Fig. 256.—Portrait herm of Caecilius Jucundus.
The bust, of bronze, is modelled with realistic vigor. There is no attempt to soften the prominent and almost repulsive features by idealization. We see the Pompeian auctioneer just as he was, a shrewd, alert, energetic man, with somewhat of a taste for art, and more for the good things of life,—a man who would bear watching in a financial transaction.
Houses were adorned also with heads and busts of famous men of the past,—poets, philosophers, and statesmen. An extensive collection of historical portraits was discovered at Herculaneum, but Pompeii thus far has not yielded many examples. In a room in one of the houses was found a group of three marble heads, about one half life size, representing Epicurus, Demosthenes, and apparently the Alexandrian poet Callimachus, whose works were particularly valued in the time of the Early Empire. The identification of the third head is not certain, but whether Callimachus or some other poet is intended, the group reveals the direction of the owner's literary tastes; he was interested in philosophy, oratory, and poetry.
Two portrait busts of distinguished men, which evidently belong together, were found in another house, laid one side. In the Naples Museum they bore the names of the Younger Brutus and Pompey, but both identifications are erroneous; the features in neither case agree with the representations upon coins. The faces, as shown by the physiognomy and the treatment of the hair, are those of Romans of the end of the Republic or the beginning of the Empire. Recently a new identification has been proposed which has much in its favor. It rests chiefly upon the resemblance of one of the busts to the mosaic portrait of Virgil, discovered in 1896 at Susa, in Africa. The full, round face of the other agrees very well with what we know of the appearance of Horace. It may be that we have here a pair of poets, the two most prominent of the Augustan Age.
Frequently the gardens of the peristyles, as those of the houses of the Vettii and of Lucretius, were profusely adorned with sculptures of all kinds. We find in them statuettes, herms, small figures of animals, and diminutive groups. Figures derived from the myths of the bacchic cycle, Bacchus, Silenus, satyrs, and bacchantes, are particularly common. The artistic value is slight; among the best examples is the double bust, with Bacchus on one side and a bacchante on the other, found in the garden of the house of the Vettii ([Fig. 257]).
Fig. 257.—Double bust, Bacchus and bacchante. Garden of the house of the Vettii.