House of the Vetti and House of the Fawn
Compare and contrast two Pompeian houses. What do they each tell us about the status of their owners?
Within Pompeii, the size and decorative aspects of someone’s home explained a lot about their monetary wealth and what sort of social status they upheld. People who had money and good social status would decorate their homes with High Greek culture for example myths and mosaics of Greek heroes. Whereas people from a lower class, tended to use less grandeur within the decorative style of their homes. The houses that I shall be comparing are House of the Fawn and House of the Vettii. I shall be looking at the décor found within the houses and they way that it was displayed to determine the social, political and economical status of their owners. Some say that the décor within House of the Vettii is fairly fresh and new whereas the décor within House of the Fawn can date back as much as two centuries.
During the 1st and 2nd Century, Pompeii started to construct an interesting amount of houses that were exceptionally lavish. These houses represented high status homes. These houses were The House of Etruscan Column, The House of Clay Moulds and The House of the Fawn. These houses are characterised by “atrium” courtyards and quite simply replaced the homes that had been constructed in the 3rd and 4th Century as they had been poorly built.
The House of the Fawn gained its name from the bronze statue of the dancing fawn. This was found on the lip of the Impluvium, which was a basin for collecting rainwater. Fawns were spirits of the woodland which the Romans associated with Pan and Stayrs and the followers of the Greek God Dionysos. This explains that the family were educated to know about Greek myth showing “High Greek Culture” and “Roman Cultural Capital.” The House of the Fawn represented the elitist in Pompeii. The owners, which are unknown, would have been the political and monetary elite in Pompeii, and it is suggested that Publius Cornelius Sulla,
Within Pompeii, the size and decorative aspects of someone’s home explained a lot about their monetary wealth and what sort of social status they upheld. People who had money and good social status would decorate their homes with High Greek culture for example myths and mosaics of Greek heroes. Whereas people from a lower class, tended to use less grandeur within the decorative style of their homes. The houses that I shall be comparing are House of the Fawn and House of the Vettii. I shall be looking at the décor found within the houses and they way that it was displayed to determine the social, political and economical status of their owners. Some say that the décor within House of the Vettii is fairly fresh and new whereas the décor within House of the Fawn can date back as much as two centuries.
During the 1st and 2nd Century, Pompeii started to construct an interesting amount of houses that were exceptionally lavish. These houses represented high status homes. These houses were The House of Etruscan Column, The House of Clay Moulds and The House of the Fawn. These houses are characterised by “atrium” courtyards and quite simply replaced the homes that had been constructed in the 3rd and 4th Century as they had been poorly built.
The House of the Fawn gained its name from the bronze statue of the dancing fawn. This was found on the lip of the Impluvium, which was a basin for collecting rainwater. Fawns were spirits of the woodland which the Romans associated with Pan and Stayrs and the followers of the Greek God Dionysos. This explains that the family were educated to know about Greek myth showing “High Greek Culture” and “Roman Cultural Capital.” The House of the Fawn represented the elitist in Pompeii. The owners, which are unknown, would have been the political and monetary elite in Pompeii, and it is suggested that Publius Cornelius Sulla,
Bibliography: The Complete Pompeii- J Berry- 2007- London Pompeii – Zanker – 1995 – Germany Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum – Wallace Hadril – 1994- London Roman Pompeii – Lawrence – 1994 – London Urban Society in Roman Italy – Cornell and Lomas – 1995 – London