Pompeii - House of the Vettii.

McMillin

Ann McMillin

CLAR 191

Terrenato

24 April 2003

House of the Vettii

The House of the Vettii belonged to two freedmen, Aulus Vettius Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus, who amassed a fortune through a flourishing business. The House of the Vettii is not unusually large for the time or social standing of its owners, but it is obvious that the Vettii were affluent Pompeian citizens and the house compares to the other large, lavish houses found in Pompeii. (Mau, 1899: 315) Excavated in the late 19th century, the house is most notable for its remarkably well-preserved frescoes, beautiful garden and large triclinium. The rooms included in the house and the decoration in the various rooms reflect trends in Roman domestic architecture and art in the century before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and also provide insight into the lives of the house’s inhabitants.

Upon entering the atrium, there is a painting of Priapus, the god of fertility, and a painting of a sheep with the characteristics of Mercury, the god of commerce, on the adjacent wall. These paintings displayed the wealth and prosperity of the householders. (Guzzo: 60) The atrium has other typical features, like the impluvium, and includes two moneyboxes on the left and right, filled with valuables. (Brion, 1960: 146)

A unique feature of the house is the absence of a tablinum. The tablinum served as the main reception room where the masters of many houses would carry out their day-to-day business. The house might have had a tablinum at one point but was probably altered in the middle of the 1st century, eliminating the tablinum, allowing visitors to pass directly into the peristyle from the atrium. (Guzzo, 1998: 59) “Although this was obviously an affluent household, the absence of the tablinum takes away that emphasis on social standing which characterized the “atrium houses” of the upper classes.” (Guzzo, 1998: 63) This might indicate a trend away from the typical commercial role of the paterfamilias and the practice of the head of the household accepting the morning’s clients waiting in the atrium.

Another smaller atrium can be accessed through a doorway on the right of the primary atrium. This atrium contains the house’s lararium, or a shrine to the family’s Lares. This lararium depicts the Genius of the household making a sacrifice and surrounded by two Lares. Underneath is a large snake, a symbol of beneficence and prosperity. (Guzzo, 1998: 60) In all houses of a higher standing there was an altar dedicated to the Lares and each family was placed under the protection of its own Lares. Neighborhoods probably had Lares as well, which looked over all of the households. “There were also those which presided over the aggregate destiny, no longer of such and such a financier or merchant, but of Pompeii as a whole; their temple was therefore situated at the hub of the city’s activity, the Forum, between the Macellum and the Temple of Vespasian,” wrote Marcel Brion, explaining the rising significance of the cult. (Brion, 1960: 88) The lararium in the atrium of the House of the Vettii is a well-preserved example of the household shrines.

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The second atrium is also closely associated with the servants’ quarters of the house. “Slavery was a fact of life in ancient Rome, and the Pompeian house made provision for it,” with the provisions usually set off from the main part of the house. (Amery, 2002: 111) Through the smaller atrium at the House of the Vettii, the kitchen and a series of bedrooms and storerooms are reached. One of these rooms contained a staircase that led to more servants’ rooms upstairs. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill explains that an important feature of affluent households during this time is that the service areas are marginalized from the areas in the house for the family and its visitors. Although the service area is directly accessible from the atrium, he thinks the House of the Vettii succeeds in separating the service area from the main rooms. The rooms are also marginalized through their decoration; they are dark and not opulently decorated like the other rooms of the house. “The aims of such marginalization, architectural and decorative, was to render the low-status areas ‘invisible’ to the visitor.” (Wallace-Haddrill, 1988: 79-81) Although the low-status areas might have been invisible, the servants were ubiquitous because of their importance in maintaining the everyday running and the social flow of the household. Servants would perform the cooking, cleaning, washing and repairing. They would be at the beckon call of their masters and their master’s guests, sometimes even sleeping in the same room or outside of the doorway.

Directly through the primary atrium is the grand peristyle, which along with the triclinium, takes up almost half of the house’s total area. “Nowhere else in Pompeii will the visitor so easily gain an impression of the aspect presented by a peristyle in ancient times,” wrote August Mau. The garden was ornately decorated with fountains, statues and shrubs. There were numerous small sculptures from which water fell into basins. The water pipes under the garden were so well preserved, that it was found upon excavation that it would be possible to repair them. The columns of the portico were also well preserved, which were white with capitals molded in stucco and painted various colors. (Mau, 1899: 317-320) Every aspect of the peristyle remained somewhat intact, so after replanting the shrubs and other foliage, the peristyle probably looked a lot like it did prior to the volcanic eruption 2,000 years ago. Horticulturists were able to remake the flowerbeds of roses, violets and hyacinths, and were even able to rule out flowers that they were not sure whether or not the Pompeiians knew and would have used in their gardens. (Brion, 1960: 149)

