court of the Temple of

Isis. He was employed to convey the waters of the river Sarno to the

town of Torre dell’ Annunziata; and it seems wonderful that the

existence of this interesting city was not made known at the time.

The situation of Pompeii, as it originally stood upon an elevation

surrounded by a fertile plain, is well shown in the accompanying view.

The eminence marked in the woodcut by the long pale light mounds on the

right between the tower of a farm-house and the base of the volcano, is

the site of the city. Pompeii was never buried beneath the surface of

the ground; on the contrary, many of its walls were always

_conspicuous_, as, for instance, that at the back of the tragic theatre.

The locality seems to have been known to the peasants of the vicinity by

the name of _civita_ (city). The rains of successive seasons may

probably have carried away most of the stones and ashes that fell around

the city, whilst the walls of the houses themselves would serve to

retain all that had fallen upon them.

Other villas also were excavated at Gragnano, the ancient Stabiæ, and

most of their decorations were removed to the Museo Borbonico. The baths

discovered at Stabiæ, in 1827, were very interesting. They are described

in “Gell’s Pompeiana,” 2nd series, vol. i. pp. 131 and 140.

[Illustration:

Bay of Naples.

The river Sarnus.

Mounds marking the extent of Pompeii.

VIEW OF VESUVIUS, FROM BETWEEN CASTELLAMARE AND GRAGNANO.]

For our present purpose, the public buildings and temples of Pompeii and

Herculaneum require a less detailed account; a slight enumeration of

them, however, is necessary to show the extent and importance of the

community, whose taste and refinement required such dwellings for their

private enjoyment, and also to prove that the buildings, from which many

of the designs on the walls of the Pompeian Court have been taken, do

not owe their origin to the slight and flimsy taste prevailing among

the frequenters of a seaside town in the modern sense of the word, but

to the higher refinement and habits of those who, leaving Rome in the

heat of a summer sun, sought the ease and indulgence of a life such as

Campania alone afforded, and yet could not tolerate the contrast of an

inferior art around them. This is proved by a comparison of the Pompeian

decorations with those of the same period in the baths of Titus, at

Rome. The same style and the same peculiarities of taste are evident,

and they perfectly illustrate the remarks of Vitruvius, which will be

considered in a future place.

When the French occupied Naples, the walls surrounding the city were

entirely cleared; this was in October, 1812, and in the March following

the street of tombs. Murat defrayed most of the expenses of excavation,

and in a short time the Forum and Basilica, with the adjacent buildings,

were laid open. At one time 3000 men were employed in the work of

exploration.

The Forum (1816) is the largest and by far the grandest spot in Pompeii.

It is surrounded by a Grecian Doric colonnade, the Temple of Jupiter,

two triumphal arches, forming the north end, and the Temple of Venus and

Basilica on the west. Facing the Temple of Jupiter were large buildings,

profusely decorated with statues, called the Curiæ and Ærarium, and the

remaining side of the forum was occupied by various buildings, among

them the Pantheon and the Chalcidicum of Eumachia; these were excavated

between 1817 and 1821. The discovery of the public baths did not take

place till 1824. These contributed materially to a better comprehension

of many passages in ancient authors, being more perfect examples than

the vast ranges for similar purposes still existing at Rome.

Tlie general result of the Pompeian excavations up to the present time

may be thus summed up; three forums, nine temples, a basilica, a

chalcidicum, three piazze, an amphitheatre, two theatres, a prison,

double baths, nearly one hundred houses and shops, several villas, town

walls, six gates, and twelve tombs.

The impression likely to be produced on the mind of a spectator from the

scene in its present condition, may be gathered from the following

passages extracted from my own journal, recording my first visit to

Pompeii, September 16th, 1843.

JOURNAL.

“By half-past ten we were at the railway station, just outside the gates

of Naples, and immediately started for Pompeii. The line of rail

continues along the shore of the bay; nothing can exceed the bustle,

confusion, and want of system on this amusing road. There exists neither

distinction of classes nor limitation of luggage, so that fruit-stalls

and puppet-shows--Polichinello, by the way, is here in his native

land--are heaped together in the carriages. The first station we reached

was Portici, the next Resina, accompanied by the classic cry of

Ercolano--signore, Porta d’Ercolano--then Torre del Greco, where heaps

of lava piled one upon the other, attest the awful eruption of the last

century. Torre dell’ Annunciata being the nearest station to Pompeii we

alighted here, and proceeded along a dusty road, lined with cactus,

poplar, stone pine, and the castor-oil tree. Festoons of the richest

vines hung from tree to tree, and the black clusters peeped out beneath

the broad-spread leaves, already beginning to change into the gold of

the approaching Autumn. The fields were teeming with corn, hemp, and

cotton. No beggars, the pest of Naples, crowded round our carratella,

and the dust which rolled in dense clouds was our only annoyance. We now

turned our thoughts to Pompeii. A small guard house of soldiers marked

the entrance to these classic precincts, and for some distance further

the road was planted with willows, producing a rich and solemn effect,

and well preparing us for the street of tombs which soon broke upon our

view. The road was lined with tombs for a considerable distance before

we approached the city gate, called Porta d’Ercolano, on the Herculaneum

side; but previously to examining the tombs, we diverged to the right to

explore the villa of Diomed, where we found everything in exact

accordance with the description of Sir William Gell and Mr. Malkin’s

work, ‘Pompeii,’ by the Society of Entertaining Knowledge.

“The tombs are all small but minutely ornamented, the upper parts still

remain, and they appear altogether much more complete than I had

expected. The gate of Herculaneum, with its grooves, sentry box, and

road-pavements, corresponds exactly with prints and descriptions given

by numerous travellers.

“At this point of view, little is really wanting. The eye pursues a long

line of ascending road, with tombs and thick trees on each side, broken

only by the gate of the city, through the arch of which a long

continuation of houses is clearly visible. We entered the city;

everything is on a small scale, but the walls at this entrance to the

city seem high in proportion; the footway and carriage-road remain

undisturbed, and still retain the track of chariot wheels. The motion

and noise of inhabitants alone seem wanting--no decay is visible, and

the impression produced by the scene was that of a populous city during

church time. We wandered on through streets and lanes, prying into

buildings both public and private, after the manner of that wonderful

prince mentioned in the ‘Arabian Nights Entertainments,’ who explored a

city, the inhabitants of which had been turned into stone.

“In the shops, many of the walls remain perfect, roofs alone have

disappeared, but counters, doorways, and depositaries are just such as

we see daily at Naples, and scarcely inferior in point of freshness.

“The mosaic strewn floors are wonderfully perfect--a little patching and

inequality of level caused by the previous earthquake are here and there

perceptible; the chief difficulty at first is to know the floor from the

pavement, that is, to distinguish the inside of a house from the

courtyard. All external walls were plastered and coloured, so that a

mistake might easily arise.

“The Houses of the Quæstor, Sallust, and the Faun, are exquisite

specimens of proportion and arrangement in domestic building. The

beautifully painted walls, columns, and inlaid marble or mosaic floor,

combine with the deep blue sky, forming so glorious a whole that the

rooflessness is forgotten, and the eye reposes with delight on the

assembled harmonies.

“The whole city is encompassed by enormous mounds of debris, under which

it was formerly buried. These lumps are now caked together, and in their

sloping sides trees have already sprung up, so that all appearance of

_rubbish_ is fortunately concealed.

“I was greatly disappointed with the scale of many objects, especially

the Baths. Sir William Gell’s views are very correct, but the living

figures introduced are on an utterly false scale. The Telamons, a series

of terra-cotta figures, tinted red, with yellow hair and drapery,

supporting the frieze, seem, in his pictures, the size of life, whereas

they are only two feet high, one-third in fact of the size they are made

to appear in his drawings.

“Modern roofs are extended over all parts retaining ornament, stucco, or

paintings; some of the finest mosaics are carefully boarded over--the

famous lion, for instance--whilst others are protected by coarse glass

frames with slides such as we use for cucumber-beds in kitchen gardens.

A beautiful marble pavement attracted our attention, in the house of

Actæon or Sallust, but the great mosaic of Darius is not visible, being

plastered over preparatory to its removal to Naples. The borders alone

remain uncovered. The Forum, with its Basilica, temples of Jupiter,

Vesta, and Venus, are only realisations of my previous conception,

allowing, as before, for the reduction of size. The best mosaics,

paintings, statues and bronzes have been removed to Naples, but their

place is frequently supplied by copies, which serve equally well to

illustrate their effect.

“The tragic theatre is complete in form; the stone seats, however, have

nearly all disappeared. The amphitheatre is considerably distant from

the rest of the excavations; it is remarkably perfect, and the view of

Vesuvius from the summit of this building is surprisingly grand. It

contrasts strangely with the beautiful limestone range of mountains on

the other side of the bay. Vesuvius appears more rugged and frowning in

this aspect--beheld from the remains of its victim--than from the

more-frequently painted scene, the Chiaja of Naples. The deep blue and

gray-brown of the volcano is studded with white dots, each of which is a

villa or hermitage, creeping up to the mouth of the crater, regardless

of the warnings of the buried cities, and the devastation at its roots

in Torre del Greco, and in Nola of the plain beyond. They seem like

flies settled on the head of a sleeping monster, or, to speak in better

phrase, like white sails on the calm and azure sea, which, at the moment

I am writing, seems incapable of harbouring the terrors and destruction

which mankind so frequently experience, and which two days ago we saw in

all their sublimity.

“In the baths of Pompeii a slight refreshment was offered us, and at a

little farm-house in the neighbourhood of the amphitheatre, we enjoyed a

more substantial meal. The comic theatre is small, but much more perfect

than the one previously visited. In all the public buildings a

commencement of restoration after the earthquake was clearly visible,

especially in the forum.

“Vegetation takes root, at every opportunity, between cracks of stones,

or wherever mould is collected; grass there is none. The wild fig and

the luxuriant fern are the most frequent intruders, but they do not

spread sufficiently to afford shelter, and the walls themselves are not

high enough to serve as protection against the scorching sun. As the sun

neared the horizon, we were warned to depart, and, mounting our car in

preference to the railway, we rattled off along the high road, well

pleased with a journey that, after defraying all expenses, did not

exceed the cost of 3_s._ 4_d._ So ended my first day at Pompeii, 1843.

“I could not help contrasting all this with our first visit to

Herculaneum, which is entirely underground, imbedded in hard tufa, and

exposed only in small portions protruding here and there, where we

threaded long caverns and galleries cut in the wet, cold, and dripping

material, the bad vapours of which are very dangerous. I would compare

Herculaneum to a geological fossil half worked out of the compact

material which surrounds it. There is an important difference in the

overwhelming of the two cities. Pompeii was covered solely with fine

dust and powdered scoria, all _dry_ but rendered compact by the great

pressure of the fallen mass. Herculaneum was filled up by a dense

rolling liquid, or rather paste of fine powder mixed with boiling

_water_ strongly impregnated with sulphur, and forming what has now

become a perfectly hard compact stone, and only to be removed with the

axe. In Pompeii all excavations are carried on with the shovel, as the

dry powder easily gives way.”

The private houses of Pompeii have been variously named, sometimes from

an inscription on the door post, or from the subject of some principal

painting, at other times from the supposed occupation or condition of

the owner, or from a peculiar object found in the dwelling; and not

unfrequently the presence of some distinguished person at the time of

excavation has conferred a lasting title on some particular remains. The

application of these names will be seen in the houses of Pansa, of

Meleager, the Quæstor, the Surgeon, the Fountain, and that of Queen

Caroline. Some of the houses have had the names changed, as that of the

Tragic Poet is now called the House with Homeric Paintings. All the

houses seem to have been buried somewhat higher than the top of the

ground floor. Upon this bed of ashes is found a layer of ashes mixed

with mould, and remains of buildings to the depth of seven feet. The

moisture retained in the vegetable mould had destroyed the surface of

the paintings, and not unfrequently the pattern was seen on the mould to

which the stucco still adhered. In this manner has the decoration of the

upper apartments been destroyed, and the pressure of superincumbent

masses has crumbled the woodwork. That the houses had upper ranges of

chambers is evident from the remains of staircases leading to them both

within and without. The first floors were nobly paved, mosaics having

been found at various levels one above the other. Ceilings also were

variously decorated with paintings like the walls, and sometimes

composed of stucco. Mr. Falkener (pp. 66 and 67) observed a gorgeously

ornamented ceiling to a tablinum. It consisted of a large circle in a

square panel boldly moulded, and enriched with stucco ornament, with

ultramarine, vermilion, and purple colouring, together with a profusion

of gilding. Fragments of equally elaborate ceilings were found in such a

position as to lead to the conviction that they belonged to apartments

of different stories, one above the other.

The visitor to Pompeii is generally struck with the intensity and

crudeness of the colours on the walls. This is easily accounted for in

the necessity for the exclusion of light in hot countries; for with

light heat comes also, and all who have visited Italy will remember the

care with which the modern sitting rooms are darkened during daytime.

