Descriptive Catalogue

The pavement of room 1, like that of 3, is mortar (cocciopesto), containing isolated fragments of white and coloured marbles, including bardiglio scuro (or Hymettan?), giallo antico, and portasanta(?), amid a regular scatter of white chips, from 0.05 to 0.10 apart. A band of more closely spaced white tesserae, approx. d. 0.60 × w. 2.90 (tesserae from 0.005 to 0.008), marks the threshold between rooms 1 and 3. The three fragments of bardiglio scuro have maximum measurements of 0.20 × 0.125; 0.15 × 0.07; 0.06 × 0.065. Wall-paintings (Figs. 4, 5a; Pl. 133; Elia, 265; PPM ii. 231–2, figs. 2–4) State of preservation. The wall-paintings are late Third Style, with design and colours now damaged but with a few exceptions relatively easy to decipher. The W wall is the most complete, with plaster preserved to full height on the right, but dropping to just above the top of the dado near the left end before rising again to half-height in the SW angle. On the E wall, decorated only to the right of the doorway to room 2, the plaster is well preserved to mid-height. The S side of the room is open to room 3, but the shallow responds at each side retain plaster to mid-height. The N wall has no decoration other than fragments of a lararium painting to the right of the street entrance. The plaster overlaps the pavement. West wall. The DADO (ht. 0.82) is black with a delicate design of white and yellow lines, focused on a series of four little panels containing decorative motifs, one beneath each of the intervals of the main zone. Within an overall frame formed by a narrow white base-line (0.15 above the floor) and vertical white lines at each end (0.07 from the left angle, 0.19 from the right) the space is divided into five parts (w. resp. 0.70, 0.95, 1.17, 0.92, and 0.72) corresponding to the fivefold structure of the main zone. The two central divisions are each effected by a vertical white line interrupted at mid-height by a tiny square tilted at 45º; this is framed by the same white line, with an inner border-line in yellow, and contains a central rosette in white.

GENERAL COMMENTS

The Decorations have so Far Been Considered house by house because their main interest lies in what they tell us about the residential units for which they were designed and the householders who commissioned them. We may conclude, however, by looking at them globally to draw some general conclusions about patterns of distribution and about the contribution made by Insula I.10 to our knowledge of Pompeian interior decoration. The nature of our study, covering a whole insula rather than focusing on individual houses, provides an exceptional opportunity to consider decorations across a range of properties which together constitute a ‘neighbourhood’ within Pompeii. We can thus pick out some of the patterns of economic and social differentiation within a small area of the city. Even if few of our conclusions prove to be unexpected, they none the less provide some kind of model against which to measure the results of studies of individual houses or of whole insulae elsewhere in Pompeii. Our discussion will, inevitably, concentrate on the seven more substantial dwellings in the insula, namely the Case del Menandro, degli Amanti and del Fabbro, and houses 1, 3, 8, and 18. The various one- or tworoom units, including independent shops and workshops, and the upstairs apartment entered via entrance 5, either lacked any form of interior decoration (other than largely plain plaster and mortar paving) or have yielded too little evidence to enable worthwhile conclusions to be drawn. one in the Casa del Fabbro and one in the Casa degli Amanti, hints at the former existence of even more luxurious paintings of which no trace remains. But the record is simply too defective to bring this material into the equation: as in other parts of Pompeii, details of arrangements on the upper floors are mostly unrecoverable. We are forced to base our figures on the ground floors alone, acknowledging the danger that this may result in some distortion of the picture. First, pavements. The decorated paving can be divided into three main types: true mosaic, pavements of mortar sprinkled with pieces of white and coloured stones, and pavements of mortar with patterns formed by lines of tesserae.

