Casa dei Cervi
Province
Location
Location Description
An ancient Roman town of Campania destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D.79. Named as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
Insula
IV
House
21
Garden
Casa dei Cervi
Keywords
- triclinia (rooms)AAT:300004359
- oeciAAT:300080791
- porticoesAAT:300004145
- putealsAAT:300443458
- pergolasAAT:300006783
Garden Description
545.IV.21 A. Of all the houses that overlooked the Bay on the south edge of the city, this house excavated in 1929-1932 was the most elegant. The triclinium(b) on the north was on an axis through the spacious garden with the large oecus(c) on the south, dividing the garden (a) into two large rectangular beds. The garden was enclosed on the west, north and east by a corridor with windows replacing an earlier portico. Statues that had been displaced by the mud flow to the center of the garden would have stood on either side of the passageway. This collection was the most valuable found in Herculaneum and reflects the patrician culture of this house. These pieces included two groups of stags attacked by hounds (Herculaneum inv. nos. 519, 524), a satyr with a wineskin (Herculaneum inv. no. 520), and a drunken Hercules (Herculaneum inv. no. 525). The satyr pouring from a wineskin is a variation of the well-known bronze found in the House of the Centenary of Pompeii and was a fountain statuette, but Maiuri believed that it had not been installed at the time of the eruption. Other items found in the center of the garden were a trapezophron, a cup and a marble puteal. There were four small marble bases in the south half of the garden set in the soil which probably once held marble herms that were removed by the Bourbons. The terrace yielded a statuette of the boy Eros (Herculaneum inv. no. 2077) and the pieces of another similar statuette. A gutter around the edge of the garden carried roof water to the cistern and the puteal over the cistern opening in the west end of the north gutter was deeply worn by ropes. A view of the sea could be enjoyed from a vantage point in the triclinium on the north across the garden and through the grand oecus which would have served as a triclinium in the summer. Beyond the oecus was a pergola and Jashemski noted that four original terra-cotta pots found by the pergola pillars were the most decorative she had seen. These would have been planted with a display for the pergola
546-547.IV.21. B. and C. On either side of the pergola was a small garden (d)and (e) with an elegant room on the far side with a window to look out to the garden and a second window looking to the sea. The statuettes of Eros may have originally been placed in these rooms, swept away by the mud flow from the eruption.
Plans
Places
Dates
unspecified
Excavation Date
1929-1932
Bibliography
- Maiuri, Herculaneum, pp. 62-64
- Maiuri, Ercolano, pp. 302, 321-323 and fig. 240 (plan) on p. 303.
- Maiuri, "Fanciullo erote da Ercolano, Le Arti (1943), pp. 175-179
- Maiuri, Herculaneum,p. 64
- Maiuri, Ercolano, pp. 320, 323.