banner    
 
       
  The Roman Empire
  
       
  Republic :: Pompeii And The Cities Of Vesuvius :: Early Empire :: High Empire :: Late Empire    
       
       
  POMPEII AND THE CITIES OF VESUVIUS

Buried by a Volcano:

Pompeii was destroyed in the sudden eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. Many prosperous towns were buried in a single day. When researchers first explored the buried cities in the 18t city, the ruins had been undisturbed for nearly 1,700 years.

Oscans, Samnites, and Romans:

Pompeii was first settled by the Oscans and later by the Samnites. Sulla founded a new Roman colony on the site in 80 BCE.

An archeological park:

So much of the city has been preserved that it has been called a "living city of the dead."

Architecture

The heart of Pompeii:

The typical Roman town was planned originally with a centrally located public square or civic center (forum) located at the intersection of the main north-south street, the cardo, and the main east-west street, the decumanus.

10-12: Aerial view of the forum, Pompeii, Italy, with Temple of Jupiter (Capitolium), and Basilica, second century BCE and later.
  1. aerial view
  2. aerial view
  3. aerial view
  4. various views
Gladiators and wild animals:

Shortly after the Roman's took control of Pompeii, two of the towns wealthiest officials used their own funds to erect a large ampitheater at the southeastern end of town. It is the earliest such structure known and could easily seat 20,000 spectators.

A painting on the wall of a Pompeian house records a brawl between the Pompeians and their neighbors, the Nucerians, during a gladiator contest. The fighting left many seriously wounded and led to the closing of the amphitheater for a decade.		    
       
  10-13: Aerial view of the amphitheater, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 70 BCE.
  1. view
  2. view
  3. view
  4. view
10-14: Brawl in the Pompeii amphitheater, wall painting from House I,3,23, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 60-79: CE. Approx. 5' 7" x 6' 1". Museo Nazionale, Naples.
  1. painting
  2. painting
  3. painting
  4. painting
Townhouses for the wealthy:

A domus, or single-family house, had a plain exterior; the focus was on the interior spaces. The parts of the house are fauces, atrium, impluvium, cubicula, tablinum, triclinium, and peristyle. The House of the Vetti had a large peristyle, but no tablinum.

10-15: Atrium of the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Italy, second century BCE, rebuilt 62-79: CE.
  1. atrium
  2. atrium

10-16: Restored view and plan of a typical Roman house of the Late Republic and Early Empire. 1) fauces, 2) atrium, 3) impluvium, 4) cubiculum, 5) ala, 6) tablinum, 7) triclinium, 8) peristyle

Painted walls everywhere:

A large number of paintings decorating interior walls indicate both the prosperity and the tastes of the inhabitants of Pompeii. Many paintings have been removed from walls and placed in the Naples Archeological Museum.

The First Style and Greece:

The First Style imitates marble panels using painted stucco relief. The wall is divided into three parts, with a dado at the bottom, a middle section (with the large, imitation marble panels), and an upper part of the wall with a cornice, a frieze, and another cornice. Each panel is outlined with stucco. The cornices are also modeled in stucco.

10-17: First Style wall painting in the fauces of the Samnite House, Herculaneum, Italy, late second century BCE.

  1. painting
  2. painting
  3. painting
The Second Style illusionism:

The Second Style shows imaginary three-dimensional worlds. The illusion is that the wall surface has receded.

Dionysiac Mysteries at Pompeii:

An example of Second Style painting is found in the Villa of the Mysteries, where rites associated with the Dionysiac Mysteries are celebrated in a continuous frieze running round all four walls of the room. The life-size figures appear as if on a shallow ledge against a backdrop of painted panels.

10-18: Dionysiac mystery frieze, Second Style wall paintings in Room 5 of the Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 60-50: BCE. Frieze approx. 5' 4" high.
  1. frieze
  2. frieze
  3. frieze
  4. detail
Perspective Painting:

The Second Style painting in Cubiculum M of the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor shows "picture-window" vistas with illusionistic architecture on side and back walls. Sacred precincts with images of Diana-Lucina (goddess of the moon) and Hecate (ruler of the night), each flanked by picturesque architectural vistas, appear near the room's entrance. The buildings are piled one above the other and painted in pastel colors. The vistas of colonnades and temples appear on the rear wall.		  
       
