ATRIUM.
The view of this spacious apartment at the moment of entrance is very imposing; the only difference between this and a real Pompeian house consists in the greater diffusion of light, and the increased scale of the apartment better suited to a palace in the capital of the Empire. For the purpose of fully displaying the beauties of the mural decorations, much more light has been admitted into this apartment than is usually found in the same division of the Pompeian houses. To this end, the central aperture, which ought to have been of the same size as the reservoir below, has been considerably widened. Windows also have been introduced in order to give the spectator a better view of the decorations within the side chambers. At a glance the eye recognises the various parts of the building previously described. In the centre below is the square basin to collect the water, called the impluvium, and the corresponding aperture above would be the compluvium. At the further end, facing the entrance, a graceful female figure is seen playing the lyre—these paintings will be described hereafter. In many houses this extremity is painted sky blue, with shrubs and trees to imitate a distant garden—this was the case in the peristyle of the Tragic Poet’s House (Gell, vol. i., p. 159), also in the Houses of the Quæstor and Actæon (Gell, pl. 20, page 175). The dark square central part forming as it were a frame to our view of the peristyle, is the tablinum, the side-passages are the fauces, and the smaller apertures round the sides of the Atrium will be recognised as conducting to the cubicula. Each of these apartments we propose to examine minutely, after having taken a general view of the Atrium. This important space in a Roman house was called also the Cavum Ædium, or Cavædium, as Pliny writes it. There were various kinds of Atria; the simplest with no support in the centre—as this—called the Atrium Tuscanicum. Where the roof was supported by four columns in the centre it was called Tetrastylum. If the columns surrounding the impluvium were numerous, it was called Corinthium, and when, as rarely has been found, no opening was left in the centre, the apartment was said to be Testudinatum. Sometimes a roof was so arranged as to throw off the water outside, and then the term displuviatum was employed.
The Atrium, as viewed from the door, is oblong, in a position reversed from that in which it is generally found in Pompeian houses: although an authority for this arrangement exists in the House of Queen Caroline. The impluvium in the centre is of marble, and the exquisite small marble statue of a faun, serving at the same time as a fountain, is copied from the house called after the grand Duke of Tuscany. The floor is an excellent imitation of ancient mosaic work, executed by Messrs. Minton; the various patterns are taken from different Pompeian houses. Many of the floors at Pompeii exhibit some of the finest examples of mosaic work in which elaborate paintings with every variety of colour have been produced. They are composed solely of small pieces of coloured stone or glass fitted closely together and highly polished. It is the most durable of all methods of painting, and is generally set in a strong bed of cement. The modern Romans practise this art with such success, that a mosaic can scarcely be distinguished from a picture carefully painted with the brush. Every altar-piece but one, now in St. Peters’, has been made by this process. The celebrated mosaic of the Doves drinking, described by Pliny, is now in the capitol at Rome, and many descriptions of pictures executed in this mode are to be found in ancient authors. This process must be carefully distinguished from inlaying, which the ancients also practised, and may be seen here in the vestibules and some of the side chambers leading out of the peristyle.
The prevailing colour of the atrium is white. All round the doors and the windows of the Cubicula the wall is painted bright blue with red dado. The pilasters are white with the lower part yellow; their capitals white heightened by blue and red; they are from the House of the Centaur. In square compartments, on a white ground, between the capitals of pilasters, are elegant groups of female figures on marine animals, and Cupids in chariots; some of the small enriched mouldings are from the cornice of the tomb of Calventius Quietus, and the atrium frieze above tablinum is copied from a side apartment in the Tragic Poet’s House (Mus. Bor. vol. ii., tav. A). It is composed of white figures of combatants in armour on foot and in chariots; shields and dead bodies lie prostrate. The ground of this frieze is purple, but the ground of the original is described as white, and the figures are said to be clothed in blue, green, and purple draperies. The females are Amazons, distinguished by the pelta or lunated shield (see Statue No. 194 of the Greek Court.) The rest of the frieze is white, with patterns of bright-coloured lines in simple forms. Over each pilaster the frieze is broken by double figures of Victory, yellow and gold, which serve to support the beams which project to the edge of the compluvium. They were modelled by Mr. Monti, under the superintendence of Signor Abbate, from a drawing by Mr. Wyatt.
