Pompeii, Its Life and Art

by August Mau

Fig. 176.—Plan of the house of the Emperor Joseph II.
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• 1. Upper terrace at the level of the street.
  • a. Fauces.
  • b. Atrium.
  • c. House chapel.
  • g, h. Alae, with a wardrobe (i) at the rear of h.
  • u. Room with two stairways, leading up to second floor and down to middle terrace.
  • w. Middle room opening on a colonnade (y) which faces the rear of the terrace (z).
  • x, v. Dining rooms, opening on the colonnade.
• 2. Middle terrace.
  • α. Corridor, entered from stairway in u above.
  • β. Corridor.
  • γ, δ. Low vaulted rooms.
  • ε. Stairway leading to lower terrace.
  • η. Middle room.
  • θ. Dining room, with a window opening on the terrace at the rear.
  • κ. Small dining room.
  • ι, λ, ζ. Sleeping rooms.
• 3. Lower terrace.
  • 1. Corridor leading down from the foot of the stairway in ε.
  • 3, 4. Bakery.
  • 6-8. Bath. (6. Tepidarium. 7. Caldarium. 8. Frigidarium.)
• 4. Upper rooms of the middle terrace.
  • I. Excavated room used as a cellar.
  • II, III. Rooms over ι, λ.
  • VI. Room over ζ, connected with V (over γ, δ) by a gallery over the stairway ε, and with η by a ladder or stairway.

The front of the house, the large Tuscan atrium with the adjoining rooms, dates from the Tufa Period; the atrium was originally one of the most richly decorated at Pompeii. The rooms back of the atrium opening toward the rear, and those of the middle and lower terraces, are a later addition, built after the city wall at this point had been removed, perhaps not long before the end of the Republic; traces of the second style of decoration are found in one of the lowest rooms, the tepidarium of the bath. Remains of the first style are found in the fauces, but the greater part of the house is decorated in the last style.

One of the small rooms (c) opening on the atrium, originally a bedroom, was in later times turned into a house chapel. In the right wall is a small niche, on the back of which a Genius of the ordinary type is painted. Near him and also offering a libation is a female figure with the attributes of Juno, a diadem, and a sceptre. The two figures represent the Genii of the master and mistress of the house ([p. 270]). Under the niche, and at the sides are iron nails, driven into the plaster to hold wreaths and garlands.

Fig. 177.—Corner of bake room in the lowest story of the house of the Emperor Joseph II, at the time of excavation.

On either side of the broad middle room (w) is a dining room (v, x), connected with it by two large windows. All three rooms open upon the colonnade (y), and this again opens out upon a terrace (z).

The principal room of the middle story (2. η, under z) takes the place of an atrium; it is lighted by a door and two windows opening upon a terrace (μ). Connected with it are two dining rooms (θ, κ), considerably higher than the other apartments of this story, and three sleeping rooms (ι, λ, ζ). A dark corridor (β) separated these rooms from the solid earth at the rear, and furnished access, by means of ladders, to two low upper rooms (over ι and λ; see 4. II, III), perhaps used as storerooms. From β one could also reach, in the same way, an oblong chamber excavated in the earth (I), designed originally as a cistern, but used as a cellar at the time of the eruption. Of the remaining upper rooms one (IV) was built on the solid ground at the side of the stairway leading from the upper floor (α); the other two (V, over γ, δ and VI, over ζ) were connected by a gallery or bridge over the stairway leading to the lower floor (ε); this gallery could be reached also by a ladder or wooden stairway in the large middle room (η). The outermost room (VI) was perhaps a washroom; there is a rectangular basin in one corner.