Images & Art

PENTHEUS ROOM

House of the Vettii Pompeii c. 70 These side panels have airy architectural scenes set into elaborately painted borders. The dining room is named after a large painting of Pentheus as he is being torn apart by maenads. Other mythological scenes are in panels adjacent to architectural views....

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VENUS

House of Venus Pompeii After 62 In this garden fresco, the goddess Venus floats on a shell and two Cupids ride dolphins. Combined with other paintings of garden scenes, the garden is made to appear larger....

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SECOND STYLE WALL

House of the Griffins Palatine, Rome c. 80 B.C. This is one of the first known paintings in the second style. The column bases are rendered in perspective, giving depth to the wall and added size to the room. In this early example the wall is divided horizontally into three areas, a characteristic element lasting throughout the style....

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WINE SHOP

Via dell'Abbondanza Pompeii The interior of the small food and wine shop with a wall painting of its guardian deities....

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FICO DEL SUPRANARE

Pompeii A small winding street. The house on the left with its jutting upper floor balcony was a brothel....

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PORTICO OF THE GREAT THEATRE

Pompeii 2nd century B.C. The rear portico of the Great Theatre, later used as barracks for gladiators....

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FRIEZE OF THE DIONYSIAC MYSTERIES

Villa of the Mysteries Pompeii c. 50 B.C. The great Dionysiac frieze in a living room or parlor. This monumental work, the largest to survive from antiquity, is in a simplified second style. The figures are framed on top and bottom of the frieze, with vertical framing panels which are broken in two. The flat red background limits the sense of dept...

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OUTDOOR BALCONY

Villa of the Mysteries Pompeii c. 50 B.C. The villa opens up to the countryside. In contrast to the enclosed city home or domus, this balcony is attached to one of the two central buildings. Notice the decorative brickwork in the exterior columns....

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LARARIUM

House of the Vettii Pompeii The lararium is a shrine to the spirits of the house, also associated with ancestors, household gods, and the emperor. The serpent, frequently represented, approaches a small altar as three young men drink and dance above....

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GARDEN MURALS

House of Venus Pompeii After 62 Painted garden scenes with a statue of Mars....

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