[59]Called in Mr. Falkener’s book, p. 49, Victory.
[59]Called in Mr. Falkener’s book, p. 49, Victory.
16.Cubiculum, occupying the corresponding angle toNo. 2, also lighted with a window, is blue with black dado; copied from the House of the Second Fountain. The chief picture on the wall opposite the door is the deserted Ariadne, a subject many times repeated at Pompeii, and with a great variety of treatment. Ariadne is represented sitting on the shore of Naxos just awaking, and beginning to be aware of her forlorn situation; Cupid, at her side, points to a ship far away, with full-spread sail and many oars, which is bearing off Theseus, her faithless lover. A crimson cord, for necklace, is crossed also over her naked body, a purple drapery covers her lower limbs. The scene is indicated by wild crags, and the horizon is placed remarkably high up in the picture. The wings of Cupid are green, the ship yellow with a white sail. This picture is copied from one in the House of the Tragic Poet; it has been engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 62., and Zahn, vol. i., pl. 33. Gell’s Pompeiana, vol. i., pl. 43, page 169.
On each side is a graceful floating female figure, the one to the left holding a patera in one hand, and a garland in the other; the female on the other side, has a similar action, her drapery is yellow: both figures are remarkably elegant. On the opposite wall, next the door, is a picture of a very playful character; it is a Cupid seller. On the ground is a square strongly constructed cage, such as is used for birds, with an opening at the top, through which an old man is in the act of lifting out a Cupid; other Cupids are within the bars, and show by their gestures the irksomeness of their confinement. The old man dressed in theexomis, a garment peculiar to the working classes, lifts the struggling Cupid by one wing; he holds the square trap door in his left hand; a handsome lady who has come as a purchaser stands on the other side and looks up to a Cupid flying above, holding two bright stars; her right hand seems to point to the cage from which the object of her attention may have escaped. Another Cupid has eluded the vigilance of his keeper and hides himself behind the lady’s dress. The scene takes place in a handsome portico with two Ionic columns. This has been engraved in Zahn, 2nd series, taf. 18. Another picture, found at Stabiæ, of a female Love merchant is much more pleasingly and better composed. There the woman holds up the victim by both wings, and offers it like a live chicken to a lady who is seated on the other side. Another Cupid remainswithin the cage, which is elegantly made and circular. This well-known picture is engraved in the Pitt. Erc., vol. iii., tav. 7., and Mus. Bor., vol. i., tav. 3. To the left of the picture on this wall is a beautiful floating female figure, holding atympanumor drum in the right hand, with the other raised holding athyrsus. Anebris, or fawn-skin, passes over her right shoulder, her drapery is red lined with white, feet bare. The effect of colour upon the blue ground is very charming.
17.Cubiculum.A black chamber, corresponding to the one we first entered. This room has been copied, both in style and decoration, from thestanza neraof the House of the Bronzes. Opposite the window is a pleasing group of Cupid and Psyche, her drapery is purple and blue, and the wings purple. The picture opposite door represents three Cupids and Psyche surrounding a peacock. In this bird we recognise the favourite of Juno, and the Cupids appear to be feeding it, but the meaning of the subject is very vague. It has been engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. xi., tav. 15. Thus we have completed the circuit of the atrium and its smaller chambers; we propose to pass into the less public parts of the house by the left hand fauces,No. 7.
18.Ambulatory, Ambulatio, also calledPorticusby the Romans, andStoaby the Greeks, is a colonnade on four sides, very like the cloisters of our cathedrals. The view looking through the fauces is bounded by a small shrine or chapel, called theLararium. It is a niche raised on a pedestal, flanked by pilasters, and surmounted by a pediment. Within this were kept the Lares, the sacred household gods, that accompanied the inhabitants in their flight. No figures of this sort have ever been found in such places at Pompeii, although many representations of them remain depicted on the walls. They were generally represented as young men in short girt tunics, crowned and holding the drinking horn in one hand. (See Milman’s Horace, p. 168.) Their appearance was first ascertained by an inscription over the sculpture of an altar formerly in the Villa Medici, and now at Florence; a similar altar is in the Vatican, both inscribedLARIBVS AVGVSTIS. (See Galleria di Firenze, pl. 144 of statue, &c.; Mus. Pio. Clem., vol. iv., tav. 45; and Guattani Mon. Ined, vol. ii.; Maggio, 1785). The Lares presided especially over the domestic hearth. The cornice and entablature of Lararium are taken from the funeral Tricliniumat Pompeii. The wall behind is a rich Pompeian red, with a yellow ornament, forming a panel on it, beautifully painted.
The roof of the ambulatory is panelled and decorated according to the prevailing style of the lighter coloured ceilings at Pompeii. The devices are formed of very thin lines of the brightest colours upon white. The Ionic capitals of the columns are from the Basilica. The shafts of the columns are not fluted at the lower part, the remaining unfluted surface, together with the mouldings upon the base, are painted bright red. This is a Pompeian peculiarity. Red is a prevailing colour at Pompeii, but in the House of the Surgical Instruments, the lower part of the columns was blue, a dwarf wall between them being painted red. (Gell, Pompeiana, first series, pl. 25, p. 170.)