I. 10. 4: CASA DEL MENANDRO

In its Final form, the CASA Del Menandro was adorned with decorations which can be ascribed (leaving aside a few which are too simple or too damaged to be classified at all) to the late Second and Fourth Styles (see Figs. 2–3). Remains from other phases will be considered in the next section but none of these were visible in AD 79. The First Style pavements and painted stuccowork in the rooms excavated beneath the floor of room 18 (Figs. 27B, 64; Pl. 1) had of course been buried before AD 79, and they probably belonged to a separate house anyway. A piece of a First (or early Second) Style dado carrying a curtain motif, preserved inside the cupboard 10 (Fig. 27A), belongs to a phase when this space was a passage; it would have been out of sight in subsequent periods. Other remains of similarly early phases in the atrium area are chance survivals beneath later plaster. The only remnant of a Third Style decoration (Fig. 93B; Pl. 15) is on a fragment of plaster found (probably) in the pit in passage P1; and it clearly derives from a painted scheme which had been dismantled before the final years. All that was visible in 79, then, was work from the third quarter of the first century BC and the third quarter of the first century AD—what we have classified in terms of the structural history as the end of Phase 3 and Phase 5. The late-Second Style paintings and stuccoes are confined to the southern arm of the peristyle and the bath-suite. In the peristyle there is a relatively well-preserved painted scheme of trees seen through arched openings on the walls of exedra 25 (Col. Pl. 39; Figs. 77– 9) and a stucco decoration with birds in spiralling acanthus tendrils in the semi-dome of exedra 24 (Fig. 89D; Col. Pl. 38; Pl. 13); it appears that a similar stucco decoration adorned the semi-dome of exedra 22, but only a fragment of this survives.

Postscript to Volume I

We take the opportunity of modifying ideas presented in Volume I, and responding to queries raised by reviewers and other commentators. 1. Street fountains. It was claimed in Volume I (p. 252) that the cutting back of the fac¸ade of I.10.1 to create space round the fountain was almost without parallel in the city: the only other places where we could point to similar sacrifices being made, either for fountains or for the distribution tanks and watertowers which were an integral part of the distribution system provided to feed them, were at the southern tip of Insula VI.1 and the south-east corner of VI.14. We suggested, therefore, that the owner or occupier of I.10.1, rather than being subject to an expropriation order, may have yielded the space voluntarily. It is certainly true that street fountains and water-towers were as far as possible sited to avoid impinging upon existing buildings, even though the installations in question almost invariably ended up both encroaching upon the sidewalk and projecting into the carriageway. In some cases, as at the northeast corner of VI.8, there was no great problem, because there was suficient space for pedestrians and wheeled trafic to get past without dificulty. In other places, the street was closed to vehicles, so the fountain could project freely into the carriageway or even stand wholly within it: such was the case at the north-west corner of VI.13, where the lack of ruts and a strategically placed bollard at the south end conform that the Vico del Labirinto was for pedestrians only. The western stretch of the Via dell’Abbondanza, between the forum and the Via Stabiana crossing, was at least partially closed to vehicles, but there was, in any case, no shortage of space for the fountains at the south-east corners of VII.9 and VII.14. At the north end of the Via delle Scuole, closed off by the forum colonnade, it was even possible to site a fountain in the middle of the road. In other cases, however, accommodating the fountain presented serious difficulties. At the south-east corner of VII.4, for instance, the fountain jutted into the street so far as to leave only a narrow gap for wheeled trafic to squeeze through, and ultimately the street was closed.

MINOR HOUSES

The Remaining Dwellings with Decorated pavements and wall-plaster are all small (ground floor areas of 125 sq. m. or less), and the surviving decorations barely adequate to justify conclusions about the function and meaning of spaces. At least one house (I.10.18) shows signs of having suffered a decline of living standards, in that its last-phase paintings mark a clear lapse in quality and ambition in relation to their surviving predecessors: there is, as a result, a disparity between the relative richness of the paintings and the relative importance of the spaces interpreted in terms of the normal patterns of house usage. Such anomalies, when combined with the almost total absence of figure subjects, make it difficult to investigate questions of taste among householders. Still less, given the defective nature of the evidence, is it possible to look at such questions in diachronic terms. For these reasons we shall deal with the remaining properties in a more summary fashion than the houses discussed in earlier chapters, and we shall tend to focus on the situation in the final phase. The decorations of this house are divided into two clearly defined groups. There are more or less complete Third Style decorations in the rooms on the axis of the street entrance (the so-called ‘atrium’ and ‘tablinum’), and fragmentary remains of what were probably Fourth Style paintings in the rooms to the east, including those of the upper storey. The only decorated pavements are those of rooms 1 and 3 (the so-called ‘atrium’ and ‘tablinum’); these consist of continuous cocciopesto inset with small chips of white stone and a few larger and irregularly spaced pieces of white and coloured marbles (a grey marble—either Hymettan or bardiglio scuro), portasanta (or africano?), and giallo antico), punctuated by a band of scattered white tesserae between the responds which mark the division between the two spaces. The types of marble, and datable material built into the stair-base against which the pavement abuts, point to a date no earlier than the first century AD, and it is likely that the pavements belong to the same decorative programme as the Third Stylewall-paintings of the two rooms.

