I.2.10 House of L. Vousius Faustus and M. Volusius Faustus
Province
Location
Location Description
An ancient city of Campania destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79, Pompeii was named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
Sublocation
Insula
Keywords
Garden
Garden at the rear of the House of L. Vousius Faustus and M. Volusius Faustus.
Garden Description
The garden at the rear of the house, excavated in 1873, is almost totally destroyed. According to Mau, most of the garden was occupied by a large pool (5m X 2.90m) which was sloped toward the west from where it drained into the street through a pipe. The pool was surrounded by a low wall about 0.55m high leaving only a narrow space between the pool and the walls. In the northwest corner were the two beds of a masonry biclinium which sloped toward the wall, as was customary. Rainwater falling on them was carried away by a terracotta drain which emptied into the pool. A square niche under the north couch provided a storage space. On the wall above this couch was a rectangular niche lararium with a roughly made aedicules facade. At the east end of this couch was a masonry table. Fiorelli reports a planting bed attached to the rear (east) wall. There was a view from the triclinium through the large window in the east wall, across the pool to the garden painting on the rear wall.
When this garden was excavated in 1873, the excavators reported three panels on the east wall with garden paintings. The center panel had a body of water with swimming fish with assorted animals in the background that included a grazing deer and a springing leopard. The two panels on either side each had a large crater-shaped fountain surrounded by thick growth. Large red flowers and yellow apples could be identified to the left of each fountain and the right, pomegranates (Punica granatum L.) Jashemski examined this painting in 1964 to find it had been covered by a growth of ivy which had destroyed most of the painting. A section of a large pomegranate bush was all that was left intact at the time. She describes the leaves, painted in blue-green with darker shading and a few yellow leaves and the fruit, deep yellow with reddish-orange shading, as being rendered in an impressionistic manner. At the right of the entrance to the garden area was a cistern opening.
Bibliography
- Boyce, G.K. 1937. Corpus of the Lararia of Pompeii, p. 22
- Fiorelli, G. 1875. Descrizione di Pompei, p. 42 (worldcat)
- Jashemski, W.F. 1979, Garden of Pompeii: Herculaneum and the villas destroyed by Vesuvius, pp. 110-111 (worldcat)
- Jashemski, W.F. 1993, Gardens of Pompeii: Herculaneum and the villas destroyed by Vesuvius. Vol. II, Appendices, p. 22, 313 (worldcat)
- Niccolini, F. Le case ed i monumenti di Pompeii, Naples, Vol. II, p. 76
- Schefold, K. and Dräyer, W. 1956. Pompeji, p. 9 (describes this painting as a paradeisos, with sea, deer, panther, and a nymphaeum)
- Sogliano, A. 1879. Le pitture murali campane scoverte negli anni 1867-79, p. 224, no.694
Viola, L. 1879. Gli scavi di Pompei dal 1873 al 1878, p. 11
Pleiades ID
TGN ID
Excavation Dates
Excavated 1873. Bombed in 1943.
Contributor
Wilhelmina Jashemski (https://lib.guides.umd.edu/c.php?g=326514&p=2193250)
Publication date
21 Apr 2021