19.Thalamus, an apartment next to the fauces, and entered by a door immediately to the left on entering the ambulatory.
It is a strictly private apartment, and the bedchamber of the master of the house. The name is taken from the Greek.
White walls and dark red dado. A charming little Cupid occupies the centre of each of the three panels, which have a peculiar border to them. The upper part of the wall dividing the Thalamus from the fauces has been thrown open for the better admission of light and air. The decorations of this room are copied from the House of the Dioscuri. On the right hand wall are two pictures of great interest and sprightliness. They are taken from the triclinium or exhedra of the house described by Mr. Falkener, and in his work (p. 64) may be seen rough outlines done from memory.[60]In the original apartment these pictures form side panels to still larger compositions. Cupids and Psyches are the only actors in these scenes; and, in the left-hand picture, a Cupid dances holding anamphoraordiotaon his left arm. A Cupid seated on the left of the picture plays a lyre, and other Cupids are reclining upon couches, beneath an awning. A statue of a bearded Bacchus appears behind, raised on a round pedestal; holding athyrsusin his left hand. The corresponding picture has a Psyche dancing in similar company, who recline on a couch beneath a broad-spreadawning supported by branches of trees. The statue at the back is a Psyche holding a bow in the left hand. A Cupid playing the flute sits on the left; a reclining figure near him holds ascyphusor drinking cup. The dancing Psyche has four butterfly wings and plays thecrotalaor castanets; her feet are bare, but she wears bracelets. This picture is engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. xv., tav. 18. Falkener, p. 65.
[60]The excessive illiberality of the Neapolitan government can hardly be conceived by those who live in a country where leave to copy and publish is so freely accorded. No one is allowed to draw a monument that has not already been published until after the expiration of three years, at the end of which time the paintings are so often changed by the fading of colours and the obliteration of the details as to render any attempt at copying them hopeless. Falkener, pp. 62 and 65.
[60]The excessive illiberality of the Neapolitan government can hardly be conceived by those who live in a country where leave to copy and publish is so freely accorded. No one is allowed to draw a monument that has not already been published until after the expiration of three years, at the end of which time the paintings are so often changed by the fading of colours and the obliteration of the details as to render any attempt at copying them hopeless. Falkener, pp. 62 and 65.
The ceiling has a circular aperture, necessary for the admission of light and air, which is authorised by the example in thecaldariumof the baths at Pompeii (Gell, Pompeiana, vol. i. pl. 31. Zahn, vol. ii. pl. 94.) The doorway breaking irregularly through the panel is not in accordance with modern notions of order and symmetry.
20.Œcus, so called from the Greek word signifying a house, was sometimes a very spacious chamber to accommodate guests at a more extensive banquet than could be held in the triclinium. Here it is broad but not deep. The upper part of the walls white, the dado black, and the intervening spaces red and black surmounted by a rich architecturally-painted entablature. It consists of architrave, frieze, and cornice. The architrave, or lower portion, green with white garlands; the frieze above this is purple having red panels bordered with yellow, and producing a capital effect; and yellow figures of Sirens, or winged female monsters, which uphold a bold projecting cornice. The perspective delineation of this cornice, with its supports, is very remarkable, especially that of the central projection; a similar boldness of perspective drawing may be seen in Pitt. Erc., vol. iii., p. 109, where the fullest knowledge is evinced of the distribution of light and shade.
The black and red divisions of these walls have large broad devices in green and red upon them. The central picture is a collection of silver vessels lined with gold, the variety of forms are well worthy of attention. The pavement of this apartment is inlaid from patterns well known at Pompeii. Zahn, vol. ii., pl. 87.
21.Bath,BalneumorBalineum, a small chamber appropriately fitted up. Light patterns on wall above, and middle spaces green, red, and blue in broad masses.
22. A small simply-decorated room, white with red dado.
23.The end wall of the peristyle.Its paintings are conspicuously seen from the principal entrance of the house. The general colour is white. Dado red and yellow. The three central compartments are copied from the House of the Augustals, or banqueting house commonly known by the name of thePantheon.Beneath, a high canopy, supported by thin and gracefully ornamented columns, stands a lovely female with one foot upon the step of a door. She is in the act of playing the lyre, holding the plectrum with her right hand, and by her song seems to invite strangers to enter the portal. Upon the architrave of this porch is a yellow group of a Winged Victory in a biga driving at full speed, engraved in Zahn, vol. i., pl. 24. The left-hand figure is a priestess with aprefericulum, or small pitcher used for sacrifices, in her right hand, and a bunch of corn and poppies in the other. Her hair is bound by a yellow circlet, and the upper garment or mantle is remarkably similar to that in the dress of the celebrated Flora of the Capitol. (See Catalogue of Greek Court, No. 41.) The lower dress is blue and partly covering her yellow shoes. The architecture, seen through the portal of the hall which the priestess seems to be leaving, is admirably painted. The companion picture on the opposite side, is a young man in purple drapery, turned towards the fair lyrist, and seeming to offer a green wreath. The first two of these figures are engraved in the Museo Bor., vol. iii., tavole 5 and 6. The second one also in Malkin’s Pompeii, vol. ii., p. 315.
