File:Pompeii; its history, buildings and antiquities - an account of the destruction of the city, with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations and also an itinerary for visitors (14792937373).jpg

Identifier: pompeiiitshist00dyer (find matches)
Title: Pompeii; its history, buildings and antiquities : an account of the destruction of the city, with a full description of the remains, and of the recent excavations and also an itinerary for visitors
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Dyer, Thomas Henry, 1804-1888
Subjects:
Publisher: London : Bell
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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betweenthem have been coloured red, black, and blue, so as, by theapparent depth of shadow, to produce an appearance of greaterelevation than the projections possess. 1. Street of Mercury. 2. Principal entrance. Upon oneof the jambs of the doorway was painted a Mercury with alarge purse in his hand, in the act of running. Here wemay pause to consider the rich and varied perspective of theinterior—where the Corinthian peristyle with its twelvecolumns, and fountain in the centre of the impluvium,beyond it the tablinum, rich with paintings, and in thefurther distance the sedicula, or shrine of the tutelary deityof the house, combined to furnish a coup-doeil of more thanordinary magnificence. 3. Vestibule, paved with opus Sig-ninum. The walls are divided into compartments principallycoloured red and yellow, and painted very beautifully with HOUSE OF CASTOR AND POLLUX. 4Ud grotesque designs. Upon either side were spirited paintingsof Castor and Pollux—the Dioscuri, from whom the house
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Ground-plan of the House of Castor and Pollux. derives one of its names—reining in their horses. The dooron the right-hand side leads into a small room, 4, probably 401 POMPEII. occupied by the porter, where there are traces of a stair-case, 5. 6. Sewer. 7. Atrium. It corresponds with the Corin-thian atrium of Vitruvius, and is one of the few exampleswhich remain of that magnificent style of building. Theroof was supported by twelve columns placed around the im-pluvium, formed of the tufa of Nocera, and coated withstucco. They are about twelve feet high and one foot eightinches in diameter. The lower half of the shaft is colouredred, and the flutings are filled up ; the upper part is white.The cornice of the atrium is remarkable for containing thedentils of the Ionic order, while the capitals are formed byplain rectangular plinths—a singular and unpleasing novelty,for which it is not easy to account in a house distinguishedin general for the richness of its decorations. Like that

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