I. 10. 7: CASA DEL FABBRO

The Surviving Decorations in the Casa Del Fabbro belong to two main phases: the late Third Style and a crude and simple form of the Fourth Style. Late Third Style paintings occur in the two rooms (8 and 9) that open southwards to the portico (10) and garden at the rear of the house, one on either side of the tablinum. They are accompanied in one case (room 9) by a decorated pavement assignable to the same phase. The only other space which may have had Third Style paintings at the time of the eruption was the tablinum itself (room 7). Here Elia records a wall-decoration that was ‘molto rovinata’, a description often applicable to paintings which had been on the walls for some decades before 79; remnants on the east wall consisted of ‘specchi rossi e gialli, divisi da sottili fasce verdi e zoccolo a fondo nero ornato di sagome verdi e gialle’. This description could fit a Third Style scheme, though it does not exclude the Fourth Style. Unfortunately nothing legible now survives, but the plaster of the pilasters at the entrance predates the final coat of plaster in the atrium. Simple Fourth Style paintings occur in the cubicula to the west of the fauces and atrium (rooms 2, 4, and 5). Further fragments in the rooms above these cubicula are too incomplete for detailed analysis but are likely to belong to the same period. The atrium itself (room 3) is plastered plain white, and the fauces has only coarse plaster: one wonders whether these were provisional arrangements pending full redecoration or a sign of the house’s conversion to commercial or manufacturing activities (see below, pp. 144–5). The only decorated pavement which can be dated, with some confidence, to the Third Style is that of the black room (9), a cocciopesto containing patterns of inset white tesserae which delineate the position of triclinium couches (pp. 262–3; Fig. 111). The area covered by the couches is marked by a semis of five-tessera crosslets, the central area by a mat of swastika meander, and the area at the front and sides by mats containing lozenge grids.

Introduction

The Present Volume takes Forward the Study of the Insula of the Menandro started with the architectural analysis of Volume I (1997). It examines the interior decorations (paintings on walls and ceilings, mosaics and other patterned pavements on floors, and stucco relief on ceilings). This is done, as in Volume I, by separating the analytical discussion, which comes first, from a full descriptive catalogue—the counterpart of the architectural gazetteer (Appendix A) of the fiirst volume— which occupies the second half. In the analytical discussion the decorations are tackled from three main viewpoints. A first section deals with typology and chronology. This involves analysing both the general syntax and also individual motifs, using comparanda from other houses at Pompeii and where necessary outside Pompeii, to determine their place within the evolution of the decorative formulae for each medium. In the second section we examine iconography, concentrating especially on mythological scenes and figures which are more than simple stereotypes. These are related to parallels in other houses to establish how far they conform to, or conflict with, the normal patterns of representation, viewed where possible from a chronological standpoint. The final section scrutinizes the relationship of the decorations to the house as a functioning unit. This entails addressing various questions: how mosaics and paintings were adapted to the shape and scale of rooms, to the position of viewers, and to patterns of circulation, how far choices of patterns and subjects may have reflected the uses to which rooms were put, and to what extent such choices justify us in drawing conclusions about the tastes and aspirations of successive householders. Once again we attempt, where possible, to look at these questions in relation to different chronological periods within the houses’ history. One of the most important aspects of our study of the Insula del Menandro is that we are analysing the whole city-block and not (as many other studies have done) isolated houses. But the nature of the material covered by the present volume leads to one major difference in structure in relation to Volume I. Our discussion (but not the catalogue) deals with the houses not in numerical order, that is proceeding counterclockwise round the block, but in a hierarchical order, that is according to size and importance.