In the dado, beneath the figures just described, are large square stalls or recesses. In the centre one is an elegant figure of a girl holding a lyre, she seems to be sitting on the sill or edge of the opening. This figure is engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 12., and in Raoul Rochette, Choix de Peintures, pl. 4; Zahn, vol. ii., pl. 77. Gell gives it in his second series of Pompeiana, vol. i., pl. 14, but surrounded by different groups to the original, although all are to be found within the same building. The group beyond forms a graceful heading to the view from the atrium looking through the right hand fauces,No. 11. It consists of two figures, a Victory with expanded wings holding an incense-burner in her right hand, and a patera in the left. She is crowned with laurel, the leaves of which stand like rays about the head. Behind and above her appears a goddess with a sceptre and tiara, either Venus or Juno, more probably the former; she is in the act of putting some incense into the burner held by the other figure. The patera with offerings like purple fruit on it, has been converted by Gell and Zahn into a painter’s palette and brushes; in the Mus. Bor. the Victory wears sandals; but in Zahn and Gell more correctly only ankle rings. The play of line in this group is very pleasing. This group is taken from the portico of the same building as the other figures, viz., the House of the Augustals, commonly called thePantheon. The ground of the original is black, here it is rich red. Engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 19; Gell, vol. i., vignette heading to preface; Zahn, vol. i., pl. 2.
24.Culina.The apartment forming an angle of the peristyle was the kitchen, which is copied from the House of Sallust, excepting that the stove in this has only one arch instead of two. The painting of an altar, with eggs between two serpents, is of frequent occurrence. Serpents were cherished in ancient dwellings as creatures of good omen, and became domesticated, as quadrupeds are with us. A similar painting of serpents engraved in Pittore Ercolano, vol. iv., p. 65.
25. Side entrance into the street, immediately facing the bath.
26.Triclinium, opposite the Œcus. Large panels, blue, black, and yellow. Black dado, ceiling white, corresponding to that of the œcus opposite. The walls are also decorated in the same manner, with the exception of a frieze of boys carrying large garlands composed of fruits and flowers entwined with a pink and green ribband. The small central picture on a blue ground, represents a dish of fruit—grapes, pomegranates, green fig, dates, apricots, apple, and fircone.
Triclinium
The triclinium was the dining-room of an ancient Roman house. The guests did not sit at table, they reclined on couches arranged round three sides of a space for the table, leaving the rest open for the servants to arrange the dishes and move the trays. The wordtricliniumis derived from thethreecouches occupying the apartment which surrounded themensaor table in the manner just described. Much importance was attached, in ancient times, to the disposal of the guests. The right hand couch was the most honourable; the person reclining upon it, with his left elbow nearest the railing, was the chief person in the assembly. The Romans were accustomed to rest with the left arm upon cushions during their meals, and after dinner to lie upon theirbacks and take their repose. In some Pompeian houses, the three couches forming the triclinium, were permanently fixed. The accompanying woodcut shows the arrangement of the places for a party of nine, the favourite number for a dinner among the Romans.
The guests, preparatory to reclining on the couches, took off their shoes, and were then provided with napkins, generally fringed, and often richly embroidered. Water was poured over their hands into basins of precious metal, a process repeated many times during an entertainment, and doubtless very necessary, as the fingers were much used in the course of eating. They had knives and spoons, but forks are entirely a modern invention and their mode of eating was very similar to that practised in oriental countries, where the right hand alone is made use of. Women, when admitted to the entertainment, always sat upon the couches. The same custom may be observed on the painted vases and bas-reliefs of the Greeks down to a late time.
The dinner consisted of three courses; first, thepromulsis, orgustatio, chiefly stimulants to the appetite; the second contained an immense variety of dishes; the principal dish was calledcœnæ caputorpompa. Among them chief delicacies were the pheasant, thrush, liver of a capon steeped in milk, and fig-eaters dressed with pepper. Hortensius the orator first introduced the peacock. The favourite fish were the turbot and mullet: eels, also, stewed with prawns. Pork, boar’s-flesh, and venison, were the most highly esteemed meats. The carving was performed to the sound of music, by an especial servant called thescissor, orcarptor. The third course was thebellaria, or dessert, which consisted of uncooked fruits, such as occupy the centre of the wall before us. In addition to the fruits of the dessert great varieties of pastry were introduced, modelled in imitation of other articles of food; showers of perfume and occasional jets d’eau contributed to the luxury of the scene, but these were extravagancies, probably confined to the most wealthy citizens of Rome. The pages of Horace, Juvenal, Petronius, Martial, Athenæus, Suetonius, Aulus Gellius, and Macrobius, afford curious detail of these entertainments, from which we may easily comprehend the enormous sums they are said to have cost. An extraordinary feast is represented, in a painting, at Pompeii, described by Mr. Donaldson. The table is set out with every requisite for a grand dinner. In the centre is a large dish containing four peacocks, their tails forming a magnificent dome. Around are lobsters, one of which holds in his claws a blue egg, a second an oyster, and another a little basket full ofgrasshoppers. Four dishes of fish decorate the bottom, above which are several partridges, hares, and squirrels, each holding its head between its paws. These are surrounded by something resembling a German sausage, then a row of yolks of eggs, then a row of peaches, small melons and cherries; lastly, a row of different vegetables, and the whole seems to be covered by a green coloured sauce.