The strength of these colours would thus be always _toned down_ by

shade.[53] With all the variegation of colour in these Pompeian walls,

one pervading principle may be observed, viz., that the strongest and

darkest colours are confined to the bottom of the room. Thus if the

dado, or lower part of the wall, be black, the rest will be red or

yellow, and the ceiling white; and if the dado be red, the rest of the

wall yellow or blue. If the dado be yellow, all the rest of the room

will be white.

[53] See page 65.

[Illustration: ARRANGEMENT OF A POMPEIAN HOUSE.

Painted Garden. Peristyle. Fauces. Ala. Cubiculum. Tablinum. Impluvium.

INTERIOR OF THE ATRIUM OF THE HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET, ACCORDING TO THE

RESTORATION OF SIR WILLIAM GELL.]

The principal divisions of a Roman house consist of three square

chambers, leading one into the other; the first and last of these are

lighted by a square opening in the middle of the ceiling, but the

central apartment is destitute of any means for the entrance of the

daylight; in fact, it receives only such light as can be communicated

from the rooms on either side; still as there was no actual partition

between these chambers, beyond that made by curtains,[54] sufficient

light must have obtained entrance, which could be modulated at pleasure.

The name of this central room was the _Tablinum_. The first room, which

is generally the largest, is called the _Atrium_, and has a square tank

or basin in the middle of the floor to collect the water dropping from

the roof, and to receive the falling rain, as the apartment is directly

open to the sky. The aperture in the roof is not very large, and this

arrangement for the free descent of rain affords two essential luxuries

to the inhabitant of a southern climate--shade and moisture. In a

country like our own it is scarcely possible to estimate their value.

[54] Sir William Gell (vol. i. p. 160 of Pompeiana, Second Series)

states that the iron rods on which curtains or draperies were

suspended from column to column were discovered perfect in an

excavation at Herculaneum in 1828.

The further room had a larger aperture above, and the open space below

was laid out with plants like a garden, bordered with columns, so that

the narrow covered space left on each side formed a miniature cloister.

It was called _Peristyle_, from the Greek words, meaning surrounded by

columns. In the map of ancient Rome, made in the time of Septimius

Severus, this arrangement in the private houses is distinctly visible.

As in our modern houses, the proportions varied both according to the

caprice of the owner, or the limitations of space. Some had a greater

number of apartments, and others a double set. Not a few added an

extensive series of domestic offices, dining-rooms, and bed chambers,

some of them up stairs. Many houses had a second and third story of

bed-rooms above the common level, but in all well constructed houses,

whatever the rank of the owner, these three apartments, _Atrium_,

_Tablinum_, and _Peristyle_, remain the _essential_ portions. Here, as

much of the life of a leading citizen was public, he received his

clients and allowed the slaves to wait upon him. It was only in the

inner apartment, such as the œci and triclinia, that he could indulge in

privacy.

In the better class of houses, the _Atrium_ was generally surrounded by

smaller rooms, called _cubicula_, and the square of the Atrium was

broken by the further part being widened on each side =[T]= fashion,

into _alæ_, or wings, which correspond to the transepts of our

cathedrals. The _tablinum_, again, was narrowed by a partition which

took off a side passage, called _fauces_, through which the servants

passed from one end of the house to the other without disturbing those

occupied in the middle chamber. The floor of this _tablinum_ was

frequently ornamented with elegant pictures, in mosaic, as that of the

Tragic Poet’s House, by the choragus teaching his actors, and

distributing his masks (Gell, vol. i. pl. 45). The famous large mosaic,

the Battle of Issus, in the House of the Faun, has already been

mentioned. In some houses, but very rarely, there was a passage on both

sides of the tablinum; as in the reproduction described in these pages,

the House of the Coloured Capitals, and a few others, but the majority

have one only.

The reader may derive a clearer and certainly a more poetical idea of an

ancient house from the following extracts from Sir Bulwer Lytton’s “Last

Days of Pompeii.” The house which he describes is taken from a personal

examination and the assistance of his antiquarian friend, Sir William

Gell:--

“You enter then usually by a small entrance passage, called vestibulum,

into a hall sometimes with--but more frequently without--the ornament of

columns; around three sides of this hall are doors communicating with

several bedchambers--among which is the porter’s--the best of these

being usually appropriated to country visitors. At the extremity of the

hall on either side to the right and left, if the house is large, there

are two small recesses, rather than chambers, generally devoted to the

ladies of the mansion; and in the centre of the tessellated pavement of

the hall is invariably a square shallow reservoir for rain

water--classically termed impluvium--which was admitted by an aperture

in the roof above, the said aperture being covered at will by an awning.

Near this impluvium, which had a peculiar sanctity in the eyes of the

ancients, were sometimes--but at Pompeii more rarely than at

Rome--placed images of the household gods. The hospitable hearth often

mentioned by the Roman poets, and consecrated to the Lares, was at

Pompeii almost invariably formed by a moveable brazier; while in some

corner, often the most ostentatious place, was deposited a huge wooden

chest, ornamented and strengthened by bands of bronze or iron, and

secured by strong hooks upon a stone pedestal, so firmly as to defy the

attempts of any robber to detach it from its position. It is supposed

that this chest was the moneybox, or coffer, of the master of the house;

though as no money has been found in any of the chests discovered at

Pompeii, it is probable that it was sometimes rather designed for

ornament than use. In this hall--or atrium, to speak classically--the

clients and visitors of inferior rank were usually received. In the

houses of the more ‘respectable,’ an atriensis, or slave peculiarly

devoted to the service of the hall, was invariably retained, and his

rank among his fellow-slaves was high and important. The reservoir in

the centre must have been rather a dangerous ornament; but the centre of

the hall was like the grass plot of a college, and interdicted to the

passers to and fro, who found ample space in the margin. Right opposite

the entrance at the other side of the hall, was an apartment (tablinum),

in which the pavement was usually adorned with rich mosaics, and the

wall covered with elaborate paintings. Here were usually kept the

records of the family or those of any public office that had been filled

by the owner; on one side of this saloon, if we may so call it, was

often a dining-room or triclinium; on the other side, perhaps, what we

should now term a cabinet of gems, containing whatever curiosities were

deemed most rare and costly; and invariably a small passage for the

slaves to cross to the further parts of the house without passing the

apartments thus mentioned. These rooms all opened on a square or oblong

colonnade, technically termed peristyle. If the house was small its

boundary ceased with this colonnade, and in that case its centre,

however diminutive, was ordinarily appropriated to the purpose of a

garden, and adorned with vases of flowers placed upon pedestals; while

under the colonnade, to the right and left, were doors admitting to

bedrooms, to a second triclinium, or eating-room--for the ancients

generally appropriated two rooms at least to that purpose, one for

summer and one for winter, or perhaps one for ordinary, the other for

festive occasions--and if the owner affected letters, a cabinet

dignified by the name of library--for a very small room was sufficient

to contain the few rolls of papyrus which the ancients deemed a notable

collection of books.

“At the end of the peristyle was generally the kitchen. Supposing the

house was large, it did not end with the peristyle, and the centre

thereof was not, in that case, a garden, but might be perhaps adorned

with a fountain or basin for fish; and at its end, exactly opposite to

the tablinum, was generally another eating room, on either side of which

were bed rooms, and perhaps a picture saloon or pinacotheca. These

apartments communicated again with a square or oblong space, usually

adorned on three sides with a colonnade like the peristyle, and very

much resembling the peristyle, only usually longer. This was the proper

viridarium or garden, being commonly adorned with a fountain or statues,

and a profusion of gay flowers; at its extreme end was the

gardener’s-house; on either side beneath the colonnade were sometimes,

if the size of the family required it, additional rooms.

“At Pompeii, a second or third story was rarely of importance, being

built only above a small part of the house and containing rooms for the

slaves; differing in this respect from the more magnificent edifices of

Rome, which generally contained the principal eating-room (or cœnaculum)

on the second floor. The apartments themselves were ordinarily of small

size; for in those delightful climes they received any extraordinary

number of visitors in the peristyle (or portico), the hall, or in the

garden; and even their banquet rooms, however elaborately adorned and

carefully selected in point of aspect, were of diminutive proportions;

for the intellectual ancients being fond of society, not of crowds,

rarely feasted more than nine at a time, so that large dinner rooms were

not so necessary with them as with us. But the suite of rooms seen at

once from the entrance, must have had a very imposing effect: you beheld

at once the hall richly paved and painted--the tablinum--the graceful

peristyle, and if the house extended further, the opposite banquet-room,

and the garden which closed the view with some gushing fount or marble

statue.

“The reader will now have a tolerable notion of the Pompeian houses,

which resembled in some respects the Grecian, but mostly the Roman

fashion of domestic architecture. In almost every house there is some

difference in detail from the rest, but the principal outline is the

same in all. In all, you find the hall, the tablinum, and the peristyle,

communicating with each other; in all you find the walls richly painted;

and in all the evidence of a people fond of the refining elegances of

life. The purity of the taste of the Pompeians in decoration is,

however, questionable; they were fond of the gaudiest colours, of

fantastic designs; they often painted the lower half of their columns a

bright red, leaving the rest uncoloured: and where the garden was small,

its wall was frequently tinted to deceive the eye as to its extent,

imitating trees, birds, temples, &c., in perspective; a meretricious

delusion which the graceful pedantry of Pliny himself adopted with a

complacent pride in its ingenuity.”

The novelist then proceeds to describe the house known by the name of

the Tragic Poet. (See plan No. 2 on page 38.)

“You enter by a long and narrow vestibule, on the floor of which is the

image of a dog in mosaic, with the well-known ‘Cave canem,’ or ‘Beware

the dog.’ On either side is a chamber of some size: for the interior

part of the house not being large enough to contain the two great

divisions of private and public departments, these two rooms were set

apart for the reception of visitors who, neither by rank nor

familiarity, were entitled to admission in the penetralia of the

mansion.

“Advancing up the vestibule, you enter an atrium that, when first

discovered, was rich in paintings, which in point of expression would

scarcely disgrace a Raphael. You may see them now transplanted to the

Neapolitan Museum; they are still the admiration of connoisseurs--they

depict the parting of Achilles and Briseis.

“Who does not acknowledge the force, the vigour, the beauty, employed in

delineating the forms and faces of Achilles and the immortal slave?

“On one side of the atrium, a small staircase admitted to the apartments

for the slaves on the second floor; there also were two or three small

bedrooms, the walls of which portrayed the Rape of Europa, the battle of

the Amazons, &c.

“You now enter the tablinum, across which, at either end, hung rich

draperies of Tyrian purple, half withdrawn. On the walls was depicted a

poet reading his verses to his friends; and in the pavement was inserted

a small and most exquisite mosaic, typical of the instructions given by

the director of the stage to his comedians.

“You passed through the saloon, and entered the peristyle; and here, as

I have said before was usually the case with smaller houses of Pompeii,

the mansion ended. From each of the seven columns that adorned this

court hung festoons of garlands; the centre, supplying the place of a

garden, bloomed with the rarest flowers, placed in vases of white

marble, that were supported on pedestals. At the left hand of this small

garden was a diminutive fane, resembling one of those small chapels

placed at the sides of roads in Catholic countries, and dedicated to the

Penates; before it stood a bronze tripod; to the left of the colonnade

were two small cubicula or bedrooms; to the right was the triclinium, in

which the guests were now assembled.

“This room is usually termed by the antiquaries of Naples, ‘The Chamber

of Leda;’ and in the beautiful work of Sir William Gell, the reader will

find an engraving from that most delicate and graceful painting of Leda

presenting her new-born to her husband, from which the room derives its

name. This charming apartment opened upon the fragrant garden. Round the

table of citrean wood, highly polished and delicately wrought with

silver arabesques, were placed the three couches, which were yet more

common at Pompeii than the semicircular seat that had grown lately into

fashion at Rome; and on these couches of bronze, studded with richer

metals, were laid thick quiltings, covered with elaborate broidery, and

yielding luxuriously to the pressure.”

The following plans, pp. 38 and 39, are collected into one group to

afford a more easy view of the differences in their general

construction. They are not drawn to scale, and have no pretensions to

detail. The principal apartments only are named upon them, and the

following is a list of their chief peculiarities, together with the

dates when they were excavated, and the various names by which they have

been known. The first numbers correspond with those on the plans.

1. HOUSE OF THE EMPEROR JOSEPH II. (1767-69), was a mansion of great

magnificence, of three stories. It was beautifully situated on the side

towards the sea. This house had a suite of baths; and in the

furnace-room the skeleton of a female was discovered. The regularity of

plan is very remarkable; but, unfortunately, the excavations were filled

in again, so that nothing now remains to be seen.

2. HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET (1824-26) is called in the Museo Borbonico,

“_Casa Omerica_,” the Homeric House: the same which Bulwer describes as

the house of Glaucus. Remarkable for the beauty and dignified character

of its paintings, most of them illustrating Homeric subjects.

A list of a few of the principal paintings and mosaics in this house

will suffice to show the taste of its occupant.

_Cave Canem._ Mosaic at entrance.

