In the later years of the city, but before 63, the decoration was renewed in the fourth style. There are paintings of interest, however, only in the room at the rear (19), which had a large window opening on the garden. In one of the panels here we see a man sitting with a writing tablet in his hand; opposite him are two girls, one sitting, the other standing; the latter holds a roll of papyrus. This kind of genre picture is not uncommon; the type is spoken of elsewhere ([p. 477]).
In another panel, which was transferred to the Naples Museum, a young woman is represented as painting a herm of Dionysus ([Fig. 133]); a Cupid is holding the unfinished picture while she mixes colors on her palette. Two other maidens are watching the artist with unfeigned interest. Upon the pillar behind the herm hangs a small painting; in the vista another herm is seen, together with a vase standing on a pillar.
The room contained a third picture which is now almost obliterated. Perhaps this pleasant apartment was once the boudoir of a favorite daughter, who busied herself with painting and verse.
Fig. 133.—A young woman painting a herm.
Wall painting from the house of the Surgeon.
CHAPTER XXXV
THE HOUSE OF SALLUST
The house of Sallust (VI. ii. 4) received its name from an election notice, painted on the outside, in which Gaius Sallustius was recommended for a municipal office. It has no peristyle, and its original plan closely resembled that of the house of the Surgeon. It was built in the second century B.C.; the architecture is that of the Tufa Period, and the well preserved decoration of the atrium, tablinum, alae, and the dining room at the left of the tablinum ([Fig. 134], 22) is of the first style. The pilasters at the entrances of the alae and the tablinum are also unusually well preserved; the house is among the most important for our knowledge of the period to which it belongs.
The rooms on the left side (6-9) were used as a bakery. Those in front (2-5) were shops; two of them (2, 3), at the time of the destruction of the city, opened into the fauces (1) and another (5) had two rear rooms, one of which was entered from a side street.
The rooms at the right (31-36) were private apartments added later and connected with the rest of the house only by means of the corridor (29), which with the cell designed for the porter (30) was made over from one of the side rooms of the atrium.