Mulsum, wine made into a syrup by the addition of honey, was handed round to the guests at the commencement of the feast. Wine was kept in large earthenware jars, called Amphoræ, stopped with a cork or wooden plug, covered with resin, or gypsum. These amphoræ were sometimes made of glass. On the outside, the jars were marked with the names of the consuls in office at the time of the vintage from which the wine was made, to indicate its age. Sometimes little tickets to this effect were suspended from the necks. They generally had two ears, and were stored up in repositories such as were found in the suburban villa (p. 19). It was customary at great feasts according to Petronius (chap. xxxiv.) for the amphoræ to be shown to the guests for them to read the labels before they were opened. Many of these vessels are represented in the paintings of Pompeii, and several originals from Rome and Alexandria are to be seen in the British Museum. Some of the glass cups and bowls filled with water are admirably represented. In one picture a decanter with the glass for drinking turned down over it, is in exact accordance with our modern custom. Elegant glass vases filled with fruit occur also among the paintings of the House of the Augustals, together with small earthen jars, having labels affixed.
In great houses it was not unusual for the guests after dinner to enjoy their wine in another room. After-dinner drinking,comissatio, orconvivium, was equivalent to thesymposiumof the Greeks.
27. Thewinter Triclinium. A large square room, corresponding to the Thalamus. The walls are white, with deep red dado. Ceiling coved, and with a round aperture similar to the one in Thalamus. On the wall opposite the door are two beautiful floating Bacchantes, one with thyrsus and tympanum, the other dressed in pink and blue, holding a thyrsus in her left hand, and a floating scarf with the other. They are engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 4, and in Zahn. vol. ii., pl. 13. The Bacchante next the door is the same as incubiculum 16; her dress here is pale blue; she holds the tympanum and thyrsus; a nebris crosses her breast.
On the left hand wall may be seen a most charming group, exquisitely coloured, of a Faun supporting a Bacchante. The faun holds a bunch of grapes in his right hand, and with the other encircles her waist; his drapery is red, and her delicate form is surrounded by a transparent veil, apparently of gauze. The drapery enveloping the lower part of her figure is purple, heightened with white, shoes blue. The effect of the painting of this group is perfectly fascinating, and entirely realises the treatment required for cheerful subjects. The group is engraved in Mus. Bor., vol. xiii., tav. 16, where the background is described as yellow. The paintings in this room are copied from the House of the Female Flute-player and the House of the Bacchantes. The group last described is in the original of unusually large proportions for such subjects, being three-fourths of life size.
Thus, then, we have completed thegíroof the Pompeian house. The ancients, although they have provided the graceful salutation for comers on their threshold in the wordSALVE, do not afford the corresponding wordVALEto “speed the parting guest.” Their manes, probably gratified by the interest now manifested in these monuments of their habits, requirements, and enjoyments, desire us to linger within these fairy walls, and to indulge in the thoughts of those who would, ages ago, have found nothing strange and nothing amiss here, excepting the appearance of the thronging visitors, whose costume and manners could never have been anticipated. The house, as we see it, is really a house such as the excavations might reveal. We have already shown that every part has its prototype at Pompeii.
The style of decorative painting during the earliest times of the empire merits attention. It is here exhibited on a larger scale and in a much more extensive series than ever before attempted in England; affording, in fact, the sole method by which such decorations can be fully understood. The subjects of the small central wall panels, and a few of the grotesque devices, have been often published, and are familiar to us through the medium both of prints and coloured copies; isolated portions, however, cannot suffice to give an idea of the harmonious effect that may be produced in mural decoration, by masses of even crude colour, when conjoined in proper proportion with others equally crude.[61]The eye at Pompeii is never offended by a want of balance inarrangement; and the system of confining the heaviest colours to the lower part of the room has been already noticed. Even copies of the same picture that come to England, on comparison, exhibit variations which destroy all feeling of confidence in their accuracy. They are for the most part so small as to conceal many important peculiarities of style, and can only serve as souvenirs. Here we see nothing on a reduced scale (except in Thalamus,No. 27), the paintings are not only of the same size as at Pompeii, but even the exactitude of the outlines is guaranteed to us by the fact of their having beentracedfrom the originals.
[61]These colours could not appear equally crude to the ancients on account of the necessary darkness that pervaded their apartments. Seeante,p. 31.
[61]These colours could not appear equally crude to the ancients on account of the necessary darkness that pervaded their apartments. Seeante,p. 31.