The compluvium is bordered with red standing tiles called antifixa, and the arrangement of Mazois in his restoration of the House of Diomed has been followed. The antifixa may be seen also on the model of the Parthenon in the bas-relief gallery adjoining the Greek Court. The angle tiles, with a spout to discharge the rain water, merit attention. The sloping roof of the atrium, composed of light beams with panelling between them, has been chiefly restored from existing paintings; but few traces of woodwork remain in any part of these ancient cities without having been seriously disturbed; the atrium ceilings being of wood, were consequently destroyed; pictorial records are therefore our only authorities. Fortunately for us, the ancients seem to have delighted in depicting themselves and their ways of living, so that it is not improbable that the architectural specimens that we see on their walls are only the transcripts of the slender constructions which were in fact confined to the upper stories. This is the more probable as the background of these architectural scenes is generally sky, and where vegetation does appear among them it consists commonly of plants growing in pots, or else the tops of trees as they would appear from the upper part of a house.
CUBICULA.
We must now go into the detail of the house and pass into each room as consecutively numbered in the plan, beginning in this instance on the left hand of the principal entrance, keeping the wall of Atrium always to the left.
1. Cubiculum. This small chamber has the walls totally black with a white ceiling. It is an exact copy both in size and decoration, of a room in the House of the Bronzes at Pompeii, called la stanza nera. Facing the door is a square picture representing a “Sacrifice to Minerva” (engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. xiii., tav. 8). In the centre a round shield—the Argolic buckler—with serpent painted on it, mounted on a square pedestal; above this appears a helmet placed on the top of a square pillar; a winged Cupid seems to be adjusting the shield; in front of the pedestal is a smaller circular altar, and Psyche with butterfly wings, clothed in yellow and pink, stands on the left, as if about to cast incense upon the altar. On the other side a Cupid, with blue wings of the same peculiar curve observable in the Marlborough gem, representing the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, brings a white lamb to the altar for sacrifice. Among the arabesques to the right and left of this picture are graceful vases. Half doors of a light wooden construction may be observed, and a curious method of displaying pictures is shown here; they are represented upon the wall very much sloped forward and with folding shutters to them. (See Malkin’s Pompeii, vol. ii., p. 123.) The arabesques at each end of this cubiculum are especially beautiful. They have been wonderfully copied in Gruner’s specimens of Ornamental Art, the size of the originals. The effect of their rich colours upon a perfectly black ground is remarkable, contributing to increase the apparent size of the room very considerably. Few at first sight would imagine this little apartment to measure only 22 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 9 inches. The window openings to the atrium have been explained at [page 44].
2. Cubiculum. The next chamber, forming one corner of the quadrangle, and lighted by a window in the outer wall, has also a white coved ceiling. The upper part of the walls is white, the dado black, and the remaining interval blue. Three graceful female figures floating in separate panels are Bacchantes; they have no wings. The picture surrounded by blue opposite the door, represents a sitting Endymion; he holds a branch in his right hand, and a staff leaning on his left shoulder; the drapery is pink; at his feet a stag,[57] with horns and blue collar, may be regarded as the emblem of Diana, whose favourite he was. (See Greek Court, No. 33). The background is composed of rocks with a square tower in the centre. The subject of Endymion was a very favourite one among the Pompeians. He was sometimes represented, as here, entranced awaiting the arrival of the goddess, at other times sleeping, and the goddess gazing upon him, with his dog starting in surprise at the visitor. Not unfrequently a Cupid is introduced leading Diana by the hand, holding a whip, as if she had just descended from her chariot of night. Whenever the goddess is present Endymion is always represented asleep. On the wall next the door facing the other picture is a square painting of Venus fishing. She sits on a rock on the right hand side, her yellow hair bound with a myrtle wreath, the lower part of her figure enveloped in green drapery; a fish has attached itself to the line of the rod which she holds in her right hand, and Cupid with blue wings, sitting on a rock across the water, expresses great joy at his mother’s success, which is evinced by his lively action. A piece of red drapery upon which he kneels adds greatly to the harmony of the picture. This subject of Venus angling is also frequently repeated; sometimes Cupid holds the fish basket, and in other cases he angles also. (See [cubiculum 15].)
[57] On a closer examination I perceive that the animal is wounded, and the picture therefore represents Cyparissus, who killed a favourite stag by accident, and was transformed into the cypress. The picture is mentioned by Mr. Falkener (page 51).