In atrium, on right wall, next to entrance, _The Marriage of Peleus and

Thetis_. On side wall, right hand, _The Parting of Achilles and

Briseis_. On same wall, separated only by a door, _The Departure of

Chryseis_. Opposite to the parting of Achilles and Briseis was

represented _The Fall of Icarus_. In a cubiculum on this side was the

small frieze of _Battle of Amazons_ (copied in the Atrium of Pompeian

Court, page 47). The tablinum was adorned with a picture of _A Poet

reading_, and the mosaic pavement representing _The Choragus and

Actors_. In a little chamber to the left of tablinum was a small picture

of _Venus fishing_. At the end of ambulatory of peristyle near

triclinium was the famous picture of _The Sacrifice of Iphigenia_,

painted on the wall adjoining the oven of the Fullonica. _The Deserted

Ariadne_ (page 57) adorned a small chamber to the left of the peristyle.

The opposite side of the peristyle was occupied by the kitchen, latrina,

and triclinium, which latter contained the exquisite picture of _Leda

presenting her Infant Progeny to Tyndareus_; hence this apartment is

sometimes called the Chamber of Leda. Other pictures in the same room

are _Venus_, _Cupid_, and _Adonis_, and an elaborate composition of

_Theseus deserting Ariadne_. He is in the act of stepping on board a

ship, where sailors are making ready for departure. Ariadne lies asleep

on the shore; her head is surrounded with a blue circular glory, which

is not uncommon in Pompeian paintings. Many of these pictures are on a

comparatively large scale, and only equalled in artistic excellence by

those which have been discovered in the houses of the Dioscuri and of

Ceres, one of the smallest houses in Pompeii. It has only one _ala_

(plan given in Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 55, and in Gell, vol. i., pl.

35, p. 143).

[Illustration: 1. House of Joseph II.]

[Illustration: 4. House of the Meleager or Apollo, and House of Nereids,

or of Isis.]

[Illustration: 2. House of the Tragic Poet, or, House of the Homeric

Paintings.]

[Illustration: 5. House of Sallust, or Actæon.]

[Illustration: 3. House of Queen Caroline.]

[Illustration: 6. Houses of the Mosaic Fountain, and of the Shell

Fountain.]

[Illustration: 7. House with the Coloured Capitals, near the Pantheon.]

[Illustration: 8. House of the Dioscuri, Quæstor, or Centaur.]

[Illustration: 9. House of the Female Musician, the Flute Player or

“Sonatrice.”--Excavated by Mr. Falkener.]

[Illustration: 10. From ancient Marble Map of Rome, representing Private

Houses.]

3. HOUSE OF QUEEN CAROLINE (1813), now called that of Adonis, remarkable

for the width of Atrium when viewed from vestibule. The kitchen has

windows opening to the street. In an open court is a permanent

semicircular couch of stone, the _sigma_ of Martial, and so called from

the shape that the Greek letter had at this period acquired. (See notice

on the changes in the Greek alphabet, in the Catalogue of Greek Court,

p. 22). In the Atrium, plants were painted on the wall, as if sprung up

out of the ground. A celebrated caricature painting of the studio of a

portrait painter was discovered by Mazois in this house.

4. HOUSE OF THE MELEAGER OR APOLLO (1830-31), called also the House of

Isis, or of the Nereids. The house is very extensive, and the various

apartments are arranged in a different manner from what is generally

seen at Pompeii. The block plan, No. 4, will sufficiently explain the

distribution of the various parts. The vestibulum is very long and

narrow.

5. HOUSE OF SALLUST (1809). Known also as the House of Actæon. The

_venereum_ is the peculiar feature of this house. The skeleton of a

young female, with four rings on one of her fingers, was discovered as

if just in the act of escaping; five gold bracelets, two ear-rings, and

thirty-two pieces of money were lying near her. The skeletons of three

other females, probably slaves, were found near her. The doorway of the

_Prothyrum_ was very broad, and was closed with a _quadrivalve_ door,

folding back like our shutters.

6. Two houses side by side, called from the features of their

peristyles, the Greater and the Smaller Fountain (1826). The small

fountain itself made of shells, the greater one encrusted with mosaics.

In the former house a remarkable painting of a sea-port, supposed to

represent Dicæarchia, or Puteoli, was discovered. Two staircases

indicate the former existence of upper rooms. Here they found oil, in

vases, with olives still swimming in it.

7. HOUSE OF THE COLOURED CAPITALS (1833-34). A very large house near the

so-called Pantheon.

It is a magnificent specimen of arrangement and decoration. The long

range of colonnade, forming a second peristyle or decorated garden, is

peculiar to this habitation. (Plan given in Mus. Bor., vol. x., tav. A &

B.)

8. HOUSE OF THE DIOSCURI (1828-29). This beautiful mansion has been

known by a great variety of names--_The Quaestor_, _the Centaur_,

_Castor and Pollux_. The latter name (Dioscuri also) is derived from the

spirited figures of the sons of _Leda_, painted reining in their horses

on the side walls of the left-hand vestibulum. A running _Mercury_, with

purse in hand, was painted on one of the posts of the same entrance. The

exterior of this house is much more carefully decorated than was usual

among the Pompeians. Many of the stucco ornaments have been picked out

with colour. Highly-decorated wooden chests, lined and bound externally

with iron, were found in the atrium, at the entrance of the left-hand

ala, which still contained a few gold and silver coins that had escaped

the grasp of some one who had returned to the spot after the destruction

of the city, and made excavation, evidently directed to that particular

spot.

This house is one of the finest for the grandeur and taste displayed in

every part of it. The celebrated paintings, _Perseus and Andromeda_,

_Medea and her Children_, were found on the piers at the lower angles of

the great central Peristyle. The great Exedra, or Triclinium, at its

extremity, was closed with folding doors, the sockets of which still

remain, and the floor was decorated with the famous circular mosaic of

_The Lion crowned with Garlands by young Cupids_. (Engraved in Mus.

Bor., vol. vii., tav. 61.) (Plan given in Gell’s Pompeiana, vol. ii.,

pl. 63.)

9. HOUSE OF THE FEMALE MUSICIAN (1847). Known by the Italian name _Della

Sonatrice_, called likewise _House of the Triumphant Bacchus_. It is a

very interesting excavation, displaying much magnificence and elegance

of decoration. It may be regarded as a double house of three stories.

Several of the paintings of the Sydenham Court have been copied from the

walls of this mansion. The name of the house is derived from a painting

in one of the chambers representing a young actress in a mask playing

the double flute. A picture was found near the foot of the stairs

displaying writing materials, such as tablets, _stylus_, _atramentum_,

or ink-bottle, and a sealed letter, which preserves the direction on it,

“To the Decurion Marcus Lucretius.” Hence, the house is not unfrequently

called by his name, in the supposition that he must have been the owner.

Mr. Falkener was present during the excavation of this house, and has

published a very interesting account of his observations in the Museum

of Classical Antiquities. The arrangement of the portion beyond the

tablinum is very singular, consisting of a fountain and basin surrounded

by a variety of small figures arranged in front of it. The house seems,

at the period of its destruction, to have been undergoing alteration.

Many of the central pictures had been taken out from the walls,

preparatory to the insertion of fresh ones. The artists appear to have

sometimes painted on wood for that purpose. Many years ago, the workmen

came to an apartment at Stabiæ, where the pictures had been separated

from a wall preparatory to removal, which the ruin of the city

prevented: the paintings therefore were found leaning against the wall

of the apartment. (The plan of this house is given in Mus. Bor., vol.

xiv., tav. A and B.)

10. PLAN of some private dwellings copied from the celebrated fragments

of a map of Rome, engraved on marble about the time of Septimius

Severus. (Bellorius Ichnographia, Tab. 7, page 35.)

THE HOUSE OF PANSA. (1811-14.) One of the largest of the superior class

of mansions hitherto discovered. It has an extensive garden, and the

rooms were distributed with great regularity. This house is more

generally referred to in illustration of a Pompeian house, and for that

reason has been made the subject of a larger and more elaborate plan

than the rest. In one of the bed-rooms, five female skeletons were

found, some of them with gold ear-rings. The name of the house is

derived from the red letters PANSAM. ÆD. PARATVS. ROG. daubed upon the

door-post. (The plan of this house is given large at the end of this

book.)

THE HOUSE OF CERES (1827). Called also the House of Zephyrus and Flora,

from an interesting painting of the _Marriage of Zephyrus and Flora_; it

is also known as the House of the _Ship_ (Naviglio), which latter name

is derived from a painting in one of the shops. Another name, also, is

of the _Bacchantes_. The beautiful seated divinities, _Bacchus_ and

_Ceres_, between the Tablinum and Alæ of this court, were copied from

this House of Ceres. A third sitting deity, _Jupiter_, with a round

plate behind his head, like the _nimbus_ of saints in old pictures,

belonged to this series. It is remarkably dignified. (See Mus. Bor.,

vol. vi., tav. 52.)

THE HOUSE OF THE FAUN (1829-31). So called from the discovery of the

beautiful little Faun introduced in this court, copied in the original

material, bronze. This house is celebrated for its great mosaic,

representing _Alexander and Darius at the Battle of Issus_. The

apartments were very numerous and on a grand scale.

HISTORY OF THE POMPEIAN HOUSE.

The original intention in constructing the Pompeian Court in the Crystal

Palace was to appropriate it for purposes of refreshment. In furtherance

of this plan, more especial attention would have been devoted to the

mural decorations and the arrangements for public accommodation and

convenience. The nature and extent of the gigantic structure within

which this court was to be erected, determined, in a great measure, the

breadth of space to be left open. A glance upwards will show the

spectator how the supports of the galleries are arranged, and also the

necessity that exists for incorporating these within the walls of the

smaller erection. The refreshment chambers must necessarily have been

much larger in extent than any of the rooms in the houses at Pompeii;

the general disposition of their chambers, however well suited they

might have been for the purposes of ancient life, were totally

inadequate to the requirements of modern visitors; consequently this

plan was abandoned, and the present Pompeian Court instituted in its

stead.

The original design for this house was made by Mr. Digby Wyatt, at

Naples; and, in conjunction with Mr. Owen Jones, his companion in the

tour for the collection of works of art for the decoration of the

Crystal Palace generally, he entered into arrangements on the spot with

Signor Abbate, the official draughtsman to the King for the Pompeian

excavations, to come over to England the following spring, with cartoons

and tracings, from Pompeii, in order to decorate the building, then to

be prepared for him, at Sydenham, with facsimiles of the different

paintings at Pompeii selected by Mr. Wyatt for the decoration of the

respective rooms. The King of Naples granted permission to Signor Abbate

for the visit, and, accordingly, this distinguished artist arrived in

England fully prepared to perform his task. Although the plan of

devoting the Pompeian Court to refreshment was meanwhile given up, the

measurement of the walls that had been given to Signor Abbate for the

preparation of his cartoons prevented any general change of design, and

the shortness of the period originally fixed for his stay in this

country prevented any important alterations being undertaken. The

decorative painting of the Pompeian house was entirely under the

management of Signor Abbate, Mr. Parris. Jun. acting as his deputy. They

had thirty assistants, ten of whom were English. The principal figure

painters were Mundici and Gow, and the names of the chief ornamentalists

are Leslie, Luetyens, Wassner, Yahn, Munsch, Mœvius, and Meyer. The

entire arrangement and building are due to Mr. Digby Wyatt, furthered by

the zeal and energy of Mr. Thomas Hayes, his deputy.

It will be seen in the following description of the Court, that each

part has been copied from some existing authority; and the few

exceptions that do occur, in which originality was necessary, have been

carefully noted.

Some of the leading works which contain illustrations of Pompeii, will

be found enumerated in the list of books at the end of the description

of the Roman Court, and others of more immediate importance have been

referred to in the text when requisite.

DESCRIPTION OF THE POMPEIAN HOUSE.

The outer walls are supposed to be surrounded by the street, and the

entire house forms what the Romans called an _insula_; that is, a

detached building. The tiling, more conspicuous from the gallery, has

been faithfully copied from an ancient example, from the House of the

Female Musician. The roof of a house was found complete in April, 1853,

with the upper part of the ridge carefully guarded by cement. The

principal entrance faces the nave; it is flanked by two pilasters, the

capitals of which are copied from the back entrance of a house excavated

in 1834 (Mus. Bor., vol. x., tav. A, B), and from sketches taken on the

spot.

The general proportions of the doorway are taken from the house of Pansa

(Gell, Pompeiana, series i., pl. 34.); the grating, or lattice-work[55]

over the door, is introduced upon the authority of Mr. Donaldson in his

work upon doorways. The external windows are devised to throw more light

into the chambers, and to afford a more ready means of looking into the

inner recesses. This apparent innovation is authorised by the windows of

the Tragic Poet’s house which open upon the street, although much higher

up, being raised more than six feet above the level of the

foot-pavement. They seem to have been closed by sliding shutters and

were sometimes glazed. Glass was much used at Pompeii both for drinking

vessels and windows; sheets of glass have been found there, and a convex

glass for a lamp remained in the wall, dividing two apartments in the

public baths near the forum. The front part of the entrance was called

_Vestibulum_; the remaining part of the passage, _Prothyrum_, which

latter was bounded by a second door which closed in the _Atrium_. The

door is quadrivalve, and the panelling is taken from the false door

painted on the wall of the Chalcidicum near the statue of Eumachia

(Gell, Pompeiana, 2nd series, page 21, plate 9).