The scale and finish of the patterns have to a great extent been regulated by the size of the rooms which they adorn; and it will be seen that in the smaller rooms patterns must necessarily be more minute, and the form of the wall itself less regarded than in a larger apartment where they are viewed at a greater distance. The lightness of the architectural representations and their connection has been already mentioned. The painters seem to have delighted in representing every variety of pavilion, colonnade, balcony steps, rooms and corners, in short, all theins and outsandupsanddownspeculiar to buildings erected to form upper floors. They are, in fact, at variance with the ground stories actually remaining at Pompeii, where all columns and piers of brick and stone are comparatively massive, without any traces whatever of intermediate supports of wood or metal, such as are represented in the paintings. Thearabesquedevices which occupy so much of the wall space of Pompeii are replete with imagination and ingenious variety. There is, notwithstanding the censures of Vitruvius, which are inserted inpage 69, such a playfulness and elegance in the combination of objects so unexpectedly brought together, that we tolerate incongruities, and regard the whole as a dreamlike succession of images, passing easily from one to the other, without any consideration of that which has gone before. The children rising out of flowers are charming; and the living lions, rushing throughscroll workof the brightest hues, such as no living lions ever saw, are purely ornamental conceits. Again, the reeds for columns, with all the botanical details, ofnodesandinternodes, are extremely graceful; and with their rich colour and firm appearance, notwithstanding an extreme slenderness, they should be very suggestive to our metal workers as means of support. The monsters sometimes perched upon them, in perfect illustration of the words of Vitruvius, excite our surprise, and being frequently ugly in themselves, incline us to agree with the illustriousarchitect in wishing them away; but at the same time, without such paintings before us, how impossible it would be to comprehend the passages in his book relating to such matters, and depending for their effect upon the eye alone. The beautiful devices of thestanza nera,cubiculum No. 1, are sufficient illustrations of the grace with which incongruities may be combined, and how in a very small apartment, where minute decorations are appropriately introduced, each portion is to be read, as it were, by itself, or, if regarded generally, to seem merely a playful arrangement of colours relieving the monotony of the wall.
Landscapes as seen incubicula 3and15are said to be peculiarly the invention of Ludius, who lived in the early period of the empire. His conceits, as described by Pliny, have something almost Chinese about them, and his chief desire seems to have been to amuse and occupy the spectators. Extensive landscape views were found in the House of the Dioscuri in the four cubicula on the extreme right, seen in plan (No. 8, onpage 39). An extensive painting of a sea-port was discovered in the House of the Small Fountain (plan No. 6). Some very quaint coast scenes, with enormous gallies, are engraved as vignettes in Pitture d’Ercolano, vol. iii., pp. 7 and 13. An extensive scene of a crowded mole, adorned with statues and arches, with a distant town and crowded boats on the water, is engraved at page 47 of the same vol. At page 279 of the same, is a curious representation of various figures on a wet, slippery ground, as described by Pliny in the paintings of Ludius. An extensive scene of a port, with shipping, numerous statues raised on columns, houses, gardens, people in boats and angling on the shore, was found at Stabiæ; it is engraved in vol. ii., page 295, of Pitture d’Ercolano. Eight small circular views of land and sea, animated by numerous figures, were also found at Stabiæ. They are engraved in the same volume at pp. 277, 281, 285, and 289, and form very important illustrations of ancient life and scenery. Curious buildings may be seen in vignettes on page 105 of same volume. A remarkable painting of a creek with four large ships filled with armed soldiers, with three rows of oars, is engraved in vol i., page 243. The gallies filled with armed troops are seen also in page 239. A curious latticed window in a landscape in page 229. These landscape views are all admirably engraved, in a faithful imitation of the masses of light and shade, and with careful attention to the smallest detail. In the Museo Borbonico, on the contrary, the style of engraving fails to render any one of the peculiarities of theirexecution. Many vignette landscapes are characteristically copied in vol. ii. of Gell’s Pompeiana, but they have not the completeness or richness of the Pitture d’Ercolano. Some curious illustrations of the social life of the Pompeians may be found in a series of pictures representing the ancient Forum of that city, thronged with the same variety of people that may be seen in the market places of Naples and other Italian cities, all occupied in similarly varied occupations of buying and selling, talking and idling; they supplied Bulwer with several incidents for his description, and have been engraved in vol. iii., page 213 to 231 of Pitture d’Ercolano.
Notwithstanding the frequent occurrence elsewhere of ancient paintings inscribed with the names of persons they are intended to represent, scarcely any instances have been met with in the cities overwhelmed by Vesuvius. The wordDIDVis written in one picture in white characters near the head of a figure. The fragment was found at Stabiæ; it is engraved in vol. iii., page 231, of Pitture d’Ercolano. On the celebrated marble slab, monochrome drawings by Alexander of Athens; the artist has not only inscribed his own name, but those of the five females in his composition. It represents the visit of Niobe and her daughters to Latona. This picture was found at Herculaneum, May 24, 1746. A very beautiful little mosaic was inscribed with the name of Dioscorides, of Samos, as the artist; thus:
ΔΙΟΣΚΟΥΡΙΔΗΣ ΣΑΜΙΟΣ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕ.