Peristyles and gardens were increasing in social importance in the 1st century. The peristyle was the most private part of the house, and only the closest friends of the household were invited to enter. (Amery, 2002: 109) The gardens often included benches and paths, which family members could use for reflection and leisure activities. The size of the peristyle vis-à-vis the rest of the House of the Vettii indicates its social importance to the household. “They reflect the fashion, which caught on in the first part of the Imperial age, for imitating in the confined space of town houses the verdant vistas and free-standing sculptures of sumptuous country villas.” (Guzzo, 1998: 63)

Another unique feature of Vettii is the large triclinium to the right after entering the peristyle from the atrium. ‘Triclinium’ literally means ‘three couches,’ which were arranged in the dining rooms of affluent houses, making many triclinium very crowded rooms when full. However, given the Vettii triclinium’s impressive size, guests probably had plenty of room to dine and socialize. Marcel Brion wrote:

The decorative themes of the triclinium are those which would most please refined and wealthy sybarites like the Vettii: cherubs everywhere, the putti so adored in the Italian Renaissance, engaged in all imaginable occupations…and whole collections of frescoes on mythological subjects…

The triclinium was probably a social center of the house, with invited friends of the family dining and enjoying each other’s company in the midst of lavish decoration. The notable size and ornate decoration probably impressed guests to the House of the Vettii, and the house owners probably would have liked to bring visitors to the grand dining room with its excellent view of the garden.

Next to the triclinium is the gynaeceum, a suite of rooms that is sometimes referred to as the women’s quarters. There is a small courtyard and two small rooms, relatively secluded from the rest of the house. Although this would seem the ideal suite for the women’s quarters, there is no archaeological evidence that the rooms were solely for women’s use. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill wrote, “In the Greek house the most important single contrast was that between male and female space; in the Roman it is virtually undetectable.” Gynaecea are rarely referred to in the context of Roman houses. The only places where male and female quarters are distinguished are in Roman baths, because mixed bathing was considered offensive. (Wallace-Hadrill, 1988: 50-51) Previous excavators and researchers probably call the suite of rooms in the House of the Vettii ‘gynaeceum’ because it was a convenient explanation, and it fits modern social ideas of the separation of women and men, but this designation is being largely dispelled today. The actual use of the suite of the rooms is unknown, possibly being extra bedrooms for family members or guests. The rooms would have been desirable places to stay, having an outstanding light source from the miniature courtyard.

The only other room of note adjoined to the peristyle is the oecus, to the left of the entrance from the atrium. This living room, along with the triclinium, has some of the most beautiful, well-preserved, and brilliantly colored wall decorations in the ‘fourth’ or ‘fantastic’ style. The style originated in the 1st century AD, when the inhabitants of the city had a lot of restoration to complete following the earthquake of AD 62. The bright yellow walls of the oecus are inset with paintings, one depicting the death of Pentheus and the other of the young Hercules strangling snakes. The paintings were usually copies of Greek originals, which showed that the owners were art lovers and added to the tone of the house. Stylistically, the true originality of the artists is actually found in the surrounding ornaments and complementary patterns. (Guzzo, 1998: 65) “Architectural perspective returns to the main middle zone of the walls and the figurative paintings assume a highly decorative role among the pillars, frames and richly colored backgrounds.” (Amery, 2002: 127) The wall paintings found in the House of the Vettii make it the house most representative of the fourth style. The style originated from previous styles that were focused on more architectural or theatrical designs that attempted to emulate Hellenistic buildings and give an architectural dimension to flat walls. (Amery, 2002: 123-125) The walls in the House of the Vettii give the house’s interior a refined, luxuriant appearance.

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

The House of the Vettii was not extraordinarily unique from the other high class

houses uncovered in Pompeii, but its small differences shed light into the lives of its inhabitants. The similarities the House of the Vettii shared with other large Pompeian town houses can be seen together to reveal social trends and ancient Roman sentiment. Marcel Brion wrote:

This phenomenon, extraordinary enough in itself, of a civilization miraculously preserved under the ashes of a volcano, had the power to capture men’s imaginations. They readily—and somewhat immoderately—pictured intact houses with all objects remaining exactly where they were at the moment of the eruption; they imagined they were going to enter into intimate contact with a people vanished all those long centuries ago and to learn the secrets of their life.

(Brion, 1960: 225)

The House of the Vettii was an amazing example of this phenomenon, with its elaborate frescoes and sculptured garden being preserved for centuries under the volcanic ash. Even the bronze pots and pans remain where they were found on the stove in the kitchen. The tragedy of the volcano has been a surprising gift to archaeologists and historians searching for answers.