[55] Called by Vitruvius _Hypaetrum_. Smith, s. v. Janua. p. 626.

Compare a latticed window in vol. i., p. 229 of “Pitture d’Ercolano.”

The inlaid marble on the threshhold, representing a dog, is found at the

entrance to the House of the Tragic Poet (Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 56).

A similar device was painted at the entrance of Trimalchio’s house,

described by Petronius, who was alarmed at the first sight of the

furious animal at the full stretch of his chain so skilfully represented

in the original mosaic (Petronius, Satyricon, ch. 29). The inscription

on both is the same, CAVE CANEM, which means “Beware of the dog.”

The _Prothyrum_[56] or _Ostium_, was the passage between the street door

(_janua_), and the house door (_ostium_), and corresponds to our

entrance hall; a small square room on one side was sometimes devoted to

the door-keeper or porter (_janitor_ or _ostiarius_). They were called

_Cellæ Ostiariæ_.

[56] Rich, s. v.

The walls and ceilings of these side apartments are white, with a red

_dado_, that is, the lower part of the wall, answering to our surbase.

The decoration of these rooms is imitated from the House of the Second

Fountain. The walls of the _Prothyrum_ itself are red, with a winged

Cupid in a panel on each side. They are from the House of the Dioscuri.

The _dado_ is black, the ceilings of these three apartments are white

and slightly arched.

Most of the ceilings in Pompeii were of this description, and composed

of segmental vaults painted in fresco, like the walls beneath, only in

lighter colours or more delicate and thinner patterns on a white ground.

A small stucco cornice highly enriched with colour follows the lines of

the archivolt. In the Villa of Diomed are some flat ceilings, and other

examples have been published in the Pitture d’Ercolano.

ATRIUM.

The view of this spacious apartment at the moment of entrance is very

imposing; the only difference between this and a real Pompeian house

consists in the greater diffusion of light, and the increased scale of

the apartment better suited to a palace in the capital of the Empire.

For the purpose of fully displaying the beauties of the mural

decorations, much more light has been admitted into this apartment than

is usually found in the same division of the Pompeian houses. To this

end, the central aperture, which ought to have been of the same size as

the reservoir below, has been considerably widened. Windows also have

been introduced in order to give the spectator a better view of the

decorations within the side chambers. At a glance the eye recognises the

various parts of the building previously described. In the centre below

is the square basin to collect the water, called the _impluvium_, and

the corresponding aperture above would be the _compluvium_. At the

further end, facing the entrance, a graceful female figure is seen

playing the lyre--these paintings will be described hereafter. In many

houses this extremity is painted sky blue, with shrubs and trees to

imitate a distant garden--this was the case in the peristyle of the

Tragic Poet’s House (Gell, vol. i., p. 159), also in the Houses of the

Quæstor and Actæon (Gell, pl. 20, page 175). The dark square central

part forming as it were a frame to our view of the peristyle, is the

_tablinum_, the side-passages are the _fauces_, and the smaller

apertures round the sides of the _Atrium_ will be recognised as

conducting to the _cubicula_. Each of these apartments we propose to

examine minutely, after having taken a general view of the _Atrium_.

This important space in a Roman house was called also the _Cavum Ædium_,

or _Cavædium_, as Pliny writes it. There were various kinds of _Atria_;

the simplest with no support in the centre--as this--called the _Atrium

Tuscanicum_. Where the roof was supported by four columns in the centre

it was called _Tetrastylum_. If the columns surrounding the _impluvium_

were numerous, it was called _Corinthium_, and when, as rarely has been

found, no opening was left in the centre, the apartment was said to be

_Testudinatum_. Sometimes a roof was so arranged as to throw off the

water outside, and then the term _displuviatum_ was employed.

The _Atrium_, as viewed from the door, is oblong, in a position reversed

from that in which it is generally found in Pompeian houses: although an

authority for this arrangement exists in the House of Queen Caroline.

The _impluvium_ in the centre is of marble, and the exquisite small

marble statue of a faun, serving at the same time as a fountain, is

copied from the house called after the grand Duke of Tuscany. The floor

is an excellent imitation of ancient mosaic work, executed by Messrs.

Minton; the various patterns are taken from different Pompeian houses.

Many of the floors at Pompeii exhibit some of the finest examples of

mosaic work in which elaborate paintings with every variety of colour

have been produced. They are composed solely of small pieces of coloured

stone or glass fitted closely together and highly polished. It is the

most durable of all methods of painting, and is generally set in a

strong bed of cement. The modern Romans practise this art with such

success, that a mosaic can scarcely be distinguished from a picture

carefully painted with the brush. Every altar-piece but one, now in St.

Peters’, has been made by this process. The celebrated mosaic of the

Doves drinking, described by Pliny, is now in the capitol at Rome, and

many descriptions of pictures executed in this mode are to be found in

ancient authors. This process must be carefully distinguished from

_inlaying_, which the ancients also practised, and may be seen here in

the vestibules and some of the side chambers leading out of the

peristyle.

The prevailing colour of the atrium is white. All round the doors and

the windows of the Cubicula the wall is painted bright blue with red

dado. The pilasters are white with the lower part yellow; their capitals

white heightened by blue and red; they are from the House of the

Centaur. In square compartments, on a white ground, between the capitals

of pilasters, are elegant groups of female figures on marine animals,

and Cupids in chariots; some of the small enriched mouldings are from

the cornice of the tomb of Calventius Quietus, and the atrium frieze

_above tablinum_ is copied from a side apartment in the Tragic Poet’s

House (Mus. Bor. vol. ii., tav. A). It is composed of white figures of

combatants in armour on foot and in chariots; shields and dead bodies

lie prostrate. The ground of this frieze is purple, but the ground of

the original is described as white, and the figures are said to be

clothed in blue, green, and purple draperies. The females are Amazons,

distinguished by the pelta or lunated shield (see Statue No. 194 of the

Greek Court.) The rest of the frieze is white, with patterns of

bright-coloured lines in simple forms. Over each pilaster the frieze is

broken by double figures of Victory, yellow and gold, which serve to

support the beams which project to the edge of the compluvium. They were

modelled by Mr. Monti, under the superintendence of Signor Abbate, from

a drawing by Mr. Wyatt.

The compluvium is bordered with red standing tiles called antifixa, and

the arrangement of Mazois in his restoration of the House of Diomed has

been followed. The antifixa may be seen also on the model of the

Parthenon in the bas-relief gallery adjoining the Greek Court. The angle

tiles, with a spout to discharge the rain water, merit attention. The

sloping roof of the atrium, composed of light beams with panelling

between them, has been chiefly restored from existing paintings; but few

traces of woodwork remain in any part of these ancient cities without

having been seriously disturbed; the atrium ceilings being of wood, were

consequently destroyed; pictorial records are therefore our only

authorities. Fortunately for us, the ancients seem to have delighted in

depicting themselves and their ways of living, so that it is not

improbable that the architectural specimens that we see on their walls

are only the transcripts of the slender constructions which were in fact

confined to the upper stories. This is the more probable as the

background of these architectural scenes is generally sky, and where

vegetation does appear among them it consists commonly of plants growing

in pots, or else the tops of trees as they would appear from the upper

part of a house.

CUBICULA.

We must now go into the detail of the house and pass into each room as

consecutively numbered in the plan, beginning in this instance on the

left hand of the principal entrance, keeping the wall of Atrium always

to the left.

1. CUBICULUM. This small chamber has the walls totally black with a

white ceiling. It is an exact copy both in size and decoration, of a

room in the House of the Bronzes at Pompeii, called _la stanza nera_.

Facing the door is a square picture representing a “Sacrifice to

Minerva” (engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. xiii., tav. 8). In the centre a

round shield--the Argolic buckler--with serpent painted on it, mounted

on a square pedestal; above this appears a helmet placed on the top of a

square pillar; a winged Cupid seems to be adjusting the shield; in front

of the pedestal is a smaller circular altar, and Psyche with butterfly

wings, clothed in yellow and pink, stands on the left, as if about to

cast incense upon the altar. On the other side a Cupid, with blue wings

of the same peculiar curve observable in the Marlborough gem,

representing the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, brings a white lamb to

the altar for sacrifice. Among the arabesques to the right and left of

this picture are graceful vases. Half doors of a light wooden

construction may be observed, and a curious method of displaying

pictures is shown here; they are represented upon the wall very much

sloped forward and with folding shutters to them. (See Malkin’s Pompeii,

vol. ii., p. 123.) The arabesques at each end of this cubiculum are

especially beautiful. They have been wonderfully copied in Gruner’s

specimens of Ornamental Art, the size of the originals. The effect of

their rich colours upon a perfectly black ground is remarkable,

contributing to increase the apparent size of the room very

considerably. Few at first sight would imagine this little apartment to

measure only 22 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 9 inches. The window openings to

the atrium have been explained at page 44.

2. CUBICULUM. The next chamber, forming one corner of the quadrangle,

and lighted by a window in the outer wall, has also a white coved

ceiling. The upper part of the walls is white, the dado black, and the

remaining interval blue. Three graceful female figures floating in

separate panels are Bacchantes; they have no wings. The picture

surrounded by blue opposite the door, represents a sitting Endymion; he

holds a branch in his right hand, and a staff leaning on his left

shoulder; the drapery is pink; at his feet a stag,[57] with horns and

blue collar, may be regarded as the emblem of Diana, whose favourite he

was. (See Greek Court, No. 33). The background is composed of rocks with

a square tower in the centre. The subject of Endymion was a very

favourite one among the Pompeians. He was sometimes represented, as

here, entranced awaiting the arrival of the goddess, at other times

sleeping, and the goddess gazing upon him, with his dog starting in

surprise at the visitor. Not unfrequently a Cupid is introduced leading

Diana by the hand, holding a whip, as if she had just descended from her

chariot of night. Whenever the goddess is present Endymion is always

represented asleep. On the wall next the door facing the other picture

is a square painting of Venus fishing. She sits on a rock on the right

hand side, her yellow hair bound with a myrtle wreath, the lower part of

her figure enveloped in green drapery; a fish has attached itself to the

line of the rod which she holds in her right hand, and Cupid with blue

wings, sitting on a rock across the water, expresses great joy at his

mother’s success, which is evinced by his lively action. A piece of red

drapery upon which he kneels adds greatly to the harmony of the picture.

This subject of Venus angling is also frequently repeated; sometimes

Cupid holds the fish basket, and in other cases he angles also. (See

cubiculum 15.)

[57] On a closer examination I perceive that the animal is wounded,

and the picture therefore represents Cyparissus, who killed a

favourite stag by accident, and was transformed into the cypress. The

picture is mentioned by Mr. Falkener (page 51).

3. CUBICULUM. The next room in order flanks a side entrance. It is white

with a yellow dado. The wall facing the atrium has a square picture of a

poet or bookseller, and a comedian. On each side of this picture are

painted tall, thin, yellow columns, with yellow shields suspended

between them. Medusa and Lion heads are in the centre of these shields,

as they were found in the house described by Mr. Falkener (p. 46). The

poet, in the picture opposite the door, sits on the left, with his legs

crossed. His head is crowned with ivy, and the lower part of his figure

wrapt in blue and red drapery. He holds an open scroll in his left hand,

and with his right seems to be giving instructions to the player, who

stands before him with his mask raised over his head, as may also be

seen in the mosaic from the tablinum of the Tragic Poet’s house. (Gell,

Pompeiana, pl. 45, vol. i. p. 174). The comedian is dressed in a purple

tunic with sleeves, and a full yellow mantle like a pallium thrown over

it. In his left hand he holds a _lituus_ or curved stick much used by

the players. It resembles the crooked staff borne by the augurs, and so

often seen upon gems, Roman coins, and Etruscan paintings. It was

generally carried by actors. (Wieseler, Theatergebaüde, &c. Pl. 11, No.

3, Pl. 12, Nos. 23 to 28; and Pitture d’Ercolano, vol. ii. tav. 3. p.

19). The lituus was curved more than the pedum or shepherd’s crook,

which is simply a stick with a hook at the end of it.

At the foot of the sitting figure is a round box called _capsa_ or

_scrinium_, it has rings and cords on the outside. This box is, in fact,

a library, it contains the volumes or rolls such as have been discovered

in the villa at Herculaneum (see _ante_, p. 20), one of which the poet

may be supposed to have taken out and to be holding in his hand. Many

instances of these _scrinia_ occur among the Pompeian paintings, with

tickets or titles of the books hanging out at the top. (See also a

statue of Sophocles, No. 322, where the _scrinium_ is open and the rolls

clearly displayed.)