There is great diversity of opinion amongst antiquarians as to the meaning of some of the most important pictures discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum, which might have been obviated had the names of the characters been written upon them, as we see upon the ancient Greek vases, and upon the paintings of Polygnotus, and the chest of Cypselus, described by Pausanias, and, to descend to later and very different times, the well-known Bayeux tapestry, illustrating the history of William the Conqueror. In default of inscription, the Pompeian pictures can only be interpreted by their similarity to the descriptions of other ancient paintings left us by Pausanias, Lucian, Ælian, and Philostratus. The following extract from Vitruvius, book vii., chap. 5, affords a most important view of what innovations took place in his time, showing also, that even before the time of Augustus, mural decorations were composed of extensive architectural fancies, as well as harbours, landscapes, and sea-pieces.
“In other apartments—that is, in those of Spring, Autumn, and Summer, as also in the atrium and peristylium—the ancients have established certain methods of painting. A picture is the representation of things that are, or may be, as men, buildings, ships, and other things; of which the copy, by having the exact form and outlines of the real body, assumes the likeness. The ancients, who originally instituted this manner of decoration, at first imitated the varieties and marks of marble incrustation, then cornices, disposing between them divers silacious and miniaceous coloured ornaments. They proceeded afterwards to represent edifices with columns and pediments projecting; but in spacious places, such as exedræ, on account of the amplitude of the walls, they represented the fronts of scenes in the tragic, comic, or satyric manner; and ambulatories, being of a great length, they ornamented with landscapes, expressing the appearance of particular places, painting harbours, promontories, sea coasts, rivers, fountains, canals, temples, groves, mountains, cattle, and shepherds; in some places, also, large paintings of figures, representing the gods, or fabulous histories, the Trojan war, or the wanderings of Ulysses, and other subjects of a similar kind, which are conformable to the nature of things.
“But these subjects, which our forefathers copied from nature, are now, by our depraved manners, disapproved; for monsters, rather than the resemblances of natural objects, are painted on the stucco, reeds are substituted for columns, and for the pediments, fluted harpaginetuli, with curling foliage and volutes; also candelabra supporting the forms of little buildings, their pediments rising out of roots, with numerous volutes and tender stalks, having, contrary to reason, images sitting on them; so also the flowers from stalks have half figures springing therefrom, with heads, some like those of men, some like those of beasts, which things neither are nor can be, nor ever were: and this new mode so prevails that those who are not judges disregard the arts—for how is it possible for reeds to support a roof—or candelabra buildings and the ornaments of pediments—or stalks, which are so slender and soft, sitting figures—or the flowers of stalks produce half images? Yet men, being accustomed to the sight of these absurdities, do not censure, but are pleased with them, without considering whether they be proper or not; the judgment, depravedby habit, examines not whether they be according to propriety and the rules of decor; for pictures should not be approved unless they be conformable to truth, even although they be well executed, they ought, therefore, to be immediately condemned unless they can bear the trial of rational examination without being disapproved.
“Thus at Tralles, when Apaturius of Alabanda had excellently well painted a scene in the little theatre, which with them is called the Ecclesiasterion, and instead of columns had placed statues and centaurs, supporting the epistylium, the circular roof of the dome, and projecting corners of the pediments, and ornamented the cornice with lions’ heads, all which have reference to the roofing and eaves of edifices; above these, nevertheless, in the episcene, domes, porticos, semipediments, and all the various parts of buildings were again painted; wherefore upon the appearance of this scene, when by reason of its enrichment it was found pleasing to all, and they were ready to applaud the work, Licinius, the mathematician, then advanced and said, ‘the Alabandines are sufficiently intelligent in all civil affairs, but for a trifling impropriety are deemed injudicious; for the statues in their gymnasium are all in the attitude of pleading causes, while those in the forum are holding the discus, or in the attitude of running or playing with balls; so that the unsuitableness of the attitudes of the figures to the purposes of the places, throws a public disgrace upon the city. Let us then take care that by the scene of Apaturius we are not deemed Alabandines, or even Abderites; for who among you places upon the tiles of the roofs of your houses columns or pediments? These things are placed upon the floors, not upon the tiles. If then we approve in painting what cannot be in fact, we of this city shall be like those who, on account of the same error, are deemed illiterate.’ Apaturius dared not to reply, but took down the scene and altered it so as to be consistent to truth; after which it was approved. I, with the immortal gods, would restore Licinius to life, that he might correct this folly and fashionable disfigurement of our stucco work; but why a false overcomes a just mode it will not be foreign to the purpose to explain.
“The ancients, with labour and application, endeavoured to make their works be approved by the excellences of art; this is now supplied by the beauty of colours, and the use of those of the most costly kind; and that value which was formerly given to works by the skill of the artist, is not desired since the expense of the proprietor supplies its place. Who among the ancients is knownto have used minium otherwise than sparingly and as a medicine? But now it is everywhere laid over the whole wall; it is the same with crysocolla, ostrum, and armenium, which, when laid, although without any art, appear very brilliant to the sight, and they are so costly, that it is usually specified in the articles of agreement that they shall be purchased by the proprietor, and not by the contractor.”
