HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC POET

THE island which lies eastward of the House of Pansa contains, besides the Fullonica, three houses, the discovery of which excited a great sensation, not so much for their extent, which is small compared with that of several others, but on account of the richness and beauty, or singularity of their decorations. These have respectively received the names of the House of the Tragic Poet, and the Houses of the Great and Little Fountains. We give a larger plan of this island.

The House of the Tragic Poet was excavated towards the end of the year 1824, and excited universal admiration from the number and beauty of its paintings. Of these some have been removed to the Museum at Naples; the rest have perished, or are perishing. This is the more to be regretted, because, at a small expense, the whole house might have been covered in, and preserved for many years in nearly the same state of beauty as when it was first discovered. Fortunately, the art of detaching frescoes from walls, in order to rescue them from the certain ruin consequent on exposure to weather, has been brought to such perfection, that of the numerous experiments which have been, and continue to be made (for every fresco of importance is removed), not one has failed. This process is not one of modern invention, but was known to the ancients.

The doors turned upon pivots, received in two bronze sockets let into the marble threshold, the outer part of which rises about an inch higher than the bottom of the door.

Mosaic at the entrance of the Prothyrum of the Tragic Poet's House.

Upon entering the visitor may be startled, for the first object which meets his eye is a large fierce dog, apparently in the act of springing upon him. This device is worked in mosaic on the pavement, and is well executed : the dog is black, spotted with white, and he has a red collar. Beneath is written, in large legible characters, " Cave Canem " (Ware Dog). It appears from ancient authorities that it was not uncommon to place pictures of dogs in the vestibule with this inscription; and, indeed, we may suppose that live dogs were sometimes kept there, since it seems hardly possible to have dispensed with the protection of those watchful animals, where the whole house, as was the ancient custom, stood so invitingly open to every visitor. Below the inscription is a hole in the pavement, to give passage to the rain water which might force its way in; a clumsy contrivance, indicative of bad workmanship.

The reader will be at no loss to comprehend the disposition of the house after the many examples which have been fully explained, and to recognize the vestibule, atrium, aloe, tablinum, fauces, and peristyle. The large room on the right of the peristyle is the triclinium; beside it is the kitchen; the smaller apartments which surround it and the atrium are chambers for the use of the family. The one next to the private entrance into the. peristyle is called the library, and is lighted by the window, of which a view has been already given from without. These rooms are all about twelve feet in height. They were generally closed by folding-doors, as is evident from the sockets let into the thresholds to receive the pivots upon which they turned, and from the two holes in the centre for bolts. The two large apartments on each side of the vestibule appear, from the ample openings in front of them, to have been shops; but they communicate with the corridor, which is not usual, except where the shops were occupied by the master of the house. It has been supposed, from the number of valuable articles found in them, that the occupier was a jeweller or goldsmith, and the arrangement of these shops gives some countenance to this opinion. Nor is there any strong evidence to support the belief that it belonged to a poet; for excepting the mosaic representing the distribution of masks, and the picture of a poet reading, there is nothing in the house particularly connected either with tragedy or poetry. The owner, however, was evidently a man of taste and cultivation.

The vestibule is about six feet wide, and nearly thirty long : a curtain or door was probably placed at the entrance of the atrium, which is about twenty-eight feet by twenty. It is provided as usual with impluvium and puteal. The floor is paved with white tesserae, spotted with black, and round the impluvium there is a well-executed interlaced pattern, also in black. The walls were richly ornamented with paintings, most of which, however, have been carried to the museum. We have inserted figures in the plan, with a view of showing their distribution.

The subject of the first picture is at best doubtful. It consists of three principal figures a man of middle ago seated, who is in the act of taking the left arm of a female, who seems to extend it reluctantly, with an expression by no means good-tempered. A winged figure, which stands behind her, seems to urge her on, and to induce her to present the right hand. At Peleus' feet are three children, which may be, it is said, the offspring of a former marriage to Antigone. These children, however, if such they are, are men in miniature, though, judging by their size, they should be little better than infants. A similar fault is found by critics in the celebrated group of Laocoon. The countenance of the goddess is, as we have said, by no means amiable. Some perceive in this the reluctance with which she consented to a mortal alliance, especially to a widower with three children; others have imagined that the picture represents the return of Helen to Menelaus, when the lady certainly had good cause to look rather sulky; others believe it to represent the moment when Thetis complains to Jupiter of the injustice done to Achilles. In neither of the two latter interpretations ale the children and the winged figure accounted for; and of three unsatisfactory solutions, the first appears the best, especially as a pillar in the back-ground supports instruments of music, which seem more in character with a wedding than with either of the other two occasions. The story is well known. Jupiter was enamoured of Thetis, but was prevented from prosecuting his suit by an oracle which declared that she would bear a son who would prove greater than his father. In consequence of this it was determined to marry her to a mortal, and Peleus was the person fixed upon. The heads and drapery are said to be fine, but, as a whole, the picture is far inferior in beauty to that which we have next to describe; which represents Achilles delivering Briseis to the heralds, who were to conduct her to Agamemnon. Rather than attempt to describe, at second-hand, this, perhaps the most beautiful specimen of ancient painting which has been preserved to modern times, we will avail ourselves of Sir W. Gell's description, from whom indeed nearly the whole of the information contained in this chapter is drawn. The size of the painting is four feet wide by four feet two inches high.

" The scene seems to take place in the tent of Achilles, who sits in the centre. Patroclus, with his back towards the spectator, and with a skin of deeper red, leads in from the left the lovely Briseis, arrayed in a long and floating veil of apple green. Her face is beautiful, and, not to dwell upon the archness of her eye, it is evident that the voluptuous pouting" of her ruby lip was imagined by the painter as one of her most bewitching attributes. Achilles presents the fair one to the heralds on his right, and his attitude, his manly beauty, and the magnificent expression of his countenance are inimitable.

" The tent seems to be divided by a drapery about breast-high, and of a sort of dark-bluish green, like the tent itself. Behind this stand several warriors, the golden shield of one of whom, whether intentionally or not on the part of the painter, forms a sort of glory round the head of the principal hero.

"It is probably the copy of one of the most celebrated pictures of antiquity.

When first discovered the colours were fresh, and the flesh particularly had the transparency of Titian. It suffered much and unavoidably during the excavation, and something from the means taken to preserve it, when a committee of persons qualified to judge had decided that the wall on which it was painted was not in a state to admit of its removal with safety. At length, after an exposure of more than two years, it was thought better to attempt to transport it to the Studii at Naples than to suffer it entirely to disappear from the wall. It was accordingly removed with success in the summer of the year 1826, and it is hoped that some remains of it may exist for posterity.