HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



15 



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amongst tlicii- number, had insufficient space for the complete pcristylium ; tlicse liad, perhaps, court?; 

 with three porticoes, or, where the pcristylium was placed on one side of the site, with only two. In 

 these cases pilasters were painted on the walls opposite the columns, with ^^-arden scenes between to 

 deceive the eye, as in the house of Jucundus at Pompeii, where there is a graceful marble basin and 

 fountain of water between two central columns. Several such are reproduced in Niccolini's work on 

 Pompeii, where we see hills covered with pines and 

 cypresses, fountains, and birds. 



Sometimes the open court was laid out as a 

 viridarium, with beds of flowers and flowering shrubs, 

 ornanientcd with piscinae, mosaic fountains, and 

 water-towers, with niches or statuettes of cupids, 

 and cascades of rockwork or >hell\vork. On a level 

 with the fountains there were cement basins, whicli 

 may also have been used as fishponds, with circular 

 openings fitted with perforated plugs of terra-cotta, 

 their outer walls painted with ducks, fish, ^c. Leaden 

 pipes scr\-ing to water the flowers may still be seen 

 in the house of Marcus Lucretius. Tables and basins 

 of marble, terms and bronzes, adorned this charmin^ 

 spot, which was the favourite rendezvous of the 

 household. 



^ouiffu/f} from PoiiiJkJiNap^ Mas 



Tn the pcristylium of the house of Aulus 

 Vettius at Pompeii the marble basins, tallica, terms, 

 and fountains have all been set up In their original 

 po^jltions, from which some of them liavc never been 

 moved, and the beds have been laid out on the lines 

 suggested b)- the wall-painllngs that have been 

 discovered in the house of Sallust and clsc^^■here. 

 At \-arious points of the garden are cones of basket- 

 work overgrown with creepers, an idea also copied 



from the frescoes. Tn the centre are two I\-)--carved stelx, with heads of Dionysus with Ariadne, 

 and Sllenus with a Bacchante, back to back. The fountains on 

 bronze boys holding gccsc, from whose beaks the water flowed. Behind the columns are frescoes 

 representing garland-makers. In the Museum at Nai)les are preserved many garden oriuunents. 

 fountains, and statuettes that originally adorned the courtyards of these town gardens. On account 

 of the restricted area of many of these gardens, the fountains were frequently placed against a blank 

 wall and consisted of a niche often executed with some charmincf design of birds and flowers. One 

 of these niches is preserved in the Victoria and Albert .Museum, South Kensington ; and both in 



either side of the foreground are 



