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Regio III - Insula IX - Case a Giardino - paintings

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Apartment 13

Paintings are well preserved in room 4, the smaller of the two main rooms flanking the medianum. On each wall three vertical zones are separated by painted white, fluted columns. In the centre of the wall is a large, solid red panel, surrounded by yellow. it is flanked by solid yellow panels, surrounded by narrow white and then by wide red bands. The upper part of the red panels is flanked by small white panels. Of the upper zone only the lower part has been preserved. Here small white and red panels can be seen, between solid yellow areas.

In the centre of the red panel on the north wall are traces of a standing figure wearing a long mantle (white, red and green), the head covered, holding with the right hand a lance or sceptre. It might be Dionysus with a thyrsus rod. In the yellow panel to the left was also a figure, but of this one only a few traces have been preserved. The paintings were breached by secondary doors.



Apartment 13, room 4, west and north wall.
Photo: ICCD E040932.




Apartment 13, room 4, north wall.
On the left traces of a figure, on the right a standing figure (Dionysus?).
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 4.




Apartment 13, room 4, north and east wall.
Photo: Wikimedia, Dennis Jarvis.




Apartment 13, room 4, west wall.
Photo: Flickr, Hyspaosines.




Apartment 13, room 4, east wall.
Photo: Flickr, Hyspaosines.


Apartment 14

As in apartment 13, paintings are well preserved in room 4, the smaller of the two main rooms flanking the medianum. The walls are subdivided by white, fluted, Ionic columns. Behind the columns are white porticos with architraves, some oblique. The background of the porticos is half red and half yellow. The walls are dominated by large, solid red and yellow panels. The yellow panels are surrounded by red lines and then wide black bands. Of the upper zone only the lower part has been preserved, where we see once more solid yellow, red and black.

The further decoration of the large red and yellow panels can be seen especially on old photos, today only traces remain. On the yellow panels were garlands. Both on the yellow and red panels, white and red lines created smaller, interior panels containing human figures. In the central red panel on the south wall is a seminude female figure, the mantle in an arch behind her head, her left hand resting on a low column, holding a mirror with her right hand. She might be Aphrodite Urania, the "heavenly" or "spiritual" Venus. In the yellow panel to the left was a flying, naked male figure holding a basket with his raised right arm. In the central, yellow panel on the west wall is another seminude female figure, perhaps another Venus. In the red panel to the left was another flying, naked male figure. In the leftmost, yellow panel was a male, bearded head, perhaps Oceanus.



Apartment 14, room 4, south and west wall.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.




Apartment 14, room 4, south and west wall.
Photo: ICCD E040909.




Apartment 14, room 4, south wall.
Photo: Daniel González Acuña.




Apartment 14, room 4, south wall, detail.
Photo: Flickr, Hyspaosines.




Apartment 14, room 4, south wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 5a.




Apartment 14, room 4, south wall.
Detail of Aphrodite Urania (?).
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.




Apartment 14, room 4, west wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 6.




Apartment 14, room 4, west wall.
Photo: Flickr, Hyspaosines.




Apartment 14, room 4, west wall, detail.
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.




Apartment 14, room 4, west wall.
Detail of a seminude female figure (Venus?).
Photo: Jan Theo Bakker.




Apartment 14, room 4, east wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 8.


Apartment 15

Apartment 15 has some paintings in room 6, a small bedroom (?) behind the medianum. Solid yellow areas are separated by wide red bands. On the left and right panel of the north wall are traces of small landscapes and garlands.



Apartment 15, room 6, west, north and east wall.
Photo: ICCD E040901.




Apartment 14, room 4, north wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 9.


Apartment 16

In apartment 16 extensive remains of paintings were preserved in three rooms. The first of these is room 5, the smaller of the two main rooms flanking the medianum. Here solid red, yellow and black panels are separated by painted, white columns. The black panels are between the red and yellow panels, and have further columns, painted with white and yellow lines. The red panels are below the yellow panels. Some of the yellow panels on the side walls have wide, red framing bands.

in the centre of the yellow panels were human figures, on the south wall perhaps a male figure wearing a mantle together with a smaller figure, on the west wall a seminude male figure with a mantle fluttering behind the body (an erote?) and a female figure wearing a mantle.



Apartment 16, room 5, east, south and west wall.
Photo: Klaus Heese.




Apartment 16, room 5, east, south and west wall.
Photo: ICCD E040931.




Apartment 16, room 5, west wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 12.




Apartment 16, room 5, west wall, detail of an erote (?).
Photo: ICCD E040906.

In room 6, a bedroom (?) behind the medianum, red aediculae separate solid, yellow panels. On the yellow panels are further lines and garlands. In the centre of the middle panel a small landscape can be seen.



Apartment 16, room 6, east wall.
Photo: ICCD E040904.

In room 7, another bedroom (?) behind the medianum, the walls are yellow, with red and white lines creating aediculae.



Apartment 16, room 7, east and south wall.
Photo: ICCD E040911.


Apartment 17

In apartment 16 extensive remains of paintings were preserved in three rooms. The first of these is once more room 5, the smaller of the two main rooms flanking the medianum.

The north wall is preserved best. Here the upper zone consists of red and yellow panels. In the middle zone painted, white columns with Ionic capitals separate three vertical zones. The central vertical zone has two further slender, white columns. The lower zone has not been preserved.

The lower part of the middle zone has a yellow background, with curious large, red, almond-shaped objects surrounded by a purple band. The central object has an apex. The upper part of the middle zone has a light-red background (partly extending on the lower part), with superimposed, dark-red panels. Of these the central one has a triangular top on which a garland is hung. This panel in turn has a further superimposed yellow panel surrounded by a purple band. In this yellow panel, in the centre of the wall, stands a female figure wearing a mantle, painted with purple and pink. It might be a maenad.

The design of the west and east wall is very similar to that of the north wall. On the west wall the central red panel has a curved instead of a triangular top.



Apartment 17, room 5, north and east wall.
Photo: Klaus Heese.




Apartment 17, room 5, north wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 16.




Apartment 17, room 5, north wall, detail (a maenad?).
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 17.



Apartment 17, room 5, north wall, detail (a maenad?).
Photo: ICCD E040902.




Apartment 17, room 5, east wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 18.




Apartment 17, room 5, west and north wall.
Photo: ICCD E040910.




Apartment 17, room 5, west wall.
Photo: Falzone-Zimmermann 2010, fig. 19.

In room 6, a bedroom (?) behind the medianum, are wide, red, vertical bands on a yellow background. On the yellow panels are narrower red bands (a central one a curly bracket) and white lines. In the west wall a long shelf seems to have been inserted.



Apartment 17, room 6, west and north wall.
Photo: ICCD E040933.




Apartment 17, room 6, north wall.
Photo: Liedtke 2003, Taf.30,59.

The paintings in room 7, another bedroom (?) behind the medianum, are similar to those in room 6.



Apartment 17, room 7, west, north and east wall.
Photo: ICCD E040935.


Apartment not identified



Apartment not identified. Fragment with graffiti of ships.
Photo: ICCD E040831.




Apartment not identified. Fragment with a graffito of a ship.
Photo: ICCD E040871.


[jthb - 3-May-2022]