Chapter XXXIX: Introduction: Destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii (3)

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.

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.