Pliny, also, who perished, it must be remembered, dining the conflagration of the cities (seepage 8), affords some curious testimony to the popularity of this mode of decoration, and of one particular painter, Ludius. He says, book xxxv., chapter10—
“Ludius was he who first devised to beautify the walls of a house with the pleasantest painting that is in all variety; to wit, with the resemblance of manors, farms, and houses of pleasure in the country; havens, vinets, flower-work in knots; groves, woods, forests, hills, fish-pools, conduits and drains, rivers, riverets, with their banks, and people, some walking and going to and fro on foot, others sailing and rowing up and down the stream upon the water, or else riding by land to their farms, either mounted upon then mules and asses, or else in waggons and coaches; there a man should see folk, in this place fishing and angling, in that place hawking and fowling; some hunting here, the hare, the fox, or deer, both red and sallow; others busy there, in harvest or vintage. In this manner of painting, a man should behold of his workmanship, fair houses, standing among marshes, into which all the ways that lead be ticklish and full of bogs; where you should see the paths so slippery, that women as they go are afraid to let one foot afore another; some at every step ready to slide, others bending forward with their heads, as though they carried some burdens upon their neck and shoulders, and all for fear lest, their feet sliding under them, they should catch a fall; and a thousand more devices and pretty conceits as these, full of pleasure and delight. The same Ludius devised walls without doors, and abroad in the open air, to paint cities standing by the sea-shore: all which kind of painting pleaseth the eye exceedingly well, and is besides of little or no cost. Howbeit, neither he nor any artificers of this kind—howsoever otherwise respected—grew ever to be famous and of great name; that felicity attained they only unto who used to paint in tables, and therefore in this regard,venerable antiquity we have in greater admiration; for painters in old time loved not to garnish walls for to pleasure the master only of the house, nor yet to bedeck in houses that manner that cannot stir out of the place nor shift and save themselves when fire cometh, as painted tables may that are to be removed with ease.”
The reconstruction of an ancient house from the descriptions of ancient authors has been several times attempted.
Pirro Ligorio, a Neapolitan architect, erected the villa Pia, 1570, for Pope Pius V. It was built in imitation of the houses of the ancients, whose architecture he had particularly studied. Mazois, whose large work on Pompeii has formed, as it were, the basis of almost all Pompeian studies, wrote an elaborate essay on the palaces of the ancient Romans, under the title “Le Palais de Scaurus.” In this all the descriptions of ancient authors were supposed to be comprised. His work, however, was confined to the pen; and it is to be regretted that Mazois did not undertake an architectural reproduction, as an actual copy of one of the houses he explored whilst they were comparatively perfect, and for which he was so thoroughly qualified. Onlyoneundertaking of this kind has preceded the Pompeian Court at Sydenham. It was prompted by the taste of a monarch, remarkable for his interest in the fine arts of all nations and all ages. The ex-king of Bavaria had a villa built at Aschaffenburg, which was the complete restoration of an ancient Roman house found at Pompeii. It was erected by the celebrated architect, Gärtner, and is an exact copy of the House of the Dioscuri.
The visitor to Pompeii is but too frequently disappointed at the crumbling condition of the disentombed city; and the majority take little trouble to trace the origin of this first and unfavourable impression. They do not reflect upon the relation between different portions of the ruins, the use or particular object originally served, the custom that produced it, or the former appearance of the details in the harmony of their original arrangement, with the groups of gaily attired inhabitants giving animation to the scene. Like the greater portion of the curious who throng the Elgin Saloon of the British Museum, for the purpose of taking a peep at the mutilated fragments of the marbles contained within its walls, such visitors to Pompeii look for excellencies that do not exist, and a harmony incompatible with the actual condition of the remains; and, discontented at finding things in opposition to their own conceptions, they depart with imperfect and even prejudiced ideas of what they really have beheld. Few arrive at Pompeii with even a generalidea of the appearance of an ancient Roman house, and are thus incapable of judging of the actual importance of the crumbling remains of the buried cities.
Repeated visits, and careful and laborious investigation, are necessary for perfect comprehension of the value of the ruins, in guiding the observer towards an accurate idea of the state of the city in its prime. To the careless and the uninitiated these few scattered fragments, snatched from the very jaws of desolation, will afford but a faint reflection of the glory and the triumphs that have for ever passed away.
Such were the persevering studies of Cockerell, Digby Wyatt, Donaldson, Falkener, Gell, Hayes, Mazois, and Zahn; and to their investigations we are indebted for all the conclusions displayed in this interesting building. We behold at a glance the result of the experience of many years, and the combined exertions of our most distinguished architects, and may safely assert that no more agreeable method than that afforded by this reconstruction could be devised for making the public acquainted with the details of a Pompeian house.
In the Atrium are placed two handsome marble benches, such as the clients might have sat upon whilst waiting for audience with their patron. The ends, which are elaborately carved, have been copied from an original model in the Vatican Museum, and the whole has been presented to the Crystal Palace Company by the London Marble Working Company, through their secretary, Mr. Clare.
