Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/469

Rh POMPEII 449 and may be taken as an almost perfect model of a com plete Roman house of a superior class. But the general similarity in their plan and arrangement is very striking, and in all those that rise above a very humble class the leading divisions of the interior, the atrium, tablinum, peristyle, &c., may be traced with unfailing regularity. Another peculiarity that is found in all the more consider able houses in Pompeii is that of the front, where it faces one of the principal streets, being occupied with shops, usually of small size, and without any communication with the interior of the mansion. In a few instances indeed such a communication is found, but in these cases it is probable that the shop was used for the sale of articles grown upon the estate of the proprietor, such as wine, fruit, oil, &c., a practice that is still common in Italy. In general the shop had a very small apartment behind it, and pro bably in most cases a sleeping chamber above it, though of this the only remaining evidence is usually a portion of the staircase that led to this upper room. The front of the shop was open to the street, but was capable of being closed with wooden shutters, the remains of which have in a few instances been preserved. Of course it is only in a few cases that the particular purpose of the shop or trade of its owner can be determined, though, from the exceptional manner of their preservation, this can be done more frequently than might be expected. Thus not only have the shops of silversmiths been recognized by the precious objects of that metal found in them, but large quantities of fruits of various kinds preserved in glass vessels, various descriptions of corn and pulse, loaves of bread, moulds for pastry, fishing-nets, and many other objects, too numerous to mention, have been found in such a condition as to be identified without difficulty. Cooks shops appear to have been numerous, as well as thermo- poli i, where hot drinks were sold. Bakers shops are also frequent, though arrangements for grinding and baking appear to have formed part of every large family establish ment. In other cases, however, these were on a larger scale, provided with numerous querns or hand-mills of the well-known form, evidently intended for public supply. Another establishment on a large scale was a fullonica or fuller s shop, where all the details of the business were illustrated by paintings still visible on the walls. A dyer s shop, a tannery, and a shop where colours were ground and manufactured an important business where almost all the rooms of every house were painted are of special interest, as is also the house of a surgeon, where numerous surgical instruments were found, some of them of a very ingenious and elaborate description, but all made of bronze. Another curious discovery was that of the abode of a sculptor, containing his tools, as well as blocks of marble and half-finished statues. The number of utensils of various kinds found in the houses and shops is almost endless, and, as these are in most cases of bronze, they are generally in perfect preservation. Of the numerous works of art discovered in the course of the excavations the statues and large works of sculpture, whether in marble or bronze, are inferior to those found at Herculaneum, but some of the bronze statuettes are of exquisite workmanship, while the profusion of orna mental works and objects in bronze and the elegance of their design, as well as the finished beauty of their execu tion, are such as to excite the utmost admiration, more especially when it is considered that these are the casual results of the examination of a second-rate provincial town. The same impression is produced in a still higher degree by the paintings with which the walls of the private houses, as well as those of the temples and other public buildings, are adorned, and which are not merely of a decorative character, but in many instances present us with elaborate compositions of figures, historical and mythological scenes, as well as representations of the ordinary life and manners of the people, which are full of interest to us, though often of inferior artistic execution. An illustration of the character of the Pompeian wall- paintings is given in the article MURAL DECORATION, vol. xvii. p. 42, fig. 8. Our knowledge of ancient paint ing is indeed derived to a much greater extent from Pompeii than from all other sources whatever ; and, when we contemplate the variety and beauty of what we find here entombed, we cannot but ask ourselves what would have been the result had a great and opulent city like Capua or Neapolis been preserved to us in the same manner as the comparatively insignificant Pompeii. The same character of elaborate decoration, guided almost uniformly by good taste and artistic feeling, is displayed in the mosaic pave ments, which in all but the humbler class of houses fre quently form the ornament of their floors. One of these, well known as the battle of Alexander, presents us with the most striking specimen of artistic composition that has been preserved to us from antiquity (see MOSAIC, vol. xvi. p, 851, where part of this composition is shown in fig. 2). The architecture of Pompeii must be regarded as present ing in general a transitional character from the pure Greek style to that of the Roman empire. The temples (as already observed) have always the Roman peculiarity of being raised on a podium of considerable elevation ; and the same characteristic is found in most of the other public buildings. All the three orders of Greek architecture the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian are found freely employed in the various edifices of the city, but rarely in strict accordance with the rules of art in their proportions and details ; while the private houses naturally exhibit still more deviation and irregularity. In many of these indeed we find varieties in the ornamentation, and even in such leading features as the capitals of the columns, which remind one rather of the vagaries of mediaeval archi tecture than of the strict rules of Vitruvius or the monoton ous regularity of Greek edifices. One practice which is especially prevalent, so as to strike every casual visitor, is that of filling up the flutings of the columns for about one-third of their height with a thick coat of stucco, so as to give them the appearance of being smooth columns without flutings below, and only fluted above. The un- pleasing effect of this anomalous arrangement is greatly aggravated by the lower part of each column being almost always coloured with red or yellow ochre, so as to render the contrast between the two portions still stronger. The architecture of Pompeii suffers also from the inferior quality of the materials generally employed. No good building stone was at hand ; and the public as well as private edifices were constructed either of volcanic tuff, or brick, or the irregular masonry known to the Romans as opus incertum. Those which belong to the earlier or Oscan period of the city (before the establishment of the Roman colony) are for the most part of the former material, while those erected under the Roman empire, and especially those subsequent to the great earthquake of 63, are gene rally of slighter construction, and of a less durable character. In the private houses even the columns are mostly of brick, covered merely with a coat of stucco. In a few instances only do we find them making use of a kind of travertine, found in the valley of the Sarno, which, though inferior to the similar material so largely employed at Rome, was better adapted than the ordinary tuff for purposes where great solidity was required. The portion of the portico surrounding the forum which was in the process of rebuilding at the time when the city was destroyed was constructed of this material, while the earlier portions, as well as the principal temples that XIX. - 57