I. 10. 8

Apart from a First Style Pavement and traces of First Style wall-decorations in the front part of the house, the only decorations attested in house 8 are two of the Third Stylewhich were evidently about to be replaced and two of the Fourth Style (one of which is now largely lost). The bulk of the rooms contain, at best, plain mortar pavements and plain wall-plaster. There are remains of First Style wall-decorations beneath later plain plaster in the fauces and room 2, while Elia refers to a yellow socle in the same style on the south wall of the atrium (see Vol. I, p. 186). None of the surviving fragments (which include part of a stucco cornice in room 2) is sufficient to provide any real notion of the decorative syntax. The only pavement that is likely to belong to the First Style phase is that of room 2, which consisted of patterns of white tesserae set in cocciopesto: a lozenge grid along the threshold and a central mat of meander (swastikas alternating with squares) surrounded by a semis of single tesserae. All these elements are typical of the First Style (the meander mat and semis surround can be paralleled in the First Style rooms buried under room 18 in the Casa del Menandro: see pp. 6–7 and Fig. 64). The lozenge and meander patterns, known from Elia’s description, have now perished, along with the bulk of the pavement, but fragments of the semis survive on the west side and reveal that the size of the tesserae (mostly from 5 mm. to 1 cm. across) and their spacing (5 cm.) conform with measurements found in other examples of this type of pavement ascribed to the time of the First Style. One interesting detail is that, in addition to the inset tesserae, the surface of this pavement shows traces of a coat of red paint. Assuming that the pavement goes back to the First Style, we can here accept Pernice’s suggestion that such colour-enhancement represents a later intervention designed to improve the appearance of pavements that had become worn.

I. 10. 11: CASA DEGLI AMANTI

The Surviving Decorations of the Casa degli Amanti belong primarily to the Fourth Style, but there are glimpses of a Second Style phase, dated around the third quarter of the first century BC, as well as some evidence for the division of the Fourth Style decorations into a very early (transitional Third to Fourth) and late (post-earthquake) phase. Second Style paintings—a simple scheme of black orthostates with yellow margins surmounted by a frieze containing a vegetal scroll—occur only in the fauces (Figs. 125–6; Pl. 97, at left), deliberately preserved when the decoration of the atrium was renewed at the time of the Fourth Style. Decorated pavements of the same phase can be identified in I.10.10 and room 19, in both cases apparently overlaid by later, plainer paving, as well as in the ala or exedra (6) opening off the south side of the atrium, and round the rim of the atrium’s impluvium (Fig. 127). In all cases the decoration consists of tesserae set in cocciopesto, either in lines forming a lozenge grid (Pl. 99) or in rows of little crosslets. The front part of the pavement of room 8, a lavapesta with a scattering of white, black, and green stones, may also go back to this time. To the late Third or early-Fourth Style we must assign the wall-paintings of the peristyle, a simple white-ground scheme with hanging objects (vessels and musical instruments) combined with garlands and tiny purple-red panels containing pairs of ducks (Figs. 148–53; Pls. 88– 91). These are likely to have been carried out when the upper storey was added. It is also possible that the paintings of room 10 (black dado, main zone with a central columnar aedicula and cinnabar-red side-Welds containing flying birds, white upper zone with rectilinear frameworks: Figs. 155–8; Pl. 92) were applied at this time, since their handling shows a delicacy and restraint much closer to the Third Style than that of the neighbouring rooms 11 and 12. The decorated pavement of the upstairs dining-room in the east wing, above rooms 11 and 12 (Figs. 168, 176), may be ascribed to the same development, as may the pavements in the east wing of the peristyle (Fig. 147; Pls. 85–6) and in two of the rooms opening off it (rooms 10 and 11: Fig. 154; Pls. 87, 92).