VIII.4.4 Pompeii. Casa dei Postumii or Domus M. Holconi Rufi or House of Holconius Rufus.

Linked to VIII.4.2, VIII.4.3, VIII.4.5, VIII.4.6, VIII.4.49 and VII.4.50.

Excavated 1766, 1855 and 1861.

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VIII.4.4 Pompeii. December 2018.

Room 22, looking through doorway towards south-west corner of cubiculum.  

Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. December 2018.

Room 22, looking towards south wall and south-west corner of cubiculum. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, south wall of cubiculum. 

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. December 2018.

Room 22, west wall of cubiculum on west side of atrium. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, cubiculum on west side of atrium: west wall. 

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. December 2018.

Room 22, looking towards north-west corner and north wall of cubiculum. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, north wall of cubiculum. 

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, east wall of cubiculum. 

The doorway opens onto the atrium, on the south side the zoccolo and lower plinth were red and showed a large painted plant.

The middle zone of the wall was painted white, the panel being edged by a “carpet” border.

The upper part of the wall, above the border, was also white.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. Drawings by Nicola La Volpe from the walls in room 22.

Top left, south end of east wall, Paris.

Top right, west end of north wall. Dionysus and Satyr.

Lower left, south end of west wall, Ariadne in the company of a Maenad.

Lower right, east end of south wall. Ariadne with cup in her right hand, thyrsus in her left, and wearing a crown of flowers.

Now in Naples Archaeological Museum. Inventory number ADS 838.

Photo © ICCD. https://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it

Utilizzabili alle condizioni della licenza Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Condividi allo stesso modo 2.5 Italia (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 IT)

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. Drawings by Nicola La Volpe from the walls in room 22.

Top left, north end of west wall. Silenus and Maenad with thyrsus.

Top right, west end of south wall. Satyr and Maenad.

Lower middle, east end of north wall, Dionysus in the arms of a Maenad.

Now in Naples Archaeological Museum. Inventory number ADS 841.

Photo © ICCD. https://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it

Utilizzabili alle condizioni della licenza Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Condividi allo stesso modo 2.5 Italia (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 IT)

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, south end of east wall of cubiculum. 

Wall painting of Paris as a shepherd, with a crook in his hand, and cupid on his left shoulder.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (1274).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, east end of south wall of cubiculum. 

Wall painting of Ariadne with cup in her right hand, thyrsus in her left, and wearing a crown of flowers.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (454).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, west end of south wall, above the recess in the cubiculum. Wall painting of Satyr and Maenad.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (510).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, south end of west wall of cubiculum. Wall painting of Ariadne in the company of a Maenad.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (455).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, north end of west wall of cubiculum. Wall painting of Silenus and Maenad with thyrsus.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (417).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, west end of north wall of cubiculum. Wall painting of Dionysus and Satyr.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (384).

Kuivalainen comments –

A young Bacchus offers wine to a satyr. His cap is a rare type of headcover, but also known from other paintings.

The central position of the vessel and the wordless interaction between the figures alludes to offering and craving wine.

See Kuivalainen, I., 2021. The Portrayal of Pompeian Bacchus. Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 140. Helsinki: Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, (F5, p.162).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, east end of north wall of cubiculum. Wall painting of Dionysus in the arms of a Maenad.

The legs of the young God Dionysus stick out over the frame of the picture, making it look like a window.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, (372).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. 1959. Room 22, east end of north wall of cubiculum. Wall painting of Dionysus in the arms of a Maenad. 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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VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, recess in south-west corner of cubiculum.

The south wall was decorated with a red plinth, and the red zoccolo had flower motifs in the central panel and painted plants in the side panels.

The middle zone of the wall was white, the central panel had a candelabra decoration, and the side panels were edged with vertical garlands and borders of “carpet” pattern. The upper wall was painted white.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 22, upper west wall, with vaulted ceiling of cubiculum.

The wall was painted white up until the height of the vault and edged by a stucco cornice.

According to Sogliano –

“Le pareti a fondo bianco animate da numerosi quadretti con ritratti, la cornicetta di stucco bianco con piani d’ombra a tinta pavonazzetta alla sommita dei muri, l’incavo profondo e caratteristico per il letto nel muro a sinistra, tutto l’insieme rese questo grazioso cubicolo meritevole della protezione di una tettoia.”

(The walls with a white background enlivened by numerous paintings with portraits, the white stucco cornice with peacock-hued shades at the top of the walls, the deep and characteristic recess for the bed in the wall on the left, the whole made this graceful cubiculum/bedroom worthy of the protection of a canopy/roof.)

See Sogliano, A. Dei lavori eseguiti in Pompei dal 1 luglio 1908 a tutto Giugno 1909. (p.11).

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. c.1900. Drawing by Pierre Gusman, looking towards west end of room 22.

See Gusman P., 1900. Pompeii: The City, Its Life & Art. London: Heinemann, p. 267.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Doorway to room 23.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 23, north-west corner of room linked to VIII.4.3. 

According to Fiorelli, this room was excavated on the dates of 9th and 18th January and 6th February 1861, and had two doors, one linking to the shop at VIII.4.3 and the other into the atrium of VIII.4.4.

It was found decorated only with white walls with some red lines and yellow meanders, in the middle were two painted candelabra, a large urn and another vase of uncertain form; there were no central paintings on its walls.

The beaten floor had a few pieces of coloured marble in it, the threshold was of Vesuvian stone, the lower podium of the walls were carelessly painted with the same aquatic plant leaves that were seen in the atrium.

Remaining in their original site were – the bronze hinges of the two doors, and with them the locks, three nails, and a ring with flange, other iron nails, four pieces of cylindrical bone, and a terracotta jar in the form of an “ampulla”.

See Fiorelli, Giornale degli Scavi, 1861, (p.19)

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 23, west wall of the room linked to VIII.4.3. 

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 23, floor with marble inserts of room linked to VIII.4.3.  

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Doorway in north-west corner of atrium, leading to VIII.4.3

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 1, looking north across atrium to front entrance.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii.

Atrium 1, north wall, east side. 1861 drawing of mask of Oceanus painted in monochrome yellow on a black background.

See Giornale di Scavi 1861, Tav. III no. 6.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1023.

See Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici, Vol. VIII, Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, p. 460-1.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. Atrium 1, north wall.

In the centre of the wall was a red panel with architectural border with a figure of the child Dionysus in the arms of Silenus.

According to Fiorelli the base was painted in imitation marble.

See Giornale di Scavi 1861, p. 16.

See Helbig, W., 1868. Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Campaniens. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel, 375.

VIII.4.4 Pompeii. March 2009. Room 1, looking north across impluvium in atrium.

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