KITCHENS AND DINING ROOMS AT POMPEII ... - Get a Free Blog

Floor and wall decoration
The decoration of dining areas provided a stable backdrop for the mealtime experience.
The interior environment of dining areas included plaster mouldings, the 'styles', colors, designs
and motifs painted on the walls and ceilings, and the marble, cocciopesto and mosaic floors and
thresholds. Detecting large-scale patterns to dining area decoration requires awareness of
differential preservation, problems in dating and identifying styles, and the immense complexity
of the evidence. Wallace-Hadrill has compared the decoration of buildings of all size. 149 He
found that more expensive decoration, such as mosaics, opus sectile and large scale panel
paintings (especially of mythological scenes) tend to appear only in the largest houses; smaller,
simpler, less costly decoration is found in smaller (work)shops and houses.
This study corroborates his conclusions. The time and expense lavished on decorating
dining areas increases drastically in case medie and case grandi. Intricate mosaic and marble floor
patterns appear, and there are more varied and exotic pigments for painting. Large-scale painted
scenes of mythical episodes evoked conversation amongst guests at table, displayed the host's
wealth, and revealed his education and philosophy. 150 The decoration of dining areas in these
houses was meant to engage and impress the guests, encouraging their participation in a dinner
that was a focus of cultural discourse, social interaction, and sensual pleasure.
(Work)shop-houses Decoration in the dining areas of (work)shop-houses is difficult to
characterize. Good third and fourth style decoration appears in only four buildings. 151 Little
decoration is preserved in any other dining areas; in some, like I.7.16 (2), there may never have
been any. In dining rooms with decoration, floors are always of cocciopesto, sometimes with inset
white tesserae forming patterns, or with tesserae and pieces of marble randomly scattered
throughout the floor. A single emblema of white tesserae and cut pieces of marble appears on the
floor of I.7.18 {g}. Wall decoration includes no large-scale mythological scenes. Rather, there may
be vignettes of cupids, dancing women or birds drawing tiny chariots, small landscape panels, still
lives or medallions of masks, fruit baskets, birds and serving vessels. 152 Middle zones tend to
have a red, black, or white ground, with the same colors plus yellow for details, socles and
borders. The vignettes lie within architectural or simple line frames. The means to paint detailed,
large-scale figural panels was perhaps not available to the residents of (work)shop-houses. As a
result, the interiors of their dining areas seem simple and almost austere.
149 Wallace-Hadrill 1994, 143-174; Wallace-Hadrill 1991c.
150 See Clarke's (1991, 170-193) analysis of the fourth style decorative ensembles in I.10.4.
151 Third style: I.7.5 (d), I.7.18 (c, g) and I.10.1 (3). I.6.7 (g) was redecorated in the fourth style.
152 I.6.7 (g): vignettes of cupids and dancing women, small landscape panels, still lifes, and plants in socle;
I.7.5: still life of fruit basket; I.7.18 (c): vignettes of birds drawing chariots, collections of serving vessels;
I.7.18 {g}: medallions of masks and birds; I.10.1 (3): small panel of a bird.
150