The House of Neptune and Amphitrite has some of the best preserved and spectacular mosaics and wall paintings in the town. It demonstrates how the owner adapted a relatively small space to display all the features of an elite roman town house.
Location the House of Neptune and Amphitrite
The house is located in Insula V, cardo IV of Herculaneum. It is fronted by a caupona which was attached to the house by an interior door, suggesting both properties were owned in common.
The house of Neptune and Amphitrite is of quite a modest size occupying an area of only 227m squared. However, its owner was clearly wealthy and made use of his house’s layout and decor to show his social standing off to best effect.
The Decorative Style of the House of Neptune and Amphitrite
Despite the modest size of the building, the wall paintings and mosaics are of a high status house. They are executed with taste, demonstrating that the owner was both wealthy and cultured.
Many of the wall paintings and mosaics are missing or damaged. This is because the house was one of the earliest properties to be targeted by bourbon excavators who were intent on raiding the site for its work of art. Areas of the house such as the lararium were damaged by the tunnelling and many of the wall paintings such as frescos from the triclinium are missing.
What remains is in a good state of repair, so much so that the artist’s signature is still visible on a set of imitation Greek marble wall panels near the atrium. The artist, ‘Alexander’ was clearly a popular Herculaneum wall painter as his signature has been found against other wall paintings elsewhere in the town.
Layout of the House of Neptune and Amphitrite
The exterior of the house was standard, with its plaster facade painted red and white. The entrance offered the first taste of things to come with the threshold sporting an unusual painted carpet border.
The entrance led straight onto the atrium which was edged with rooms on two sides. To the right of the entrance was a cubiculum and the lararium, the shrine of the household gods. In front was the tablinium, triclinium and an innovative room that acted as an ingenious replacement for a peristyle garden.
The triclinium was the largest room of the house and was again adapted to make the most of the houses lack of space. It was a barrel roofed room that probably acted as a reception area for guests as well as a dining room.
To the left of this was the tablinium, the first room visible from the entrance. In other houses, it would have overlooked a peristyle garden. The House of Neptune and Amphitrite was too small to accommodate an internal garden. Instead, the tablinium offered a view onto a room designed as a small internal grotto/garden room.
Unlike town houses in Pompeii, the house of Neptune and Amphitrite maintains some of its upper rooms. Rooms added over the street frontage were decorated in an IV style theatrical manner and furnished with a bronze bed and marble table. They were probably the owner’s private quarters.
The Indoor Garden of the House of Neptune and Amphitrite
Visible from the atrium through the tablinium and accessible from the triclinium, this was a small room and the culmination of the visual axis of the house. It was designed and set out like a garden, elaborately painted and equipped with water features that created a grotto effect.
One wall contained the mosaic of Neptune and Amphitrite that gave the house its name, a brightly coloured piece made of polychrome tesserae. This may have been added by the owner to commemorate his successful shipping business as Neptune is the roman God of the sea.
The rest of the walls paintings emulated those in villas in Pompeii and at the Villa Oplontis. Plants and fountains were prolific, with the north wall taking on a theatrical aspect with hunting animals, garlands and niches that would have contained statues and garlands.
Finally, the room was equipped with a working indoor fountain with couches set around it, making it the perfect place for dinner for two.
Sources
Herculaneum: The Excavations, Local History and Surroundings by Maria Emma Antoinetta Pirozzi . Electra. Naples.
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