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

order for a central carpet of marble slabs. A medallion of a bearded man and a frieze of three
villa and landscape scenes of the 4th style were painted on the walls. The room also had a
stuccoed ceiling vault. DH•(19) had a very fine B&W mosaic pavement, and painting of the early
3rd style, depicting Maenads on a large panel on the S wall; the panel stood above friezes of still
lives, marine scenes and gardens (Fig. 5.32). DR•(20) possessed a white pavement with scattered
inserted marble chips (2-1 c. B.C.). On the walls, three large panels (of the early 3rd style)
presented Croesus and Atys?, two lovers (Mars & Venus, Dido & Aeneas?), and Leda or Nemesis
with the swan. The N wall in court (21) had a large painted scene of the Judgment of Paris in
early 3rd style. This area may have originally been a dining hall similar to DH•(19); later, its E
and S walls were broken up by doorways to surrounding rooms. The floor of DH•(35) had a 2nd
style B&W mosaic meander border; two 4th style large panels of the wall decoration survived,
showing Orestes & Pylades at Tauris, and Bacchus and Ariadne. DR•(37) had a white mosaic
floor with a B&W border, and 4th style panels of Io, Argus & Mercury, Adonis & Venus, and
Endymion. The 4th style walls of DH◊(53) were painted with a violet ground edged in yellow,
with still lives centered in the central panels. The painting in DH•(57) has virtually faded away;
traces of red ground panels survive. A threshold of marble slabs marks DR•(58), plants
decorated the socle, with 4th style panels above, one of which apparently once showed Adonis
with Cupids (Fig. 5.33).
J) Sanctity: Portrait busts of family ancestors and a bronze altar were recovered from atrium (6),
and a silver statuette of a togate 'sacrificant' was found in atrium (47). A marble altar with fine
reliefs was found in peristyle (32), and two herms were associated with the sculptural group that
faced DR•(18). In (21), ritual objects ( two bronze altars and two bronze statuettes of Minerva)
were found with a brazier, which Dwyer (1982, 100-101) interprets as "important evidence of the
domestic cult." A small arcuated niche above the sink in KI (42) suitable for a lamp or a shrine is
the only other possible piece evidence for ritual associated with cooking (Fig. 5.28). No built
shrines or 'lararium' paintings existed in the house.
Synthesis
This house has arranged its formal reception and dining areas at the ends of its three
large peristyles in order to supply visitors to those rooms with carefully constructed views to the
central gardens and the columns that frame the tableaus. The dining areas comprise a spectrum
of sizes and shapes, from the smaller basic dining rooms (20, 37, 58) to the broad rooms (18, 53),
smaller dining-hall (57), and the extremely large halls (19, 35). Each of these rooms has a
different view, aspect, and decoration, allowing a specific occasion to be fit to a specific setting.
Two kitchens were available, one for each of the two originally separate houses at #5 and
#25. Both kitchens were set up down narrow corridors that kept them out of sight. KI (42) was
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