VI.3.7 Pompeii. Casa di Musica. Excavated 1809.

 

VI.3.7/8/9 Pompeii. May 2011. Looking towards entrance doorways. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2007. Entrance on Via Consolare looking south.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2005. Entrance

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2007. Looking east to atrium from entrance corridor.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2005. Impluvium.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2005. North side of atrium, from entrance corridor.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2005.

Looking east from entrance corridor towards rear doorway at VI.3.25.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2005. South side of atrium from entrance corridor.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2005. Looking east from entrance corridor.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2005. Looking east towards remains of masonry altar and niche in the garden area.

According to Boyce, the niche was undecorated but the altar was coated with red stucco.

Behind the altar was a rectangle of white stucco, which served as a background for the Lararium painting.

See Boyce G. K., 1937. Corpus of the Lararia of Pompeii. Rome: MAAR 14. (p.45, and pl.12,2 and 4)

See Giacobello, F., 2008. Larari Pompeiani: Iconografia e culto dei Lari in ambito domestico.  Milano: LED Edizioni. (p.172)

 

Mazois drew this picture of an altar and a niche but did not identify their location. 

Could it be the ones located on the east wall of VI.3.7 Casa di Musica?

Boyce makes the comment that there is a remarkable similarity between this, as reproduced by Mazois, and Mazois’s painting of the shrine in the Temple of Isis in Vol. IV, pl.11, 5 of the same work.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2007. Niche and altar on east wall of garden area.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2007. Masonry altar near east wall of garden area.

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. December 2007. Niche in east wall of garden area..

According to Jashemski, the garden, excavated in 1809, at the rear of the tablinum, had a portico on the west supported by a brick pillar.

There was a Lararium niche on the east wall, with a shrine painting below, before which stood a masonry altar.

The large room on the right (south) of the garden gave a fine view of the garden.

A marble head of a lion with mouth bored for use as a fountain was found in the house.

See Jashemski, W. F., 1993. The Gardens of Pompeii, Volume II: Appendices. New York: Caratzas. (p.124)

 

VI.3.7 Pompeii. May 2010. In the centre of the picture is a view, looking east from entrance corridor.

From model in Naples Archaeological Museum.

According to Helbig, paintings found in the big room on the right from the garden (room in south-east corner on model above) were –

Dido & Aeneas, (Helbig 1381) and Dido mourning, (Helbig 1381b)

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel.

 

According to Fiorelli, the paintings found were the prophecy of Cassandra, and the abandonment of Dido.

See Pappalardo, U., 2001. La Descrizione di Pompei per Giuseppe Fiorelli (1875). Napoli: Massa Editore. (p.52)

 

According to Breton, the house was discovered in January 1806 and was given its name by the number of painted musical instruments found on the atrium walls.

On the right (south) of the atrium were two rooms (according to Fiorelli, “the atrium was bordered by four cubicula” presumably two on either side) then instead of an ala an open room with a bath, having at the rear a baptisterium in which one descended by two steps, as one has seen in the Baths, but here it was in stone, paved with bricks and covered in stucco. (According to Fiorelli “ and an ala where others have recognised a bath, but to me it seems footings for a wooden cupboard”)

To the left was a large triclinium. The tablinum was placed between two corridors and entirely open, front to back.

The peristyle was small, having a portico on the side near the tablinum, which was supported by a masonry pillar.

In the corridor on the right of the tablinum was the entry to the kitchen. This corridor lead directly into an oecus, where some paintings were still conserved -

Dido learning of the departure of Aeneas and, nearly vanished, a religious scene.

At the back of the peristyle one saw a small altar discovered 24th March 1810, surmounted by the two serpents and a painting of the genius making a libation. This painting had nearly vanished.

See Breton, Ernest. 1870. Pompeia, Guide de visite a Pompei, 3rd ed. Paris, Guerin.

Photos taken from the rear entrance of the rear rooms, can be seen at VI.3.25 and VI.3.26.