House of the Prince of Naples

Description

The house was formed from two earlier houses being joined together. The house had two floors but the upper one almost completely collapsed following the eruption.

The atrium was of Tuscan order, with a central impluvium: it was probably restored shortly before the earthquake of 62 which caused damage to the structure. The atrium area preserves the frescoes from the last phase of decoration.

The rear part of the domus consists of richly decorated rooms around the portico and the central garden.

The house fronted the Viccola dei Vetti and the spaces on either sides of the main entrances appear to have been shops. The holes on the outside of the north facade indicate the fixings for a canopy.

The house was inhabited at the time of the eruption as demonstrated by the discovery of a skeleton, remains of food and domestic possessions in most rooms.

History

The house was originally constructed during the limestone period (3rd century BC) since the entrance consists entirely of opus incertum with cruma and lava. The limestone framework of the southern wall of the garden also demonstrates it belonged to this earlier period. The absence of limestone posts in the dividing wall between the atrium and the portico indicates it was a subsequent modification.

During the late 2nd century BC, Pompeii experienced a major population expansion and the insulae of Region VI became dotted with establishments engaged in urban commerce. Furthermore, the upper floor of this structure, demolished in the 1970s, above (a), (b), (c) (e), (f), (i),(k) and (l) is thought to have contained rooms that were possibly rented out as apartments.

The construction of the impluvium is of the early 1st century BC in part because of the surrounding floor pavement of punteggiato regolare, a signinum featuring spaced travertine tesserae used widely in Pompeii beginning about 100 BC. This improvement is thought to have been part of an overall renovation of the northern portion of the structure at that time.

This activity may have been initiated to repair widespread damage and reflect a possible change of ownership that coincided with the aftermath of the Social War. Pompeii was one of the Campanian cities that rebelled against Rome in this conflict. In 89, BC, the general, and later dictator, Lucius Cornelius Sulla, laid siege to Pompeii, bombarding Region VI's Porta Ercolano with his artillery, as evidenced by impact craters from thousands of sling bullets and ballistae bolts still visible on the ancient city wall.

The nearly 4 foot-square impluvium is slightly south of the entrance axis to make it parallel to the room's south wall. A large marble table (cartibulum) supported by winged griffins found at the site has been placed at the impluvium's west edge since 1977. …

Decoration and finds

The Fauces is paved with gray signinum with a net of rectangularly laid rows of white tesserae. There are two dark ochre-coloured pilasters that were repaired, possibly due to the quake of 62. The space includes the remains of a figurative picture thought by some scholars to have been Priapus or some similar guardian figure. The socle, painted black, is divided by yellow lines with yellow candelabra, with a red main zone and white upper zone. Cubes outlined with gray and red are painted in the white upper zone to imitate masonry, a decorative motif carried over from the First Style.

The atrium, like the fauces has a black socle topped with a red main zone and white upper zone painted with three rows of rectangles outlined in gray and red. The red main zone is defined by narrow green bands with light green border lines and a filigree border with a simple bud pattern applied in ocher. Floating emblems include dancing swans and other birds thought to be peacocks.

In the atrium, excavators found a bronze basin with two handles terminating in the form of the heads of geese, another wide-mouthed bronze basin with two movable handles, a bronze bucket with a movable handle, a circular box with a hinged lid, a bronze fibula, a saucepan with protruding lip and circular handle, another large bucket with movable handle terminating in upturned goose heads with a fixed ring for hanging in the center, and two inscribed terracotta amphora. A large bronze bucket of this type was most often used to mix wine with water in the kitchen area before serving. It was then transferred to a pitcher for pouring the watered wine into a cup or glass.

The black socle in this room is speckled with red and ochre to simulate marbling and is separated from the white main zone by an ochre stripe. The red-framed white main zone is divided by black vertical lines with red inner frames into panels with floating emblems of dancing swans and jumping goats. There is a window on the east wall that extends into the upper zone to provide supplemental lighting. There is a recently installed bed niche in the north wall where the gray signinum floor pavement had not yet been repaired. …

Decoration chronology

Although no graffito survives to aid in the dating of the last decoration of the House of the Prince of Naples, German archaeologists point to significant similarities in recurring motifs and compositional elements to the House of the Silver Wedding where graffito in the northern peristyle is dated 6 February 60 AD. This would indicate that structure and probably the House of the Prince of Naples were last redecorated in the second half of the 50s AD. German archaeologists deemed the decoration modest by the standards of the time and suggest it was owned by representatives of the lower middle class. Strocka points out that the marble tables in the atrium and garden provided a little added prestige as needed for guests or family gatherings. He also observed that the sparse repertoire of emblems and simplest form of motifs as well as the conventional, not very refined nature of the paintings in the triclinium and exedra reflect only a simple theme of lovers of life and the epitome of happiness without any intellectual or even philosophical exaggeration.