House of the Vettii

House of the Vettii

The House of the Vettii belonged to two freedmen, Aulus Vettius

Conviva and Aulus Vettius Restitutus, who amassed a fortune through a

flourishing business. The House of the Vettii is not unusually large

for the time or social standing of its owners, but it is obvious that

the Vettii were affluent Pompeian citizens and the house compares to

the other large, lavish houses found in Pompeii. (Mau, 1899: 315)

Excavated in the late 19th century, the house is most notable for its

remarkably well-preserved frescoes, beautiful garden and large

triclinium. The rooms included in the house and the decoration in the

various rooms reflect trends in Roman domestic architecture and art in

the century before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and also provide

insight into the lives of the house's inhabitants.

Upon entering the atrium, there is a painting of Priapus, the god of

fertility, and a painting of a sheep with the characteristics of

Mercury, the god of commerce, on the adjacent wall. These paintings

displayed the wealth and prosperity of the householders. (Guzzo: 60)

The atrium has other typical features, like the impluvium, and

includes two moneyboxes on the left and right, filled with valuables.

(Brion, 1960: 146)

A unique feature of the house is the absence of a tablinum. The

tablinum served as the main reception room where the masters of many

houses would carry out their day-to-day business. The house might have

had a tablinum at one point but was probably altered in the middle of

the 1st century, eliminating the tablinum, allowing visitors to pass

directly into the peristyle from the atrium. (Guzzo, 1998: 59)...

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...ary enough in itself, of a civilization

miraculously preserved under the ashes of a volcano, had the power to

capture men's imaginations. They readily-and somewhat

immoderately-pictured intact houses with all objects remaining exactly

where they were at the moment of the eruption; they imagined they were

going to enter into intimate contact with a people vanished all those

long centuries ago and to learn the secrets of their life.

(Brion, 1960: 225)

The House of the Vettii was an amazing example of this phenomenon,

with its elaborate frescoes and sculptured garden being preserved for

centuries under the volcanic ash. Even the bronze pots and pans remain

where they were found on the stove in the kitchen. The tragedy of the

volcano has been a surprising gift to archaeologists and historians

searching for answers.