Roman houses ranged from multistory apartment buildings for the lower classes to large private homes called domi for wealthy patricians. Wealthy homes featured gardens, frescoes, and mosaics and were centered around an open-air atrium. Frescoes used techniques like trompe l'oeil, linear perspective, and chiaroscuro to create the illusion of depth and expand the interior space. Gardens provided an oasis and frescoes often depicted idyllic landscapes or Greek-inspired myths.

1. The Roman House

2. Like cities today, Roman cities were crowded, and real estate was at a premium

3. The less well off lived in multistory apartment buildings called insulae

4. Wealthier Patricians lived in private homes - domus in Latin

5. Image source: http://www.ask.com/wiki/Pompeii
Most of our knowledge about the Roman house comes from Pompeii, a city of
approximately 20,000 inhabitants buried under lava when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD

6. The Roman Domus
The Roman Domus
Model of a typical Roman domus
Image source: http://home.att.net/~b.b.major/homehist.html
Entrance
Vendor
A typical Roman house was entered from
the street, and adjacent rooms with
street-level entrances were rented out as
shops.

7. The Roman Domus
The Roman Domus
Model of a typical Roman domus
Image source: http://home.att.net/~b.b.major/homehist.html
The first room was the atrium, with an
opening to the sky

8. Atrium of the house of Vetti,
Pompeii. 2nd c. BCE
The atrium had a cistern for collecting rain water called an impluvium

9. The Roman Domus
The Tablinum was where the ancestor
effigies were displayed, and where the
paterfamilias would receive clients

10. The Roman Domus
Larger homes had peristyle gardens - an
oasis away from the hustle and bustle of
city streets

11. Peristyle Garden, House of the Vetti, Pompeii
The gardens were planted with flowers, as well as vegetables and herbs for cooking

12. And they were decorated with fountains, and sculptures

13. So wealthy Romans probably lived a very comfortable lifestyle

14. The walls of Roman houses were decorated with frescos – paintings that were made
directly on wet plaster

15. Styles of wall painting changed over time (much like interior design today follows
fashionable trends), and art historians have established a chronology of four main styles
of Roman wall paintings
“First Style”
“Second Style”
“Third Style”
“Fourth Style”

16. “First Style” decorations consisted of painted illusions of marble veneers and engaged
columns

17. Its like “faux finishing” - Inexpensive paint is used to imitate costly materials such as
marble or granite

18. The Romans had seen this kind of decoration in Hellenistic palaces, and they wanted
their own homes to look as fancy

19. It was cheaper to have a painted illusion, rather than the real thing!

20. The Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, c. 50 BCE
In the so-called “Second Style,” the space of the room is expanded through painted
illusion

21. The Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, c. 50 BCE
This was an inexpensive way of increasing the size of the room in the crowded
conditions of urban living

22. The Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii, c. 50 BCE
This room, from the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii, is an example of “Second Style”
wall painting

23. Life-size figures occupy the perimeter of the room along a ledge

24. Figures appear to interact with one another across corners

25. The subject matter appears to be an initiation rite into the cult of Dionysos, a popular
“Mystery Cult.”

26. “Mystery Cults” were religious cults that were restricted to individuals who had undergone
initiation rituals, and became increasingly popular throughout the Roman Empire

27. In the later empire, Christianity (which requires the “initiation” rituals of Baptism and
Communion) became one of the most popular Mystery Cults

28. In this scene the young initiate appears frightened or surprised. Her drapery billows as
she lunges forward

29. Her pose recalls one of the figures from the Parthenon, indicating that the artist was
familiar with Phidias’ work

30. The artist created a convincing illusion of volume by modeling the forms with gradations of
dark to light to create the illusion of roundness

31. This technique of modeling with light and shade (often called chiaroscuro) was a major
breakthrough in painting, and was probably learned from the Greeks

32. The illusion of depth is also enhanced by the way the figure’s arm seems to project out into
our space

33. This technique is called foreshortening

34. There is a particularly beautiful example of Second Style Wall painting at the
Metropolitan Museum

35. An entire room from a Roman house has been reconstructed in the museum

36. The room is quite small (as were most urban houses), with only one window — typical of
dwellings in crowded cities. But the walls have been painted away to make it appear
larger

37. The walls have been painted away to make the room appear larger, and to
suggest an idyllic world

38. Here, the wall has been painted with a view into a lavish garden courtyard

39. This view is a cityscape. The columns look real but they’re not -- they are painted
illusions

40. Another view looks out onto a peristyle courtyard with a small tholos (round) temple
in the center

41. The artist used a technique called linear perspective to create the illusion of depth

42. The parallel lines of the architecture converge on a single vanishing point, creating
the illusion of depth

43. This fresco from another room in the villa portrays a woman playing a
kythara (a type of musical instrument)
Seated woman playing a kithara: From Room H of the Villa of P.
Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale, ca. 40–30 BCE
Metropolitan Museum

44. The seated figure is massive and round (achieved through the use of chiaroscuro and
foreshortening), while her voluminous drapery recalls the “wet drapery” effects of Greek
statuary

45. The floors of Roman houses were decorated with mosaics

46. Roman mosaic floor (Sala degli Animali, Hall of Animals)
Vatican Museum
They are made with small pieces of colored stone

47. Antioch Mosaic, 2nd c. CE
Metropolitan Museum
As we will see, mosaic will become an important medium in Early Christian
and Byzantine art

48. Gardenscape, from the Villa of Livia, Prima Porta, Italy, c. 30-20 BCE
An especially beautiful fresco was found in the Villa of Livia, wife of Augustus

49. Gardenscape, from the Villa of Livia, Prima Porta, Italy, c. 30-20 BCE
It is typical of Second Style wall painting, because the paintings create the illusion of space

50. The walls of the room are painted with the illusion of a lush garden beyond a wooden
fence and parapet

51. The garden is lush with plants and fruits from different climates and seasons, and birds
flutter through the trees

52. It is likely that this magical garden of abundance was symbolic of the prosperity that
Livia’s husband, the Emperor Augustus, had brought to Rome

53. To achieve an illusion of depth the painter made use of another technique called
“atmospheric perspective.”

54. By painting some parts “blurry,” they appear to be far away

55. Objects that are closer are painted more crisply, making them seem like they are closer

56. So Roman wall painters mastered several techniques for rendering the illusion of three
dimensional reality

57. Modeling with light and shade: where gradations are used to render the illusion of
three dimensional volume
Linear perspective: where converging lines are used to create the illusion of
recession into depth
Atmospheric perspective: where objects that are far away are painted blurry to
make them appear distant, and objects that are close are rendered more crisply

58. Thanks for listening!

59. Later styles of Roman wall
paintings often include painted
vignettes that resemble paintings
hanging on a wall
They reveal the Roman taste for
Greek-inspired styles and themes
Ixion Room, House of Vettii, Pompeii, c. 70-79 BCE

60. This one portrays the story of Ixion,
who was the father of the Centaurs
He is portrayed like a Greek statue
– idealized, nude, and standing in
the contraposto pose
Punishment of Ixion, Ixion Room, House of Vettii, Pompeii, c. 70-79 BCE
Image source: http://ancientrome.ru/art/artworken/img.htm?id=1322

61. In this fresco the artist has
rendered an illusion of a Greek-
inspired statue decorating the
garden
Peristyle fresco from the House of the Venus Mariana, Pompeii