Above this composition, is a landscape in an oblong frame. It contains a

long villa and trees with awnings extended for shade, a yellow isolated

column and a separate ædiculum. This is one of the examples of landscape

painting prevalent during the time between Nero and Titus. Landscape

painting did not at first become a separate branch of art but Ludius

appears to have introduced the style. The ancients rarely indulged in

the modern taste for representing wild and romantic scenery; all their

compositions are made of long lines of building, basilicas, villas,

trees pleasantly disposed, bird’s-eye views of sea ports and

artificially arranged gardens. Places in fact _to go to_ and not in

accordance with the feeling of our own times, which leads us to enjoy a

grand scene, a combination of earth and sky without any desire to move

from the spot upon which we have been placed. A description of the Vale

of Tempe in Ælian has always been referred to as implying that the

ancients had _some_ feeling for the picturesque, and surely the back

grounds to many of their figures show considerable invention and

romantic appreciation, although deficient in the modern arts of aërial

perspective and chiaroscuro. Above this landscape, is a female figure,

the lower part draped, with an elephant’s trunk on the head, and a lion

at her right side. In this manner Africa is personified on coins both of

Hadrian and Septimius Severus, (Millin, Gal. Myth., Nos. 371 and

372).[58] The left foot of this figure is placed on an elephant’s head,

of which the trunk and tusks only appear (compare Falkener, page 52,

note). The yellow dado is ormented with white swans, holding purple

ribands. On the left wall, opposite the side vestibule, is a pretty

little group of a winged Cupid leading an ibex or chamois, painted on a

very dark purple ground.

[58] The skin with trunk and tusks of an elephant’s head may be seen

applied in a similar manner upon the coins of the Bactrian Demetrius.

Compare also a small double Hermes in the Roman Gallery, No. 385.

4. VESTIBULUM. The side entrance, light and narrow. The ceiling consists

of one flat sunk panel, white, with blue and red stars. The lower part

of wall red, the dado black. The SALVE inlaid in the pavement is taken

from the house of the Vestals.

5. The ALA: here, of necessity, very shallow, but in many Pompeian

houses of much greater depth, has a white curved ceiling, with broad

blue, red, and green lines on it. The upper part of walls white, a

frieze of black below it, yellow panels with white borders, black dado.

The paintings of the Ala have been taken from a house near the Basilica.

The great picture is called Cupid Condemned to Labour. The height of the

mountain in the background is very remarkable.

The picture is surrounded with red, and flanked with white columns,

having bright patterns spirally arranged upon them. On either side of

the chief picture are two floating figures upon a yellow ground,

surrounded by a chaste white patterned border, that has been published

by Zahn. To the left are two Cupids bearing a square pharetra or quiver.

To the right a lovely Cupid with crimson drapery, carrying a lyre such

as Apollo sometimes plays; he is assisted in the operation by a Psyche

with purple butterfly wings, a purple undervest and green over it,

wearing pale blue boots. These little figures are copied from a house

near the forum. In the spandril is an architectural scroll-work in gay

colours, with two lions leaping through it, a peculiarity to be seen in

the Temple of Isis, at Pompeii, and in the Theatre of Myra, in Lycia.

6. The wall adjoining the Ala, and forming part of the Atrium, has been

very gracefully decorated. It is occupied by a highly finished picture

of Bacchus enthroned. The god of wine in the bloom of youth and beauty

is crowned with the vine; a fawn’s skin--the nebris--is tied across his

chest; in his right hand he holds the cantharus--a two-handled cup

sacred to Bacchus--and with the other he grasps the thyrsus. His

sandalled feet rest on a square foot-stool, and a leopard sits on the

ground to the right of the throne; a drum or tympanum is placed at the

opposite side. The main ground of this composition is blue, the

architecture of the shrine or canopy around the figure green,

yellowish-brown and red. The central group is engraved in the Mus. Bor.,

vol. vi., tav. 53. The dado coloured rich deep red. From the House of

Ceres.

7. Next to this is the left-hand FAUCES or passage to the interior, and

more private parts of the house. The white ceiling is delicately covered

and spangled with blue and red stars. The right side of the fauces is

white at the top, with alternate divisions below of red and blue having

arabesques upon them. The dado black, with green and yellow patterns

upon them, published by Zahn.

8. THE TABLINUM.

This broad central space, both as regards its dimensions and

decorations, is wholly copied from the Tablinum of the house of Apollo.

The entire upper part is white, with delicate lines of blight colours

forming elegant patterns upon it. In the centre of the ceiling, which is

gently curved, is a naked Venus upon a green hippocamp or sea monster. A

flying Cupid holds reins, and another flying Cupid holds a mirror with a

long handle. Mus. Bor., vol. viii., tav. 10. Pitture d’Ercalano, vol.

ii., p. 247. The ground of the original group, found at Herculaneum, is

black. The Museo Borbonico text describes the second Cupid as holding

an umbrella, but the form is peculiarly that of a mirror, and

Appuleius, Met. 4, in his account of the train attending Venus as she

proceeded to the palace of Oceanus, makes especial mention of one

holding a mirror. The passage is so illustrative of the ideas of the age

that produced these paintings, that some part of it may be transcribed

with advantage.

“The daughters of Nereus, too, were present singing in tuneful harmony;

Portunus, too, rough with his azure-coloured beard; and Salacia, weighed

down with her lapful of fish; with little Palaemon, their charioteer,

upon a dolphin, and then troops of Tritons furrowing the main in all

directions. One softly sounded his melodious shell; another with a

silken canopy protected her from the sun; a third held a mirror, while

others, again, swam yoked to her car.”

The spandrils formed by the architrave of the peristyle and atrium are

filled with green marine animals on white ground.

9. _Left Wall._--The chief central picture is Perseus showing the head

of Medusa to Andromeda, reflected in the water at their feet; as the

direct sight of the Gorgon’s visage turned all to stone, the conceit

here adopted is very pretty. It was popular in Pompeii, and frequently

repeated. When Perseus was about to encounter Medusa, Minerva gave him a

polished shield, by the assistance of which he cut off her head without

the peril that had attended so many others, being guided through his

enterprise by the reflection in the shield. The composition of this

picture is very elegant. It is surrounded by bright red. On both sides

of the centre are rich architectural ranges of columns in two tiers. The

coffered ceilings represented are worthy of observation. Before the

columns, at the lower part, are bright blue doorways, in which lie comic

masks. To the right and left of these central compartments are large

yellow panels, each containing a floating female figure without wings.

The one to the left holds a pedum in her right hand and a vintage basket

with fruit in the left. The drapery is blue lined with purple. The

female to the right, dressed in white and crimson edged with blue, has

bare feet and holds a lyre and plectrum; both these females have

bracelets. Between the masks, under the principal picture, is a black

frieze with admirably-painted greenish marine monsters. The dado of

these walls is black. The picture and Bacchantes are copied from the

House with the Coloured Capitals.

10. _Right Wall._--The opposite side has exactly the same decorations,

with the exception of the central picture and the two side figures. The

middle picture represents Venus (Aphroditê), Euploia, borne on the back

of a Triton, playing a lyre. She is attended by the Cupids Pothos,

Himeros, and Eros. A female figure behind carries a jar, and the heads

of Boreas and Zephyros blowing are visible through the dark blue sky.

This picture is taken from the house with the coloured capitals. It has

been carefully engraved in the Museo Borbonico, vol. xii., tav. 32. See

also Panofka Autikenschau, Berlin, 1850.

The floating female to the left of central picture holds the _tympanum_

or drum in the right and _thyrsus_ in the left; her dress is pale purple

with white drapery floating behind. This shows well on the yellow panel.

Her left breast is covered with a nebris or fawn-skin. The female to the

right holds a ewer in her right hand and a patera in her left. A thin

gauze drapery is next her skin, having a crimson drapery lined with blue

over it. Both these Bacchantes have bracelets and anklets. The four

floating Bacchantes of tablinum have been taken from the House with the

Coloured Capitals.

11. The second FAUCES is precisely like the other. The broad black line

in the pavement edging the floor is characteristic of a Pompeian house.

In the one described by Mr. Falkener the black margin, about nine inches

broad (page 39), joined the walls. In some instances the colour was red.

12. Wall corresponding in position and decoration to No. 6. The central

figure here enthroned is Ceres, the Demeter of the Greeks. The Goddess

of Corn, of Earth, and Agriculture, is crowned with corn. A torch in her

right hand, bearded corn on her left arm, and a basket of corn also at

her feet. The spiked corn is always seen represented in ancient art both

in paintings and on coins. It forms a conspicuous symbol on the coins of

Metapontum, a city in the same part of Italy as Pompeii. This painting

is engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. vi., tav. 54. Also by Zahn, taf. 25.

The figure of Ceres is dressed in thin gauze undergarment, with pale

slate-coloured drapery covering a purple dress, which appears only above

the feet. A muslin-like drapery is gathered behind her head and

shoulders. The throne, torch, and flame are all of one uniform yellow

colour. The basket of corn is in natural colours. From the House of

Ceres.

13. ALA. The general decoration of Ala corresponds with the opposite

one. The main central picture of this Ala represents the rescue of

Andromeda. This painting affords an interesting comparison with the

bas-relief in the Greek Court, No. 35, where the same subject is

represented. The treatment of the principal figures in the painting is

much more sculpturesque than in the bas-relief. In the former the

rescued lady stands attitudinizing on a rock, like a statue on a

pedestal; her drapery is unruffled, and there is no sign of emotion in

the figure prompted either by love, or the recollection of her recent

perilous situation. In the latter there is a wild flutter about the

drapery of Andromeda. She is descending from the rock with an evident

confidence and dependence on her deliverer; and his firm manly pose in

the sculpture is characteristic of the hero. The freedom, however, in

the lines, is more pictorial in the bas-relief. The group as exhibited

in our Pompeian picture, is excellently adapted for modelling in

isolated statues. Compare Mus. Bor., vol. vi., tav. 50.

In this picture Perseus has yellow sandals and blue talaria. The action

of the hand to conceal the Gorgon’s head is not so successful as in the

sculpture; it is offensive to the spectator to see that openly which is

supposed to carry so much horror with it. On the ground, at the feet of

Andromeda, is a yellow casket, a white fan with red handle, and several

white cockle shells, scattered on the ground, which give an appearance

of petty detail. Two females are sitting on the rocks to the left, and

seem to be gazing upon the vanquished monster rolling at the feet of

Andromeda. The sword which Perseus bears is worth notice. It is the

_falx_, and has a peculiar hook to it used for pruning. The falx and

talaria or heel wings, are characteristic of Perseus. The graceful

figures on each side of this central picture are from a house near the

forum. To the left, a Cupid, with purple drapery, is supporting a

pale-blue vase. Psyche, with purple butterfly wings and blue and green

drapery, soars above, and seems helping to lift the vase by the handles.

It forms a charming group. To the right of the chief picture are two

Cupids carrying a basket with double arched handle. Both these groups

are on a yellow ground.

14. VESTIBULUM, exactly the same as the one opposite.

15. CUBICULUM or _cella familiaris_ as next the vestibule. This chamber

has white walls with yellow dado. The central picture facing Atrium

represents Venus fishing; she holds the rod in the right hand, and, as

usual, leans with the other hand on the seat, having the arm quite

straight. A similar subject has already been described in cubiculum 2.

Here the figures are larger and close together. Instead of Cupid, is a

Genius,[59] with broad-spreading green wings. He holds a green branch

in his right hand; his drapery purple. Venus is crowned with a diadem,

white drapery hangs behind her left arm, and the lower part of her

figure is covered by crimson folds with blue lining. The arrangement of

sloping shields on each side is the same as in chamber 3. Above the

chief painting is a landscape, with buildings, water and a boat. Over

this little picture again is a Victory in a _biga_ or chariot, with the

horses painted entirely in yellow. The figure of Victory holds the palm

branch in her left, and extends the right arm, grasping a wreath. Her

wings are wide spread, but very much distorted. When Cupid was banished

from Olympus for his impertinence, it is said that his wings were taken

from him and transferred to Victory. In early art many of the divinities

were winged. Diana on the chest of Cypselus (Pausanias, book v., ch.

19,) and so also is she represented upon the celebrated Clitias vase, at

Florence. Many of the large figures of the Assyrian palaces, evidently

acting as priests or attendants, are provided with wings, but they are

never seen using them. Hebe is represented winged upon the famous cup of

Sosias at Berlin, but these all belong to the undeveloped period of art.

