POMPEII AND HERCULANEUM
DOMUS ROMANA
PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE
Use of Vitruvius’ descriptions is unreliable since the purpose was to describe ideal
architecture rather than reality
There is no such thing as a standard house in Pompeii or Herculaneum. Hadrill
identified four different groups of houses, combining various degrees of residential and
commercial function
Room function is highly interpretive, reflecting historical context The removal of
material culture from their context makes room function almost impossible to
determine.
To attribute single room function is dangerous since rooms may have been
multifunctional. The discovery of loom weights in the atria of 6 houses could indicate
the multi functional use of this space
Assumptions about dwelling/owner relationship is only conjecture
Evidence for tenement/apartment housing or upper floor use is almost non existent in
Pompeii due to the collapse of upper stories.
Any previous analyses of housing has focused on affluent housing, because of its
inherent artistic and architectural value. It misrepresents however the type of
accomodation for a large proportion of the population
Axis of Symmetry
Andrew Wallace Hadrill
Grand
Amici
Paterfamilias
Private
Public
Clientale
Servi
Humble
Houses opened directly on to the street and because
they were designed to face inwards, their facades
were austere with little indication of the elegance
within
The key feature in the design of urban houses (domus) for the Roman elite is the long
axis running from the street entry to the garden. This axis ties together fauces ("jaws"),
atrium, tablinum, and peristyle; it is framed by columns (often positioned, as here, to
"force" the perspective and make the house look bigger than it actually is). The house
falls naturally into to two basic zones, the "negotium" ("business") half focused on the
atrium and tablinum, and the "otium" ("leisure") half, focused on the peristyle. Most
houses included several dining rooms and cubicula, and many included small, private
bathing facilities.
ATRIUM
After passing into the house from the
street through the fauces, a visitor to a
Roman house entered the atrium. As a
circulation space, the atrium tended to
receive less complex decoration than
dining rooms or cubicula. Small figures
and still lifes are far more common than
mythological central panels, and the third
and fourth style schemes tend to be rather
simple and flat. The atrium had a sloped
roof to collect rain water, which fell
through the compluvium (the square
opening in the roof) into the basin in the
floor (the impluvium). A black/white
mosaic style has been chosen for the
atrium, again because this is a circulation
space--visitors typically would not have
enough time in this area of the house to
appreciate complex mosaics and
mythological cycles. The monochrome
mosaic style used here is consequently
less ornate in comparison to the mosaic
pattern chosen for the peristyle
TABLINUM
Located along the axis running from the
fauces through the atrium and on into
the garden, the tablinum constituted a
sort of office or headquarters for the
dominus. Here, he received his clients
during the morning salutatio, backlit by
the garden and lit from above the the
compluvium (shades of The Godfather).
The dominus was also able to command
much of the house visually from his
panoptic vantage point in the tablinum,
looking forward into the atrium, and
back into the garden--a visual authority
to match the social authority of the
paterfamilias. As a more static space for
reception, the tablinum often includes
central paintings in its third and fourth
style schemes.
TRICLINIUM
Dining was the defining ritual in
Roman domestic life, lasting from late
afternoon through late at night.
Typicallly, 9-20 guests were invited,
arranged in a prescribed seating order
to emphasize divisions in status and
relative closeness to the dominus. As
static, privileged space, dining rooms
received extremely elaborate
decoration, with complex perspective
scenes and central paintings (or, here,
mosaics). Dionysus, Venus, and still
lifes of food were popular, for obvious
reasons. Middle class and elite Roman
houses usually had at least two
triclinia; it's not unusual to find four
or more. Here, the triclinium maius
(big dining room) would be used for
larger dinner parties, which would
CUBICULA
The cubicula (plural for
cubiculum) were used for work
and study, the private reception
of a small number of guests,
and sleeping. It was common
for these intimate rooms to be
highly decorated, often with
erotic scenes. They were also
found in suites with triclinia
(dining rooms) and baths, so
that the owner and his
privileged guests could move
easily and "naturally" from one
activity to the next. As in this
instance, cubicula often had
barrel vaulted ceilings.
Sometimes, these worked
together with mosaics on the
floor to define small alcoves for
beds
PERISTYLE
The peristyle garden was the center for
"leisure" (otium) in the Roman house.
Off this large circulation space were
found rooms devoted to dining and the
reception of the owner's social equals
(amici). The peristyle recreates in
miniature the public porticoes found in
Roman cities (e.g. the Portico of
Octavia in Rome). These public
porticoes provided cool, shaded
walking space beside temples and
theaters, and were often used as
outdoor "museums" for the display of
art. The peristyle garden in the house
alludes to this public, urban form of
architectural patronage. The movement
from the "negotium" (business) part of
the house to the "otium" (leisure) part
is marked by the switch from black and
white to more complex, colorful floor
mosaics