Pompeii, Its Life and Art

by August Mau

In the small rooms at the right of the atrium are traces of the decoration of the first style, which was in vogue when the house was built. Toward the end of the Republic almost the whole interior was redecorated in the second style, but without paintings. Brilliant blocks and panels dating from this renovation may still be seen upon the upper part of the walls of the atrium and on those of the oecus, the exedra, the two bedrooms next to the exedra, and the front part of the long apodyterium.

Afterwards a few rooms were done over in the third style, of which scanty remains are found.

Lastly, after the fourth style had come into vogue, but before 60 A.D.—as shown by an inscription on a column of the peristyle—a large part of the house was redecorated in the fourth style, including the tablinum, the andron and the room at the right (q), the peristyle, the long dining room (w), and the inner portion of the apodyterium. The lower part of the walls of the atrium were also painted over, but with designs and coloring that harmonized well with the decoration of the second style above. In this house the history of Pompeian wall decoration can be followed from the century after the Second Punic War to the middle of the first century of our era, from the time of Cato the Elder to that of Claudius and Nero. There are few paintings, however, and they are not of special interest.

In marked contrast with the atriums in the house of the Faun and the other houses which we have examined, the atrium here had a relatively large compluvium ([Fig. 147]); all parts of the room must have been brilliantly lighted. In summer some kind of protection against the sun was a necessity. It was probably afforded by hanging curtains between the columns; on the side of each column, facing the corner of the atrium, is a bronze ring through which a cord might have been passed to use in drawing the curtains back and forth. The large compluvium with its supporting columns suggests the arrangement of the Corinthian atrium.

The dimensions of the atrium are monumental. The length is approximately 54 feet, the breadth 40; and the Corinthian columns of tufa coated with stucco, are 22¾ feet high.

At the rear of the impluvium is a fluted cistern curb of white marble (seen in [Fig. 8]). In the impluvium near the edge is the square pedestal of a fountain figure, which threw a jet into a round marble basin in front.

The doors of the rooms at the sides of the atrium were originally more than thirteen feet high; those which we now see are comparatively low. The height was reduced because a second floor was placed in the rooms, thus making low chambers, which were reached by three stairways, one (g) at the right of the atrium, the other two (k and m) on the opposite side. The upper rooms were lighted by small windows, part of which opened into the atrium, others upon the garden on the left side of the house. These changes were completed before the atrium received its decoration in the second style. There was no second story over the alae, the tablinum, or the rooms about the peristyle. In the left ala was once a large window opening on the garden, but it was afterwards walled up ([p. 259]).

The curtain fastenings on the pilasters at the front of the tablinum have been referred to in another connection ([p. 256]). The arrangement of the rooms at the sides is not unlike that in the house of Sallust; one, n, retained its original form; the other was divided up into an andron (p), with a bedroom (q) at one side.

The peristyle is remarkably well preserved. We find not only the columns in their full height, but also, except on the north side, large portions of the entablature, with its stucco ornamentation intact, supported on a line of planks placed upon the columns at the time of excavation; and the decoration of the walls retains much of its brilliancy of coloring.