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
Large plan.The House of Pansa.Discovered at Pompeii, 1811. (Seepage 42.)
Large plan.
The House of Pansa.Discovered at Pompeii, 1811. (Seepage 42.)
Transcriber’s Notes.Inconsistencies (including in spelling and hyphenation, also of proper and geographical names) have not been standardised, except as listed below.The source documents contains some unusual geography (Maestricht in Germany, the Pacific Ocean near Somalia and South Africa). These have not been changed.Some illustrations (mainly maps and plans) are available as larger images through hyperlinks (not available in all formats).Page I-167: the number 7 is not visible in the illustration.Page II-68, article 168: the reference to the bust of Buonaparte is blank in the source document; possibly the reference was intended to be to item 311.Page II-106, article 255: his name was Bernard Germain Étienne de Laville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède.Page III-85, ... ranges westwards to the boundaries of Abyssinia: probably an error for ... ranges eastwards to ....Changes madeFootnotes have been moved to under the relevant paragraph, illustrations have been moved out of text paragraphs.Minor obvious misprints and typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently.Some ditto symbols („) have been replaced with the dittoed text.page I-vii: second A.M. for Sunday trains from Charing Cross changed to P.M.page I-xvi. Philoe Portico: page number inserted.page I-85: footnote marker [23] inserted.page I-98: and in many days changed to and in many ways.page I-109: Ludwig Scwanthaler changed to Ludwig Schwanthaler.page I-110: Das Neue Testaments changed to Das Neue Testament.page I-167: some background hatching removed in order to show the reference numbers.The biographical data in the Portrait Gallery guide (between square brackets) have been standardised to centred lay-out.page II-84: Andrè le Nôtre changed to André le Nôtre.page II-85: Andrè Félibien changed to André Félibien.page II-105: Aunonai changed to Annonai (2x).page II-106: sur Mon changed to sur Illon.page II-143, article 327A: Cristoph changed to Christoph; article 327C: C. Christoph changed to Christoph.page II-150, article 341: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg.page II-223: le Sœur changed to le Sueur.page II-228: 10* changed to 410*.page II-229: Marin-Jean-Antoine changed to Marie-Jean-Antoine.page II-230: 94 changed to 94*.page II-232: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg; 95 changed to 95*.page II-232: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg.page II-234: 76 changed to 76*.page III-55:Sun’s beam andfaughter father changed toSun’sbeam andfaughterfather cf. other examples and explanation.page V-48, section heading CUBICULA changed to sub-section heading.page V-52: d’Ercalano changed to d’Ercolano.
Inconsistencies (including in spelling and hyphenation, also of proper and geographical names) have not been standardised, except as listed below.
The source documents contains some unusual geography (Maestricht in Germany, the Pacific Ocean near Somalia and South Africa). These have not been changed.
Some illustrations (mainly maps and plans) are available as larger images through hyperlinks (not available in all formats).
Page I-167: the number 7 is not visible in the illustration.
Page II-68, article 168: the reference to the bust of Buonaparte is blank in the source document; possibly the reference was intended to be to item 311.
Page II-106, article 255: his name was Bernard Germain Étienne de Laville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède.
Page III-85, ... ranges westwards to the boundaries of Abyssinia: probably an error for ... ranges eastwards to ....
Footnotes have been moved to under the relevant paragraph, illustrations have been moved out of text paragraphs.
Minor obvious misprints and typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently.
Some ditto symbols („) have been replaced with the dittoed text.
page I-vii: second A.M. for Sunday trains from Charing Cross changed to P.M.
page I-xvi. Philoe Portico: page number inserted.
page I-85: footnote marker [23] inserted.
page I-98: and in many days changed to and in many ways.
page I-109: Ludwig Scwanthaler changed to Ludwig Schwanthaler.
page I-110: Das Neue Testaments changed to Das Neue Testament.
page I-167: some background hatching removed in order to show the reference numbers.
The biographical data in the Portrait Gallery guide (between square brackets) have been standardised to centred lay-out.
page II-84: Andrè le Nôtre changed to André le Nôtre.
page II-85: Andrè Félibien changed to André Félibien.
page II-105: Aunonai changed to Annonai (2x).
page II-106: sur Mon changed to sur Illon.
page II-143, article 327A: Cristoph changed to Christoph; article 327C: C. Christoph changed to Christoph.
page II-150, article 341: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg.
page II-223: le Sœur changed to le Sueur.
page II-228: 10* changed to 410*.
page II-229: Marin-Jean-Antoine changed to Marie-Jean-Antoine.
page II-230: 94 changed to 94*.
page II-232: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg; 95 changed to 95*.
page II-232: Gutenburg changed to Gutenberg.
page II-234: 76 changed to 76*.
page III-55:Sun’s beam andfaughter father changed toSun’sbeam andfaughterfather cf. other examples and explanation.
page V-48, section heading CUBICULA changed to sub-section heading.
page V-52: d’Ercalano changed to d’Ercolano.