Among the Athenians Victory was represented unwinged--_Apteros_. After

the battle of Marathon, Minerva is fabled to have confined Victory to

her favourite spot, the Acropolis, by depriving her of her wings. A

celebrated wooden statue of Wingless Victory, _Niké Apteros_, was at

Athens, and a copy of it made by Calamis was sent to Olympia by the

Mantineans. At Athens was the celebrated little temple of Wingless

Victory, some of the sculptures from which are described in No. 57 of

Greek Court catalogue. The right hand of the great ivory statue by

Phidias, in the Parthenon, held a figure of Victory, Greek Court

catalogue, pp. 29 and 30. To return to the painted Victory in this

apartment. The highly decorated bar which seems attached to the collars

of the horses is very peculiar. The gathering of the mane into a knot on

the heads of the horses, and their breast collars are exactly like those

on the carved lid of the Chimæra tomb from Xanthus, now in the British

Museum. The top knot of the horses may be seen in several antique

sculptures from Naples and Florence, Nos. 69 and 71 of Greek Catalogue,

and seems to have been originally an eastern custom. The body of the

chariot is quite plain. The horses viewed in front are very clumsily

foreshortened. This group has been engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. xiv.,

tav. 45. On the light hand wall is a little compartment of a winged

Cupid, with pedum and basket, running from a sitting lion. These

paintings are all from the House of the Girl playing the Double-flute,

called della Sonatrice, discovered in 1847 (H.B. p. 353).

[59] Called in Mr. Falkener’s book, p. 49, Victory.

16. CUBICULUM, occupying the corresponding angle to No. 2, also lighted

with a window, is blue with black dado; copied from the House of the

Second Fountain. The chief picture on the wall opposite the door is the

deserted Ariadne, a subject many times repeated at Pompeii, and with a

great variety of treatment. Ariadne is represented sitting on the shore

of Naxos just awaking, and beginning to be aware of her forlorn

situation; Cupid, at her side, points to a ship far away, with

full-spread sail and many oars, which is bearing off Theseus, her

faithless lover. A crimson cord, for necklace, is crossed also over her

naked body, a purple drapery covers her lower limbs. The scene is

indicated by wild crags, and the horizon is placed remarkably high up in

the picture. The wings of Cupid are green, the ship yellow with a white

sail. This picture is copied from one in the House of the Tragic Poet;

it has been engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 62., and Zahn,

vol. i., pl. 33. Gell’s Pompeiana, vol. i., pl. 43, page 169.

On each side is a graceful floating female figure, the one to the left

holding a patera in one hand, and a garland in the other; the female on

the other side, has a similar action, her drapery is yellow: both

figures are remarkably elegant. On the opposite wall, next the door, is

a picture of a very playful character; it is a Cupid seller. On the

ground is a square strongly constructed cage, such as is used for birds,

with an opening at the top, through which an old man is in the act of

lifting out a Cupid; other Cupids are within the bars, and show by their

gestures the irksomeness of their confinement. The old man dressed in

the _exomis_, a garment peculiar to the working classes, lifts the

struggling Cupid by one wing; he holds the square trap door in his left

hand; a handsome lady who has come as a purchaser stands on the other

side and looks up to a Cupid flying above, holding two bright stars; her

right hand seems to point to the cage from which the object of her

attention may have escaped. Another Cupid has eluded the vigilance of

his keeper and hides himself behind the lady’s dress. The scene takes

place in a handsome portico with two Ionic columns. This has been

engraved in Zahn, 2nd series, taf. 18. Another picture, found at Stabiæ,

of a female Love merchant is much more pleasingly and better composed.

There the woman holds up the victim by both wings, and offers it like a

live chicken to a lady who is seated on the other side. Another Cupid

remains within the cage, which is elegantly made and circular. This

well-known picture is engraved in the Pitt. Erc., vol. iii., tav. 7.,

and Mus. Bor., vol. i., tav. 3. To the left of the picture on this wall

is a beautiful floating female figure, holding a _tympanum_ or drum in

the right hand, with the other raised holding a _thyrsus_. A _nebris_,

or fawn-skin, passes over her right shoulder, her drapery is red lined

with white, feet bare. The effect of colour upon the blue ground is very

charming.

17. CUBICULUM. A black chamber, corresponding to the one we first

entered. This room has been copied, both in style and decoration, from

the _stanza nera_ of the House of the Bronzes. Opposite the window is a

pleasing group of Cupid and Psyche, her drapery is purple and blue, and

the wings purple. The picture opposite door represents three Cupids and

Psyche surrounding a peacock. In this bird we recognise the favourite of

Juno, and the Cupids appear to be feeding it, but the meaning of the

subject is very vague. It has been engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. xi.,

tav. 15. Thus we have completed the circuit of the atrium and its

smaller chambers; we propose to pass into the less public parts of the

house by the left hand fauces, No. 7.

PERISTYLE.

18. _Ambulatory, Ambulatio_, also called _Porticus_ by the Romans, and

_Stoa_ by the Greeks, is a colonnade on four sides, very like the

cloisters of our cathedrals. The view looking through the fauces is

bounded by a small shrine or chapel, called the _Lararium_. It is a

niche raised on a pedestal, flanked by pilasters, and surmounted by a

pediment. Within this were kept the Lares, the sacred household gods,

that accompanied the inhabitants in their flight. No figures of this

sort have ever been found in such places at Pompeii, although many

representations of them remain depicted on the walls. They were

generally represented as young men in short girt tunics, crowned and

holding the drinking horn in one hand. (See Milman’s Horace, p. 168.)

Their appearance was first ascertained by an inscription over the

sculpture of an altar formerly in the Villa Medici, and now at Florence;

a similar altar is in the Vatican, both inscribed LARIBVS AVGVSTIS. (See

Galleria di Firenze, pl. 144 of statue, &c.; Mus. Pio. Clem., vol. iv.,

tav. 45; and Guattani Mon. Ined, vol. ii.; Maggio, 1785). The Lares

presided especially over the domestic hearth. The cornice and

entablature of Lararium are taken from the funeral Triclinium at

Pompeii. The wall behind is a rich Pompeian red, with a yellow ornament,

forming a panel on it, beautifully painted.

The roof of the ambulatory is panelled and decorated according to the

prevailing style of the lighter coloured ceilings at Pompeii. The

devices are formed of very thin lines of the brightest colours upon

white. The Ionic capitals of the columns are from the Basilica. The

shafts of the columns are not fluted at the lower part, the remaining

unfluted surface, together with the mouldings upon the base, are painted

bright red. This is a Pompeian peculiarity. Red is a prevailing colour

at Pompeii, but in the House of the Surgical Instruments, the lower part

of the columns was blue, a dwarf wall between them being painted red.

(Gell, Pompeiana, first series, pl. 25, p. 170.)

19. THALAMUS, an apartment next to the fauces, and entered by a door

immediately to the left on entering the ambulatory.

It is a strictly private apartment, and the bedchamber of the master of

the house. The name is taken from the Greek.

White walls and dark red dado. A charming little Cupid occupies the

centre of each of the three panels, which have a peculiar border to

them. The upper part of the wall dividing the Thalamus from the fauces

has been thrown open for the better admission of light and air. The

decorations of this room are copied from the House of the Dioscuri. On

the right hand wall are two pictures of great interest and

sprightliness. They are taken from the triclinium or exhedra of the

house described by Mr. Falkener, and in his work (p. 64) may be seen

rough outlines done from memory.[60] In the original apartment these

pictures form side panels to still larger compositions. Cupids and

Psyches are the only actors in these scenes; and, in the left-hand

picture, a Cupid dances holding an _amphora_ or _diota_ on his left arm.

A Cupid seated on the left of the picture plays a lyre, and other Cupids

are reclining upon couches, beneath an awning. A statue of a bearded

Bacchus appears behind, raised on a round pedestal; holding a _thyrsus_

in his left hand. The corresponding picture has a Psyche dancing in

similar company, who recline on a couch beneath a broad-spread awning

supported by branches of trees. The statue at the back is a Psyche

holding a bow in the left hand. A Cupid playing the flute sits on the

left; a reclining figure near him holds a _scyphus_ or drinking cup. The

dancing Psyche has four butterfly wings and plays the _crotala_ or

castanets; her feet are bare, but she wears bracelets. This picture is

engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. xv., tav. 18. Falkener, p. 65.

[60] The excessive illiberality of the Neapolitan government can

hardly be conceived by those who live in a country where leave to copy

and publish is so freely accorded. No one is allowed to draw a

monument that has not already been published until after the

expiration of three years, at the end of which time the paintings are

so often changed by the fading of colours and the obliteration of the

details as to render any attempt at copying them hopeless. Falkener,

pp. 62 and 65.

The ceiling has a circular aperture, necessary for the admission of

light and air, which is authorised by the example in the _caldarium_ of

the baths at Pompeii (Gell, Pompeiana, vol. i. pl. 31. Zahn, vol. ii.

pl. 94.) The doorway breaking irregularly through the panel is not in

accordance with modern notions of order and symmetry.

20. ŒCUS, so called from the Greek word signifying a house, was

sometimes a very spacious chamber to accommodate guests at a more

extensive banquet than could be held in the triclinium. Here it is

broad but not deep. The upper part of the walls white, the dado black,

and the intervening spaces red and black surmounted by a rich

architecturally-painted entablature. It consists of architrave, frieze,

and cornice. The architrave, or lower portion, green with white

garlands; the frieze above this is purple having red panels bordered

with yellow, and producing a capital effect; and yellow figures of

Sirens, or winged female monsters, which uphold a bold projecting

cornice. The perspective delineation of this cornice, with its supports,

is very remarkable, especially that of the central projection; a similar

boldness of perspective drawing may be seen in Pitt. Erc., vol. iii., p.

109, where the fullest knowledge is evinced of the distribution of light

and shade.

The black and red divisions of these walls have large broad devices in

green and red upon them. The central picture is a collection of silver

vessels lined with gold, the variety of forms are well worthy of

attention. The pavement of this apartment is inlaid from patterns well

known at Pompeii. Zahn, vol. ii., pl. 87.

21. BATH, _Balneum_ or _Balineum_, a small chamber appropriately fitted

up. Light patterns on wall above, and middle spaces green, red, and blue

in broad masses.

22. A small simply-decorated room, white with red dado.

23. _The end wall of the peristyle._ Its paintings are conspicuously

seen from the principal entrance of the house. The general colour is

white. Dado red and yellow. The three central compartments are copied

from the House of the Augustals, or banqueting house commonly known by

the name of the _Pantheon_. Beneath, a high canopy, supported by thin

and gracefully ornamented columns, stands a lovely female with one foot

upon the step of a door. She is in the act of playing the lyre, holding

the plectrum with her right hand, and by her song seems to invite

strangers to enter the portal. Upon the architrave of this porch is a

yellow group of a Winged Victory in a biga driving at full speed,

engraved in Zahn, vol. i., pl. 24. The left-hand figure is a priestess

with a _prefericulum_, or small pitcher used for sacrifices, in her

right hand, and a bunch of corn and poppies in the other. Her hair is

bound by a yellow circlet, and the upper garment or mantle is remarkably

similar to that in the dress of the celebrated Flora of the Capitol.

(See Catalogue of Greek Court, No. 41.) The lower dress is blue and

partly covering her yellow shoes. The architecture, seen through the

portal of the hall which the priestess seems to be leaving, is admirably

painted. The companion picture on the opposite side, is a young man in

purple drapery, turned towards the fair lyrist, and seeming to offer a

green wreath. The first two of these figures are engraved in the Museo

Bor., vol. iii., tavole 5 and 6. The second one also in Malkin’s

Pompeii, vol. ii., p. 315.

In the dado, beneath the figures just described, are large square stalls

or recesses. In the centre one is an elegant figure of a girl holding a

lyre, she seems to be sitting on the sill or edge of the opening. This

figure is engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 12., and in Raoul

Rochette, Choix de Peintures, pl. 4; Zahn, vol. ii., pl. 77. Gell gives

it in his second series of Pompeiana, vol. i., pl. 14, but surrounded by

different groups to the original, although all are to be found within

the same building. The group beyond forms a graceful heading to the view

from the atrium looking through the right hand fauces, No. 11. It

consists of two figures, a Victory with expanded wings holding an

incense-burner in her right hand, and a patera in the left. She is

crowned with laurel, the leaves of which stand like rays about the head.

Behind and above her appears a goddess with a sceptre and tiara, either

Venus or Juno, more probably the former; she is in the act of putting

some incense into the burner held by the other figure. The patera with

offerings like purple fruit on it, has been converted by Gell and Zahn

into a painter’s palette and brushes; in the Mus. Bor. the Victory wears

sandals; but in Zahn and Gell more correctly only ankle rings. The play

of line in this group is very pleasing. This group is taken from the

portico of the same building as the other figures, viz., the House of

the Augustals, commonly called the Pantheon. The ground of the original

is black, here it is rich red. Engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 19;

Gell, vol. i., vignette heading to preface; Zahn, vol. i., pl. 2.

24. CULINA. The apartment forming an angle of the peristyle was the

kitchen, which is copied from the House of Sallust, excepting that the

stove in this has only one arch instead of two. The painting of an

altar, with eggs between two serpents, is of frequent occurrence.

Serpents were cherished in ancient dwellings as creatures of good omen,

and became domesticated, as quadrupeds are with us. A similar painting

of serpents engraved in Pittore Ercolano, vol. iv., p. 65.

