The House of the Faun (Italian: Casa del Fauno), built during the second century BC, was one of the largest, most impressive private residences in Pompeii, Italy, and housed many great pieces of art. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some Middle class families owned in Ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the Pompeii is a ruined and partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples and Caserta in the Italian region of Campania, in It is one of the most luxurious aristocratic houses from the Roman republic, and reflects this period better than most archaeological evidence found even in Rome itself. The Roman Republic was the phase of the ancient Roman civilization characterized by a Republican form of government a period which began with the overthrow of the Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 ^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Artworks 3 Architecture 4 Remains 5 Gallery 6 Footnotes 7 References

History

The House of the Faun was built in the second century BCE, during the Samnite period (200 - 80 BCE). Samnium ( Oscan: Safinim; Italian Sannio) is a historical region of the south central Apennines in Italy, that was home to the ^[2] There is evidence, most notably in the eastern walls of the tetrastyle atrium, that after the great earthquake in 62 CE, the House of the Faun was rebuilt or repaired;^[3] yet, the building was only used as a house from the second century BCE until 79 CE, ultimately rendered unusable by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. A portico is a Porch that is leading to the entrance of a building or extended as a Colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway supported by Columns In modern Architecture, an atrium (plural atria is a large open space often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows often situated within an Mount Vesuvius (in Italian Monte Vesuvio and in Latin Mons Vesuvius) is an active Stratovolcano east of Naples Although the eruption was devastating, the layers of ash covering the abandoned town preserved artworks, like the mosaics of the House of the Faun, which would have otherwise been likely destroyed or decayed due to the passage of time. Volcanic ash consists of small Tephra, which are bits of pulverized rock and glass created by volcanic eruptions less than in diameter Art History Mosaics of the 4th century BC are found in the Macedonian palace-city of Aegae, and they enriched the floors of Hellenistic

The House of the Faun was named for the bronze statue of the dancing faun located, originally, on the lip of the impluvium, a basin for catching rainwater; it has been moved to the center of the impluvium, as you can see in the picture to the right. In Roman mythology, fauns are place-spirits ( genii) of untamed woodland The impluvium is the sunken part of the atrium in a Greek or Roman house ( Domus) Fauns are spirits of untamed woodland, which Romans often connected to Pan and Greek satyrs, or wild followers of the Greek god of wine and agriculture, Dionysus. In Roman mythology, fauns are place-spirits ( genii) of untamed woodland Pan ( Greek, Genitive) is the Greek god of shepherds and flocks of mountain wilds hunting and rustic music paein means to pasture In Greek mythology, satyrs (Σάτυροι Satyroi) are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus – " Satyresses quot In Classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos (in Greek, Διόνυσος or Διώνυσος; associated with Roman

Archaeologists discovered an inscription bearing the cognomen Saturninus, suggesting that the dwelling was owned by the important gens, or clan, Satria; a ring bearing the family name Cassius was also found, indicating that someone of the Cassii family married into the gens Satria and lived in the House of the Faun. The cognomen (plural cognomina) was originally the third name of an Ancient Roman in the Roman naming convention. In Ancient Rome, a gens (pl gentes) was a Clan, Caste, or group of Families, that shared a common name (the The gens Cassia, Nomen Cassius, was one of the oldest families of Ancient Rome. ^[4]

Artworks

The House of the Faun is most famously known for the Alexander Mosaic, depicting the Battle of Issus in 333 BCE between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. The Alexander Mosaic or The Battle of Issus, dating from circa 200 BC is a famous Mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii. The Battle of Issus (or more commonly The Battle at Issus) occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 333 BC. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' Darius III ( Artashata) (c 380&ndash330 BC Persian داریوش Dāriūš dɔːriˈuːʃ was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of This mosaic is inspired by or copied from the Greek painting finished in the late fourth century BCE,^[5] probably by the Greek artist Philoxenus of Eretria. ^[6] Unlike most Pompeian pavements of the late second and early first centuries, this mosaic is made of tessarae, and not the more common opus signinum, or other grades of stone chips set in mortar. A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a collection of Plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps Opus signinum is a style of pavement first used in Ancient Rome. ^[7]

The Alexander Mosaic is complemented by other floor mosaics with Nilotic scenes and theatrical masks. Nilotic people or Nilotes, in its contemporary usage refers to some Ethnic groups mainly in Southern Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern ^[8] Other notable works of art from the House of Faun include an erotic Satyr and Nymph and the fish mosaic, a piece closely resembling other mosaics in Pompeii. ^[9]

