Houses were sometimes enlarged at the expense of neighboring dwellings, which, in some cases, were destroyed to the foundations, in others remodelled or incorporated with slight change. An example is the house of the Citharist, which fills the greater part of the fourth Insula in Region I, on the east side of Stabian Street. A bronze statue of Apollo playing the cithara, found in the middle peristyle ([Fig. 181], 17), gave its name to the house. It is apparently a faithful copy of a Greek masterpiece at Sparta, and is now in the Naples Museum. The house is sometimes referred to as that of Popidius Secundus.
Fig. 182.—Orestes and Pylades before King Thoas.
Wall painting from the house of the Citharist.
There are two atriums (6, 47) and three peristyles (17, 32, 56). A large part of the house, the west atrium (6), with the connecting rooms and the two peristyles, 17 and 32, was built in the Tufa Period, in the place of several older houses. The rooms east of the two peristyles, and the north atrium (47) and peristyle (56), with the adjoining rooms, were added in Roman times, probably near the end of the Republic; the house was afterwards decorated in the second style. Remains of the third and fourth styles also are found in some parts of the house. The better apartments are grouped about the peristyles; the rooms about the atriums were turned over to the slaves or used for domestic purposes.
In the large room (35) opening on the south peristyle were two paintings of unusual merit, both of which were transferred to the Naples Museum. The subject of one was the finding of the deserted Ariadne by Bacchus; in the other Orestes and Pylades appear as captives before Thoas, the king of Tauris ([Fig. 182]).
At the right of the picture sits Thoas, looking at the captives, his sword lying across his knees, his hands resting upon the end of his sceptre. Behind him stands a guard with a long spear in the right hand. Another guard with two spears stands behind Orestes and Pylades, whose hands are bound. Orestes, upon whose head is a wreath of laurel, looks downward, an expression of sadness and resignation upon his finely chiselled features. Pylades is not without anxiety, but is alert and hopeful. Between the two groups is an altar on which incense is burning. In the background Iphigenia is seen moving slowly forward; the head is entirely obliterated. It is unfortunate that the painting is so badly preserved. The faces of the two youths are individualized with remarkable skill, and the picture here used as the centre of a decorative framework of the fourth style is evidently a copy of a masterpiece.
On the south side of Abbondanza Street, opposite the Stabian Baths, is the house of Cornelius Rufus (VIII. iv. 15), a view of the interior of which has already been given. The name of the proprietor is known from the dedication on the herm (seen in [Fig. 121]), C. Cornelio Rufo; the carved table supports behind the impluvium are among the finest yet discovered.
In the same block is the house of Marcus Holconius (VIII. iv. 4), a good example of a house completely restored and decorated after the earthquake of 63. The right ala was fitted up with shelves, on which at the time of the eruption were kitchen vessels of bronze, iron, and terra cotta. The colonnade about the peristyle was in two stories. From the columns at the front six jets of water, at a height of about four feet, fell forward into the gutter; and there was an equal number at the rear. There was also a little fountain in the exedra at the rear of the peristyle.