24. Pompeii. Villa dei Misteri or
Villa of Mysteries.
Kitchen courtyard (61) with lararium, altar, hearth and oven
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Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010.
Corridor leading to kitchen area, on north side of room 42. Looking east.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Corridor leading to room 62, from kitchen area, looking west.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010.
Room 61, kitchen courtyard. North side with lararium and altar. Looking east.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. October 2023.
Room 61, Looking east towards side of altar on north side of kitchen courtyard.
Photo courtesy of Johannes Eber.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. October 2023.
Room 61, kitchen courtyard. North side with lararium niche
and altar. Photo courtesy of Johannes Eber.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2012.
Room 61, kitchen courtyard. North side with lararium niche and altar. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. Drawing of west and north walls of kitchen courtyard with remains of painted lararium on right, by R. Oliva.
See Maiuri, A. (1967 ed). La Villa dei Misteri, (p.36-7)
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010. Room 61, lararium site on north wall of kitchen courtyard.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Room 61, lararium site with niche and altar.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Room 61, niche in north wall, with remains of stucco pediment above.
According to Boyce, the small altar embedded in the floor of the niche, was decorated with an image of a gorgon and two heads of bulls.
Two sculptured heads, a terracotta one of a goddess and another of tufa representing Hercules, were found inside the niche.
See Boyce G. K., 1937. Corpus of the Lararia of Pompeii. Rome: MAAR 14. (p.97)
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010. Room 61, north wall of kitchen courtyard near niche and altar.
According to Boyce in 1937, -
the last layer of plaster had already fallen revealing an earlier layer beneath it, decorated with a figure painting in red and yellow.
Maiuri concluded that this was a fragment of the pre-Roman art of the house shrine.
When excavated, the paintings were very poorly preserved, and had almost disappeared by 1937.
The following description was written by De Petra in Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1910, p. 141:
“Below and to the right of the niche is represented a procession made up of two horsemen, a crowd of people and a tibicen who approaches the altar in the centre, coming from the left.
To the right of the same altar are a Camillus and a second figure.
A still more ancient layer of plaster shows on the right of the niche a strange figure like a Lar pouring from a rhyton of curious shape into a patera (?) held in the other hand; on each side of him are garlands”.
See Boyce G. K., 1937. Corpus
of the Lararia of Pompeii. Rome:
MAAR 14. (p.97)
See Maiuri, A.
(1967 ed). La Villa dei Misteri, 80,
and fig. 32, (reference given in Boyce).
See Giacobello, F., 2008. Larari Pompeiani: Iconografia e culto dei Lari in ambito domestico. Milano: LED Edizioni, (p.220, no.1)
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Room 61, remains of painted plaster on north wall of kitchen lararium.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. Drawing of north wall of kitchen courtyard with niche, altar and remains of painted lararium, by R. Oliva.
See Maiuri, A.
(1967 ed). La Villa dei Misteri,
(p.36-7).
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Masonry altar.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010. Room 61, looking south, along length of hearth and oven.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010. Room 61, west wall with hearth and oven, and remains of niche.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. October 2023.
Room 61, west wall
with hearth and oven, and remains of niche. Photo courtesy of Johannes Eber.
According to NdS, another niche lararium was above the podium of the hearth and oven.
The stucco had fallen and brought to light a part of an ancient painted lararium, for all its simplicity, not without interest.
At the side were the remains of a painted helmeted Minerva, and of another divinity, perhaps Vulcan.
See Notizie di Scavi, 1910, p.141-2.
According to Boyce –
In the east wall of the same courtyard, above the hearth, is a second rectangular niche (h.070, w.0.60, d.0.20) on the back wall of which De Petra saw painted the figures of Minerva armed with the helmet and of another divinity – perhaps Vulcan.
Reference Maiuri,
Villa dei Misteri, 81.
See Boyce G. K.,
1937. Corpus of the Lararia of Pompeii.
Rome:
MAAR 14. (p.98, no. 482).
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Room 61, hearth.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2012.
Room 61, kitchen courtyard. Looking west towards the oven and hearth. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Room 61, oven and hearth, looking north.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. October 2023.
Looking south-east towards oven in kitchen, and doorway to corridor 38. Photo
courtesy of Johannes Eber.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. 1957. Room 61, looking south across kitchen area. Photo by Stanley A. Jashemski.
Source: The Wilhelmina and Stanley A. Jashemski archive in the University of Maryland Library, Special Collections (See collection page) and made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial License v.4. See Licence and use details.
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Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010. Room 61, kitchen courtyard, oven near south wall. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010. Room 61, oven near south wall.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Room 61.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2006. Room 61, upper floor in north-east corner.
Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. May 2010. Kitchen courtyard, room 61. East wall with doorways to rooms 36 and 37 and corridor 38.
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