Pompeii, Its Life and Art

by August Mau

The triumph of Bacchus is presented in another picture, which is fortunately in a better state of preservation. At the head of the procession is a bacchante, riding on a panther. Bacchus sits in a four-wheeled chariot drawn by goats; the coachman is a satyr. Behind the triumphal car is Pan, dancing and playing the double flute; last comes a vine-crowned Cupid, dancing, with a large mixing bowl upon his shoulder. The skill shown in the pose of the dancing figures is especially noteworthy; they stand lightly erect, seeming not to feel their weight or the exertion of rapid movement.

In the last of this series, upon the left wall, Cupids appear as wine dealers; the part of the picture that has been preserved is shown in [Fig. 169]. The rustic bearing of the seller, at the left, is in pleasing contrast with the free and graceful carriage of the well-bred buyer, to whom he is handing a sample of the wine in a cup. At the right two servants are drawing another sample from an amphora; one tips the amphora so cautiously that the other, who is holding the bowl, presses the neck gently with his left hand in order to make the slender stream flow faster.

Rapidity of movement reaches a climax in the middle picture of the right wall, which represents the games of the Circus. The scene is laid in the country; each goal is marked by three trees. Antelopes take the place of horses, and the groups are conceived with wonderful realism. The tiny, fluttering garments of the drivers display the colors of the four parties,—green, red, white, and blue.

Fig. 169. Cupids as dealers in wine.
Wall painting in the house of the Vettii.

Two of the pictures on the end wall are so damaged that it is not easy to make out the details. One of them, like that just described, presents a purely Roman subject—the festival of Vesta ([Fig. 170]). Cupids and Psyches are reclining at ease about a serving table in the shape of a deep platter with two handles, on which drinking vessels are seen; in the background are two asses, sacred to Vesta ([p. 98]). Some, at least, of the Cupid pictures could not have been taken from Greek originals.

In the atrium also there was a black stripe containing Cupids similar to those already described, but the figures are not so well preserved. The most interesting scene represents a sacrifice to Fortuna. Cupids appear also riding and driving. Some are mounted on goats and engaged in a contest. One stands on a crab, guiding the ungainly creature with reins and plying the whip; another is similarly mounted on a lobster. A few are in chariots, the chariot in one case being drawn by two dolphins.

In each division of the wall of the atrium near the bottom is the half-length figure of a child, painted on a dark red ground. The children are busied with vessels of all kinds, apparently intended for sacrifice. The seriousness of their task, the importance which they attach to their helpfulness, is finely expressed in the faces, which are individualized in the manner of a true artist.