Architecture

The House of the Faun covers nearly 3,000 square meters, and occupies an entire city block, or insula. In Roman architecture, insulae (singular Insula) were large Apartment buildings where the lower and middle classes of Romans (the Plebs The house can be divided into five major parts: the tuscan atrium, tetrastyle atrium, service rooms and corridors, first, or Ionic, peristyle, and second, or Doric, peristyle, and their corresponding dependent rooms. The Ionic order column forms one of the three '''orders''' or '''organizational systems''' of Classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the In Greek and Roman architecture a peristyle is a Columned Porch or open Colonnade in a Building that surrounds a court The Doric order was one of the three '''orders''' or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or Classical architecture; the other two Canonical ^[10] Like many ancient Roman houses, the House of the Faun had tabernae, or storefront shops, and a highly-sophisticated building plan, which details the many rooms. A taberna (the plural form is tabernae is a single room shop covered by a Barrel vault within great indoor markets of ancient Rome The entrance is decorated by the Latin message “HAVE”, a greeting both for meeting and parting. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Ave! or aue! is a Latin phrase used by the Romans as a salutation and Greeting, meaning 'hail' ^[11]

Like other wealthy aristocrats of the Roman Republic, the owners of the House of the Faun installed a private bath system, or balneum, in the house. This page is on the activity in general - see Thermae for buildings in which it was carried out A bain-marie (also known as a water bath) is a French term for a piece of equipment used in Science, Industry, and Cooking to The bathing room was located in the domestic wing, which was to the right of the entrance, and along with the kitchen was heated by a large furnace. ^[12] The servants’ quarters were dark and cramped, and there was not much furniture. ^[13] The house features beautiful peristyle gardens, the second of which was created as a stage to host recitations, mimes, and pantomimes. Recitation means a repetition of what has been said before It is used in a religious an oratorical and an educational sense Pantomime (informally panto) (not to be confused with a Mime artist, referring to a theatrical performer of mime is a performance genre traditionally found Additionally, the house contained an entrance passage, a number of bedrooms (cubicula), dining rooms (triclinia) for both the summer and winter, a reception room (oecus), and an office (tablinum). A triclinium (plural triclinia) is a formal dining room in a Roman building Oecus, the Latinized form of Gr oikos, house used by Vitruvius for the principal Hall or salon in a Roman house which was used occasionally In Roman architecture, a tablinum (or tabulinum from tabula, board picture was a room generally situated on one side of the atrium and opposite to the ^[14]

Remains

Today visitors can still explore the remains of the House of the Faun in modern Pompeii, along Via di Nola. Although most of the original artworks have been relocated to the National Archaeological Museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale) in Naples, the most famous pieces, like the Dancing Faun and the Alexander Mosaic, have been recreated to give tourists a clearer picture of what the house was originally like. The Naples National Archaeological Museum ( Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli) is located in Naples Italy, at the northwest corner of the original Greek Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the ^[15] Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, Pompeii’s current archaeological superintendent, explained, “I want visitors to have the impression that they are entering the same luxurious house in which the ancient Pompeian owners lived before it was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. ”^[16]

Gallery

Mosaic with a Nile Scene

Erotic mosaic of a satyr and nymph

The Creeping Cat Mosaic

Opus Sectile in vestibulum

Footnotes

References

• Butterworth, Alex and Ray Laurence. Pompeii: The Living City. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2005.
• "Dictionary Entry Lookup. " The Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/>.
• Dwyer, Eugene. "The Unified Plan of the House of the Faun. " The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 60 (Sep. , 2001): 328-343. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org>.
• Gordon, Mary L. "The Ordo of Pompeii. " The Journal of Roman Studies 17 (1927): 165-183. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org>.
• Grant, Michael, and Rachel Kitzinger. Civilization of the ancient Mediterranean: Greece and Rome. New York: Scribner's, 1988.
• Hornblower, Simon, and Antony Spawforth. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Little, A. M. G. "The Decoration of The Hellenistic Peristyle House in South Italy. " American Journal of Archaeology 39 (1935): 360-371. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org>.
• Merola, Marco. "Alexander, Piece by Piece. " Archaeology 59 (2006). <http://www.archaeology.org>.
• Stillwell, Richard, William Lloyd MacDonald, and Marian Holland McAllister. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton, N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1976.
• The Cambridge Ancient History. [New] ed. London: Cambridge University Press, 1970- .
• The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M. D. , F. R. S. H. T. Riley, Esq. , B. A. London: Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, 1855.
• Westgate, Ruth. "Pavimenta Atque Emblemata Vermiculata: Regional Styles in Hellenistic Mosaic and the First Mosaics At Pompeii. " American Journal of Archaeology 104 (2000): 255-275. JSTOR. <http://www.jstor.org>.

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic