Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/402

 370 KOMAN AECHITECTURE. Part L Returning to the principal entrance or front door d, you enter through a short passage into the outer court e, on each side of which are several small apartments, used either by the inferior members of the household or by guests, A wider passage than the entrance leads from this to the peristyle, or principal aj^artment of the house. On the left hand are several small rooms, used no doubt as sleeping apartments, which were probably closed by half-doors open above and below, so as to admit air and light, while preserving sufficient privacy, for Roman tastes at least. In front and on the right hand are two larger rooms, either of which may have been the triclinium or dining- room, the other being what we should call the drawing-room of the liouse. A passage between the kitchen and the central room leads to a verandah, which crosses the whole length of the house, and is open to the garden beyond. As will be observed, architectural effect has been carefully studied in this design, a vista nearly 300 ft. in length being obtained from the outer door to the garden wall, varied by a pleasing play of light and shade, and displaying a gradually increasing degree of spaciousness and architectural richness as we advance. All these points must have been productive of the most pleasing effect when comjilete, and of more beauty than has been attained in almost any modern dwelling of like dimensions. Generally speaking, the architectural details of the Pompeian houses are carelessly and ungracefully moulded, though it cannot be denied that sometimes a certain elegance of feeling runs through them that pleases in spite of our better judgment. It was not, however, on form that they depended for their effect ; and consequently it is not by that that they must be judged. The whole architecture of the house was colored, but even this was not considered so important as the paintings which covered the flat surfaces of the walls. Comparing the Pompeian decoration with that of the batlis of Titus, and those of the House of Livia, the only specimens of the same age and class found in Rome, it must be admitted that the Pompeian examples show an equally correct taste, not only in the choice but in the application of the ornaments used, though in the execution there is generally that difference that might be expected between paintings executed for a private individual and those for the Emperor of the Roman world. Notwithstanding this, these paintings, so wonderfully preserved in this small provincial town, are even now among the best specimens we possess of mural decoration. They excel the ornamentation of the Alhambra, as being more varied and more intellectual. For the same reason they are superior to the Avorks of the same class executed by the Moslems in Egypt and Persia, and they are far superior to the rude attempts of the Gothic architects in the Middle Ages ; still they are probably as inferior to what the Greeks did in their best days as the pillars of the