 
 
       
       
  10-19: Second Style wall paintings (general view and detail of tholos) from Cubiculum M of the Villa of Publius Fannius Synistor, Boscoreale, Italy, ca. 50-40: BCE. Approx. 8' 9" high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  1. cubiculum
  2. cubiculum
  3. cubiculum
  4. cubiculum
  5. cubiculum
An Empress's painted garden:

The Second Style wall painting from the Villa of Livia, Primaporta, shows a continuous illusionistic gardenscape on all four walls.

10-20: Gardenscape, Second Style wall painting, from the Villa of Livia, Primaporta, Italy, ca. 30-20: BCE. Approx. 6' 7" high. Museo Nazionale Romano-Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.
  1. painting
  2. painting
  3. painting
Third Style elegance:

The Third Style shows delicate linear fantasies against monochrome backgrounds. Cubiculum 15 of the Villa of Agrippa Postumus is decorated with elegantly attenuated architectural forms that frame small, floating landscapes. The painting from the Vatican Virgil shows framed panels with atmospheric landscapes.

10-21: Detail of a Third Style wall painting, from Cubiculum 15 of the Villa of Agrippa Postumus, Boscotrecase, Italy, ca. 10 BCE. Approx. 7' 8" high. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  1. painting
  2. related

Roman painting and latin poetry:

Despite the differences in style, the landscapes of the Primaporta and Boscotrecase villas reveal a love of country life and idealization of nature that also appear in the pastoral poetry of Vergil and Horace.

Nero and the Fourth Style:

The Fourth Style includes illusionistic elements and framed panels against a monochrome (white) background. The paintings in the Domus Aurea, supervised by the court painter Fabullus, show thin, delicate architectural frameworks in the upper section of the wall. The daintiness of the design is emphasized by the creamy white background. These paintings became the source for the "grotesque" style that emerged in the Renaissance.

10-22: Fourth Style wall paintings in Room 78 of the Domus Aurea (Golden House) of Nero, Rome, Italy, 64-68: CE.

  1. paintings
  2. paintings
  3. paintings
  4. paintings
Painting before the eruption:

In Fourth Style wall paintings, the lower zone (dado) has geometric panels. The middle section has larger panels with architectural views in perspective. Monochrome panels are decorated with delicate floral borders with figures of maenads and satyrs floating in the center. Figurative panels with mythological scenes, and elaborate architectural scenes in perspective appear at frieze level.

10-23: Fourth Style wall paintings in the Ixion Room (Triclinium P) of the House of the Vettii, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 70-79: CE.
  1. paintings
  2. paintings
  3. paintings
Greek myths on Roman walls:

The panel of Neptune and Amphitrite is framed by a scalloped pattern of sea shells. Different hues of blue set the main tone. The figures of Neptune and Amphitrite stand in a pentagonal panel of gold tesserae under a shell-like canopy. Neptune stands with a blue cloak draped over his left shoulder and right arm holding a golden trident; he has a tanned and youthful body but white hair and beard. His pose is inspired by Greek statues of Poseidon. Amphitrite, his consort, leans on a pillar. She raises her blue cloak with her right hand while holding a scepter in her left hand. Her pose imitates a Greek statue of Venus.

10-24: Neptune and Amphitrite, wall mosaic in the summer triclinium of the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum, Italy, ca. 62-79: CE.
  1. mosaic
  2. mosaic
Pretentious private portraits:

Objects that appear in many portraits of this time suggest the fine education of those depicted - even if, as was sometimes true, the individuals were uneducated, or even illiterate.

The house in which the portrait of a husband and wife was found was first thought to have been owned by Paquius Proculus, a baker. Later (in 1926) the owner was identified as Terentius Neus, a lawyer.

10-25: Portrait of a husband and wife, wall painting from House VII,2,6, Pompeii, Italy, ca. 70-79: CE. Approx. 1' 11" x 1' 8 1/2". Museo Nazionale, Naples.
  1. portrait
  2. portrait
  3. portrait
  4. portrait
Painting the inanimate:

Still life with peaches shows illusionistic effects of light and shadow.

10-26: Still life with peaches, detail of a Fourth Style wall painting, from Herculaneum, Italy, ca. 62-79: CE. Approx. 1' 2" x 1' 1 1/2". Museo Nazionale, Naples.
  1. Still life
  2. Still life
  3. Still life
    
 
 
       
       
  Republic :: Pompeii And The Cities Of Vesuvius :: Early Empire :: High Empire :: Late Empire