25. Side entrance into the street, immediately facing the bath.

26. TRICLINIUM, opposite the Œcus. Large panels, blue, black, and

yellow. Black dado, ceiling white, corresponding to that of the œcus

opposite. The walls are also decorated in the same manner, with the

exception of a frieze of boys carrying large garlands composed of fruits

and flowers entwined with a pink and green ribband. The small central

picture on a blue ground, represents a dish of fruit--grapes,

pomegranates, green fig, dates, apricots, apple, and fircone.

[Illustration]

The triclinium was the dining-room of an ancient Roman house. The guests

did not sit at table, they reclined on couches arranged round three

sides of a space for the table, leaving the rest open for the servants

to arrange the dishes and move the trays. The word _triclinium_ is

derived from the _three_ couches occupying the apartment which

surrounded the _mensa_ or table in the manner just described. Much

importance was attached, in ancient times, to the disposal of the

guests. The right hand couch was the most honourable; the person

reclining upon it, with his left elbow nearest the railing, was the

chief person in the assembly. The Romans were accustomed to rest with

the left arm upon cushions during their meals, and after dinner to lie

upon their backs and take their repose. In some Pompeian houses, the

three couches forming the triclinium, were permanently fixed. The

accompanying woodcut shows the arrangement of the places for a party of

nine, the favourite number for a dinner among the Romans.

The guests, preparatory to reclining on the couches, took off their

shoes, and were then provided with napkins, generally fringed, and often

richly embroidered. Water was poured over their hands into basins of

precious metal, a process repeated many times during an entertainment,

and doubtless very necessary, as the fingers were much used in the

course of eating. They had knives and spoons, but forks are entirely a

modern invention and their mode of eating was very similar to that

practised in oriental countries, where the right hand alone is made use

of. Women, when admitted to the entertainment, always sat upon the

couches. The same custom may be observed on the painted vases and

bas-reliefs of the Greeks down to a late time.

The dinner consisted of three courses; first, the _promulsis_, or

_gustatio_, chiefly stimulants to the appetite; the second contained an

immense variety of dishes; the principal dish was called _cœnæ caput_ or

_pompa_. Among them chief delicacies were the pheasant, thrush, liver of

a capon steeped in milk, and fig-eaters dressed with pepper. Hortensius

the orator first introduced the peacock. The favourite fish were the

turbot and mullet: eels, also, stewed with prawns. Pork, boar’s-flesh,

and venison, were the most highly esteemed meats. The carving was

performed to the sound of music, by an especial servant called the

_scissor_, or _carptor_. The third course was the _bellaria_, or

dessert, which consisted of uncooked fruits, such as occupy the centre

of the wall before us. In addition to the fruits of the dessert great

varieties of pastry were introduced, modelled in imitation of other

articles of food; showers of perfume and occasional jets d’eau

contributed to the luxury of the scene, but these were extravagancies,

probably confined to the most wealthy citizens of Rome. The pages of

Horace, Juvenal, Petronius, Martial, Athenæus, Suetonius, Aulus Gellius,

and Macrobius, afford curious detail of these entertainments, from which

we may easily comprehend the enormous sums they are said to have cost.

An extraordinary feast is represented, in a painting, at Pompeii,

described by Mr. Donaldson. The table is set out with every requisite

for a grand dinner. In the centre is a large dish containing four

peacocks, their tails forming a magnificent dome. Around are lobsters,

one of which holds in his claws a blue egg, a second an oyster, and

another a little basket full of grasshoppers. Four dishes of fish

decorate the bottom, above which are several partridges, hares, and

squirrels, each holding its head between its paws. These are surrounded

by something resembling a German sausage, then a row of yolks of eggs,

then a row of peaches, small melons and cherries; lastly, a row of

different vegetables, and the whole seems to be covered by a green

coloured sauce.

_Mulsum_, wine made into a syrup by the addition of honey, was handed

round to the guests at the commencement of the feast. Wine was kept in

large earthenware jars, called Amphoræ, stopped with a cork or wooden

plug, covered with resin, or gypsum. These amphoræ were sometimes made

of glass. On the outside, the jars were marked with the names of the

consuls in office at the time of the vintage from which the wine was

made, to indicate its age. Sometimes little tickets to this effect were

suspended from the necks. They generally had two ears, and were stored

up in repositories such as were found in the suburban villa (p. 19). It

was customary at great feasts according to Petronius (chap. xxxiv.) for

the amphoræ to be shown to the guests for them to read the labels before

they were opened. Many of these vessels are represented in the paintings

of Pompeii, and several originals from Rome and Alexandria are to be

seen in the British Museum. Some of the glass cups and bowls filled with

water are admirably represented. In one picture a decanter with the

glass for drinking turned down over it, is in exact accordance with our

modern custom. Elegant glass vases filled with fruit occur also among

the paintings of the House of the Augustals, together with small earthen

jars, having labels affixed.

In great houses it was not unusual for the guests after dinner to enjoy

their wine in another room. After-dinner drinking, _comissatio_, or

_convivium_, was equivalent to the _symposium_ of the Greeks.

27. The WINTER TRICLINIUM. A large square room, corresponding to the

Thalamus. The walls are white, with deep red dado. Ceiling coved, and

with a round aperture similar to the one in Thalamus. On the wall

opposite the door are two beautiful floating Bacchantes, one with

thyrsus and tympanum, the other dressed in pink and blue, holding a

thyrsus in her left hand, and a floating scarf with the other. They are

engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 4, and in Zahn. vol. ii., pl. 13.

The Bacchante next the door is the same as in cubiculum 16; her dress

here is pale blue; she holds the tympanum and thyrsus; a nebris crosses

her breast.

On the left hand wall may be seen a most charming group, exquisitely

coloured, of a Faun supporting a Bacchante. The faun holds a bunch of

grapes in his right hand, and with the other encircles her waist; his

drapery is red, and her delicate form is surrounded by a transparent

veil, apparently of gauze. The drapery enveloping the lower part of her

figure is purple, heightened with white, shoes blue. The effect of the

painting of this group is perfectly fascinating, and entirely realises

the treatment required for cheerful subjects. The group is engraved in

Mus. Bor., vol. xiii., tav. 16, where the background is described as

yellow. The paintings in this room are copied from the House of the

Female Flute-player and the House of the Bacchantes. The group last

described is in the original of unusually large proportions for such

subjects, being three-fourths of life size.

Thus, then, we have completed the _gíro_ of the Pompeian house. The

ancients, although they have provided the graceful salutation for comers

on their threshold in the word SALVE, do not afford the corresponding

word VALE to “speed the parting guest.” Their manes, probably gratified

by the interest now manifested in these monuments of their habits,

requirements, and enjoyments, desire us to linger within these fairy

walls, and to indulge in the thoughts of those who would, ages ago, have

found nothing strange and nothing amiss here, excepting the appearance

of the thronging visitors, whose costume and manners could never have

been anticipated. The house, as we see it, is really a house such as the

excavations might reveal. We have already shown that every part has its

prototype at Pompeii.

The style of decorative painting during the earliest times of the empire

merits attention. It is here exhibited on a larger scale and in a much

more extensive series than ever before attempted in England; affording,

in fact, the sole method by which such decorations can be fully

understood. The subjects of the small central wall panels, and a few of

the grotesque devices, have been often published, and are familiar to us

through the medium both of prints and coloured copies; isolated

portions, however, cannot suffice to give an idea of the harmonious

effect that may be produced in mural decoration, by masses of even crude

colour, when conjoined in proper proportion with others equally

crude.[61] The eye at Pompeii is never offended by a want of balance in

arrangement; and the system of confining the heaviest colours to the

lower part of the room has been already noticed. Even copies of the same

picture that come to England, on comparison, exhibit variations which

destroy all feeling of confidence in their accuracy. They are for the

most part so small as to conceal many important peculiarities of style,

and can only serve as souvenirs. Here we see nothing on a reduced scale

(except in Thalamus, No. 27), the paintings are not only of the same

size as at Pompeii, but even the exactitude of the outlines is

guaranteed to us by the fact of their having been _traced_ from the

originals.

[61] These colours could not appear equally crude to the ancients on

account of the necessary darkness that pervaded their apartments. See

_ante_, p. 31.

The scale and finish of the patterns have to a great extent been

regulated by the size of the rooms which they adorn; and it will be seen

that in the smaller rooms patterns must necessarily be more minute, and

the form of the wall itself less regarded than in a larger apartment

where they are viewed at a greater distance. The lightness of the

architectural representations and their connection has been already

mentioned. The painters seem to have delighted in representing every

variety of pavilion, colonnade, balcony steps, rooms and corners, in

short, all the _ins and outs_ and _ups_ and _downs_ peculiar to

buildings erected to form upper floors. They are, in fact, at variance

with the ground stories actually remaining at Pompeii, where all columns

and piers of brick and stone are comparatively massive, without any

traces whatever of intermediate supports of wood or metal, such as are

represented in the paintings. The _arabesque_ devices which occupy so

much of the wall space of Pompeii are replete with imagination and

ingenious variety. There is, notwithstanding the censures of Vitruvius,

which are inserted in page 69, such a playfulness and elegance in the

combination of objects so unexpectedly brought together, that we

tolerate incongruities, and regard the whole as a dreamlike succession

of images, passing easily from one to the other, without any

consideration of that which has gone before. The children rising out of

flowers are charming; and the living lions, rushing through _scroll

work_ of the brightest hues, such as no living lions ever saw, are

purely ornamental conceits. Again, the reeds for columns, with all the

botanical details, of _nodes_ and _internodes_, are extremely graceful;

and with their rich colour and firm appearance, notwithstanding an

extreme slenderness, they should be very suggestive to our metal workers

as means of support. The monsters sometimes perched upon them, in

perfect illustration of the words of Vitruvius, excite our surprise, and

being frequently ugly in themselves, incline us to agree with the

illustrious architect in wishing them away; but at the same time,

without such paintings before us, how impossible it would be to

comprehend the passages in his book relating to such matters, and

depending for their effect upon the eye alone. The beautiful devices of

the _stanza nera_, cubiculum No. 1, are sufficient illustrations of the

grace with which incongruities may be combined, and how in a very small

apartment, where minute decorations are appropriately introduced, each

portion is to be read, as it were, by itself, or, if regarded generally,

to seem merely a playful arrangement of colours relieving the monotony

of the wall.

Landscapes as seen in cubicula 3 and 15 are said to be peculiarly the

invention of Ludius, who lived in the early period of the empire. His

conceits, as described by Pliny, have something almost Chinese about

them, and his chief desire seems to have been to amuse and occupy the

spectators. Extensive landscape views were found in the House of the

Dioscuri in the four cubicula on the extreme right, seen in plan (No. 8,

on page 39). An extensive painting of a sea-port was discovered in the

House of the Small Fountain (plan No. 6). Some very quaint coast scenes,

with enormous gallies, are engraved as vignettes in Pitture d’Ercolano,

vol. iii., pp. 7 and 13. An extensive scene of a crowded mole, adorned

with statues and arches, with a distant town and crowded boats on the

water, is engraved at page 47 of the same vol. At page 279 of the same,

is a curious representation of various figures on a wet, slippery

ground, as described by Pliny in the paintings of Ludius. An extensive

scene of a port, with shipping, numerous statues raised on columns,

houses, gardens, people in boats and angling on the shore, was found at

Stabiæ; it is engraved in vol. ii., page 295, of Pitture d’Ercolano.

Eight small circular views of land and sea, animated by numerous

figures, were also found at Stabiæ. They are engraved in the same volume

at pp. 277, 281, 285, and 289, and form very important illustrations of

ancient life and scenery. Curious buildings may be seen in vignettes on

page 105 of same volume. A remarkable painting of a creek with four

large ships filled with armed soldiers, with three rows of oars, is

engraved in vol i., page 243. The gallies filled with armed troops are

seen also in page 239. A curious latticed window in a landscape in page

229. These landscape views are all admirably engraved, in a faithful

imitation of the masses of light and shade, and with careful attention

to the smallest detail. In the Museo Borbonico, on the contrary, the

style of engraving fails to render any one of the peculiarities of

their execution. Many vignette landscapes are characteristically copied

in vol. ii. of Gell’s Pompeiana, but they have not the completeness or

richness of the Pitture d’Ercolano. Some curious illustrations of the

social life of the Pompeians may be found in a series of pictures

representing the ancient Forum of that city, thronged with the same

variety of people that may be seen in the market places of Naples and

other Italian cities, all occupied in similarly varied occupations of

buying and selling, talking and idling; they supplied Bulwer with

several incidents for his description, and have been engraved in vol.

iii., page 213 to 231 of Pitture d’Ercolano.

Notwithstanding the frequent occurrence elsewhere of ancient paintings

inscribed with the names of persons they are intended to represent,

scarcely any instances have been met with in the cities overwhelmed by

Vesuvius. The word DIDV is written in one picture in white characters

near the head of a figure. The fragment was found at Stabiæ; it is

engraved in vol. iii., page 231, of Pitture d’Ercolano. On the

celebrated marble slab, monochrome drawings by Alexander of Athens; the

artist has not only inscribed his own name, but those of the five

females in his composition. It represents the visit of Niobe and her

daughters to Latona. This picture was found at Herculaneum, May 24,

1746. A very beautiful little mosaic was inscribed with the name of

Dioscorides, of Samos, as the artist; thus:

ΔΙΟΣΚΟΥΡΙΔΗΣ ΣΑΜΙΟΣ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕ.

There is great diversity of opinion amongst antiquarians as to the

meaning of some of the most important pictures discovered at Pompeii and

Herculaneum, which might have been obviated had the names of the

characters been written upon them, as we see upon the ancient Greek

vases, and upon the paintings of Polygnotus, and the chest of Cypselus,

described by Pausanias, and, to descend to later and very different

times, the well-known Bayeux tapestry, illustrating the history of

William the Conqueror. In default of inscription, the Pompeian pictures

can only be interpreted by their similarity to the descriptions of other

ancient paintings left us by Pausanias, Lucian, Ælian, and Philostratus.

The following extract from Vitruvius, book vii., chap. 5, affords a most

important view of what innovations took place in his time, showing also,

that even before the time of Augustus, mural decorations were composed

of extensive architectural fancies, as well as harbours, landscapes, and

sea-pieces.

EXTRACT FROM VITRUVIUS.

Book vii., Chap. 5.

“In other apartments--that is, in those of Spring, Autumn, and Summer,

as also in the atrium and peristylium--the ancients have established

certain methods of painting. A picture is the representation of things

that are, or may be, as men, buildings, ships, and other things; of

which the copy, by having the exact form and outlines of the real body,

assumes the likeness. The ancients, who originally instituted this

manner of decoration, at first imitated the varieties and marks of

marble incrustation, then cornices, disposing between them divers

silacious and miniaceous coloured ornaments. They proceeded afterwards

to represent edifices with columns and pediments projecting; but in

spacious places, such as exedræ, on account of the amplitude of the

walls, they represented the fronts of scenes in the tragic, comic, or

satyric manner; and ambulatories, being of a great length, they

ornamented with landscapes, expressing the appearance of particular

places, painting harbours, promontories, sea coasts, rivers, fountains,

canals, temples, groves, mountains, cattle, and shepherds; in some

places, also, large paintings of figures, representing the gods, or

fabulous histories, the Trojan war, or the wanderings of Ulysses, and

other subjects of a similar kind, which are conformable to the nature of

things.

“But these subjects, which our forefathers copied from nature, are now,

by our depraved manners, disapproved; for monsters, rather than the

resemblances of natural objects, are painted on the stucco, reeds are

substituted for columns, and for the pediments, fluted harpaginetuli,

with curling foliage and volutes; also candelabra supporting the forms

of little buildings, their pediments rising out of roots, with numerous

volutes and tender stalks, having, contrary to reason, images sitting on

them; so also the flowers from stalks have half figures springing

therefrom, with heads, some like those of men, some like those of

beasts, which things neither are nor can be, nor ever were: and this new

mode so prevails that those who are not judges disregard the arts--for

how is it possible for reeds to support a roof--or candelabra buildings

and the ornaments of pediments--or stalks, which are so slender and

soft, sitting figures--or the flowers of stalks produce half images? Yet

men, being accustomed to the sight of these absurdities, do not censure,

but are pleased with them, without considering whether they be proper or

not; the judgment, depraved by habit, examines not whether they be

according to propriety and the rules of decor; for pictures should not

be approved unless they be conformable to truth, even although they be

well executed, they ought, therefore, to be immediately condemned unless

they can bear the trial of rational examination without being

disapproved.

“Thus at Tralles, when Apaturius of Alabanda had excellently well

painted a scene in the little theatre, which with them is called the

Ecclesiasterion, and instead of columns had placed statues and centaurs,

supporting the epistylium, the circular roof of the dome, and projecting

corners of the pediments, and ornamented the cornice with lions’ heads,

all which have reference to the roofing and eaves of edifices; above

these, nevertheless, in the episcene, domes, porticos, semipediments,

and all the various parts of buildings were again painted; wherefore

upon the appearance of this scene, when by reason of its enrichment it

was found pleasing to all, and they were ready to applaud the work,

Licinius, the mathematician, then advanced and said, ‘the Alabandines

are sufficiently intelligent in all civil affairs, but for a trifling

impropriety are deemed injudicious; for the statues in their gymnasium

are all in the attitude of pleading causes, while those in the forum are

holding the discus, or in the attitude of running or playing with balls;

so that the unsuitableness of the attitudes of the figures to the

purposes of the places, throws a public disgrace upon the city. Let us

then take care that by the scene of Apaturius we are not deemed

Alabandines, or even Abderites; for who among you places upon the tiles

of the roofs of your houses columns or pediments? These things are

placed upon the floors, not upon the tiles. If then we approve in

painting what cannot be in fact, we of this city shall be like those

who, on account of the same error, are deemed illiterate.’ Apaturius

dared not to reply, but took down the scene and altered it so as to be

consistent to truth; after which it was approved. I, with the immortal

gods, would restore Licinius to life, that he might correct this folly

and fashionable disfigurement of our stucco work; but why a false

overcomes a just mode it will not be foreign to the purpose to explain.

“The ancients, with labour and application, endeavoured to make their

works be approved by the excellences of art; this is now supplied by the

beauty of colours, and the use of those of the most costly kind; and

that value which was formerly given to works by the skill of the artist,

is not desired since the expense of the proprietor supplies its place.

Who among the ancients is known to have used minium otherwise than

sparingly and as a medicine? But now it is everywhere laid over the

whole wall; it is the same with crysocolla, ostrum, and armenium, which,

when laid, although without any art, appear very brilliant to the sight,

and they are so costly, that it is usually specified in the articles of

agreement that they shall be purchased by the proprietor, and not by the

contractor.”

Pliny, also, who perished, it must be remembered, dining the

conflagration of the cities (see page 8), affords some curious testimony

to the popularity of this mode of decoration, and of one particular

painter, Ludius. He says, book xxxv., chapter 10--

EXTRACT FROM PLINY’S NATURAL HISTORY.

“Ludius was he who first devised to beautify the walls of a house with

the pleasantest painting that is in all variety; to wit, with the

resemblance of manors, farms, and houses of pleasure in the country;

havens, vinets, flower-work in knots; groves, woods, forests, hills,

fish-pools, conduits and drains, rivers, riverets, with their banks, and

people, some walking and going to and fro on foot, others sailing and

rowing up and down the stream upon the water, or else riding by land to

their farms, either mounted upon then mules and asses, or else in

waggons and coaches; there a man should see folk, in this place fishing

and angling, in that place hawking and fowling; some hunting here, the

hare, the fox, or deer, both red and sallow; others busy there, in

harvest or vintage. In this manner of painting, a man should behold of

his workmanship, fair houses, standing among marshes, into which all the

ways that lead be ticklish and full of bogs; where you should see the

paths so slippery, that women as they go are afraid to let one foot

afore another; some at every step ready to slide, others bending forward

with their heads, as though they carried some burdens upon their neck

and shoulders, and all for fear lest, their feet sliding under them,

they should catch a fall; and a thousand more devices and pretty

conceits as these, full of pleasure and delight. The same Ludius devised

walls without doors, and abroad in the open air, to paint cities

standing by the sea-shore: all which kind of painting pleaseth the eye

exceedingly well, and is besides of little or no cost. Howbeit, neither

he nor any artificers of this kind--howsoever otherwise respected--grew

ever to be famous and of great name; that felicity attained they only

unto who used to paint in tables, and therefore in this regard,

venerable antiquity we have in greater admiration; for painters in old

time loved not to garnish walls for to pleasure the master only of the

house, nor yet to bedeck in houses that manner that cannot stir out of

the place nor shift and save themselves when fire cometh, as painted

tables may that are to be removed with ease.”

The reconstruction of an ancient house from the descriptions of ancient

authors has been several times attempted.

Pirro Ligorio, a Neapolitan architect, erected the villa Pia, 1570, for

Pope Pius V. It was built in imitation of the houses of the ancients,

whose architecture he had particularly studied. Mazois, whose large work

on Pompeii has formed, as it were, the basis of almost all Pompeian

studies, wrote an elaborate essay on the palaces of the ancient Romans,

under the title “Le Palais de Scaurus.” In this all the descriptions of

ancient authors were supposed to be comprised. His work, however, was

confined to the pen; and it is to be regretted that Mazois did not

undertake an architectural reproduction, as an actual copy of one of the

houses he explored whilst they were comparatively perfect, and for which

he was so thoroughly qualified. Only _one_ undertaking of this kind has

preceded the Pompeian Court at Sydenham. It was prompted by the taste of

a monarch, remarkable for his interest in the fine arts of all nations

and all ages. The ex-king of Bavaria had a villa built at Aschaffenburg,

which was the complete restoration of an ancient Roman house found at

Pompeii. It was erected by the celebrated architect, Gärtner, and is an

exact copy of the House of the Dioscuri.

The visitor to Pompeii is but too frequently disappointed at the

crumbling condition of the disentombed city; and the majority take

little trouble to trace the origin of this first and unfavourable

impression. They do not reflect upon the relation between different

portions of the ruins, the use or particular object originally served,

the custom that produced it, or the former appearance of the details in

the harmony of their original arrangement, with the groups of gaily

attired inhabitants giving animation to the scene. Like the greater

portion of the curious who throng the Elgin Saloon of the British

Museum, for the purpose of taking a peep at the mutilated fragments of

the marbles contained within its walls, such visitors to Pompeii look

for excellencies that do not exist, and a harmony incompatible with the

actual condition of the remains; and, discontented at finding things in

opposition to their own conceptions, they depart with imperfect and even

prejudiced ideas of what they really have beheld. Few arrive at Pompeii

with even a general idea of the appearance of an ancient Roman house,

and are thus incapable of judging of the actual importance of the

crumbling remains of the buried cities.

Repeated visits, and careful and laborious investigation, are necessary

for perfect comprehension of the value of the ruins, in guiding the

observer towards an accurate idea of the state of the city in its prime.

To the careless and the uninitiated these few scattered fragments,

snatched from the very jaws of desolation, will afford but a faint

reflection of the glory and the triumphs that have for ever passed away.

Such were the persevering studies of Cockerell, Digby Wyatt, Donaldson,

Falkener, Gell, Hayes, Mazois, and Zahn; and to their investigations we

are indebted for all the conclusions displayed in this interesting

building. We behold at a glance the result of the experience of many

years, and the combined exertions of our most distinguished architects,

and may safely assert that no more agreeable method than that afforded

by this reconstruction could be devised for making the public acquainted

with the details of a Pompeian house.

NOTE.

In the Atrium are placed two handsome marble benches, such as the

clients might have sat upon whilst waiting for audience with their

patron. The ends, which are elaborately carved, have been copied from

an original model in the Vatican Museum, and the whole has been

presented to the Crystal Palace Company by the London Marble Working

Company, through their secretary, Mr. Clare.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF PANSA. Discovered at Pompeii, 1811. (See

page 42.)]

Transcriber’s Notes.

Inconsistencies (including in spelling and hyphenation, also of proper

and geographical names) have not been standardised, except as listed

below.

The source documents contains some unusual geography (Maestricht in

Germany, the Pacific Ocean near Somalia and South Africa). These have

not been changed.

Page II-68, article 168: the reference to the bust of Buonaparte is

blank in the source document; possibly the reference was intended to

be to item 311.

Page II-106, article 255: his name was Bernard Germain Étienne de

Laville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède.

Page III-85, ... ranges westwards to the boundaries of Abyssinia:

probably an error for ... ranges eastwards to ....

Changes made

Footnotes have been moved to under the relevant paragraph,

illustrations have been moved out of text paragraphs.

Minor obvious misprints and typographical and punctuation errors have

been corrected silently.

Some ditto symbols („) have been replaced with the dittoed text.

page I-vii: second A.M. for Sunday trains from Charing Cross changed

to P.M.

page I-xvi. Philoe Portico: page number inserted.

page I-85: footnote marker [23] inserted.

page I-98: and in many days changed to and in many ways.

page I-109: Ludwig Scwanthaler changed to Ludwig Schwanthaler.

page I-110: Das Neue Testaments changed to Das Neue Testament.

page II-84: Andrè le Nôtre changed to André le Nôtre.

page II-85: Andrè Félibien changed to André Félibien.

page II-105: Aunonai changed to Annonai (2x).

page II-106: sur Mon changed to sur Illon.

page II-143, article 327A: Cristoph changed to Christoph; article

327C: C. Christoph changed to Christoph.

page II-150, article 341: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg.

page II-223: le Sœur changed to le Sueur.

page II-228: 10* changed to 410*.

page II-229: Marin-Jean-Antoine changed to Marie-Jean-Antoine.

page II-230: 94 changed to 94*

page II-232: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg; 95 changed to 95*

page II-232: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg.

page II-234: 76 changed to 76*.

page III-55: _S_un’s beam and _f_aughter father changed to _S_un’s

_b_eam and _f_aughter _f_ather cf. other examples and explanation.

page V-48, section heading CUBICULA changed to sub-section heading.

page V-52: d’Ercalano changed to d’Ercolano.