IV.5.b Pompeii. Casa di
Mercurio. Casa di Ercole. Excavated 1813-14.
Excavated 1813-1814.
All the doorways on the northern side of Via Nola, forming Regio IV, have been filled in as a wall to keep the earth bank back from the road.
It is very difficult to find the exact position of these doorways and link them to any site plan.
Our numbering is IV.5.a to IV.5.d, in a west to east direction based on the Hans Eschebach plan of 1969.
CTP IIIA numbers the opposite way from east to west as IV.5.a to d.
Liselotte Eschebach has numbered these houses from west to east as IV.5.1 to IV.5.4.
See Eschebach, L., 1993. Gebäudeverzeichnis und Stadtplan der antiken Stadt Pompeji. Köln: Böhlau.
IV.5.b Pompeii. May 2005. Entrance. The street façade would have had coloured checkerboard coloured stucco.
According to NdS –
(but writing with regard to excavations in Via dell’Abbondanza) –
“The façade of
the following doorway at no.4, visible only on the left for now, was also
remarkable:
it has a checkerboard decoration, whose diagonally coloured squares of red, yellow and green showed tinged in alternate series, (similar facades have been seen at the so-called House of Hercules (IV.5.b) and house No.17 (IX.5.17)."
(“La facciata
del successive vano no.4, visibile solo a sinistra per ora, eraanche essa
notevole: presenta una decorazione a scacchiera, i cui quadrati mostransi
diagonalmente tinti in serie alternate, rosse, giallee verdi (facciate
consimili hanno la cosi detta casa di Ercole (IV.5.b) e la casa no.17
(IX.5.17).”
See Notizie
degli Scavi, 1913, (p.28).
IV.5.b Pompeii. May 2006. Entrance.
According to Liselotte Eschebach on the pillars of the façade of IV.5.b and IV.5.c there were three paintings.
She suggested this may be the Lararium paintings described by Fröhlich in F27.
Fröhlich referred to drawings by Abbate and Zahn and included those by Zahn as Tafel 55, 1-3.
On the west pillar was a painting of Hercules, naked with a lion skin over his left shoulder.
In his right hand was a cantharus (cup) and his left hand was over the end of his club.
The middle pillar had a painting of a grape-crowned Bacchus wearing sandals and a cloak.
He stood with his elbow on a pillar and left foot on a podium.
His right hand was raised, touching a standing Thyrsus.
His left hand held a cantharus from which he fed a panther that sat to the left.
To the right was a small Eros and another god possibly Venus Pompeiana.
On the east pillar was a painting of Mercury wearing winged sandals, petasos (hat) and a cloak.
In his right hand he had the marsupium and on the left
shoulder the caduceus. To the left was
a cockerel.
See Eschebach,
L., 1993. Gebäudeverzeichnis und
Stadtplan der antiken Stadt Pompeji. Köln: Böhlau. (IV.5.2-3).
IV.5.b Pompeii. 1841. Entrance west pillar. Drawing by G. Abbate of Hercules with pig.
On the west pillar was a painting of Hercules, naked with a lion skin over his left shoulder.
In his right hand was a cantharus (cup) and his left hand was over the end of his club.
Under is an electoral inscription C D F AED.
Now in Naples Archaeological Museum. Inventory number ADS 104.
See Fröhlich, T.,
1991. Lararien und Fassadenbilder
in den Vesuvstädten. Mainz: von Zabern. (p.316, F27)
Photo © ICCD. http://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it
Utilizzabili
alle condizioni della licenza Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Condividi
allo stesso modo 2.5 Italia (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 IT)
IV.5.b Pompeii. 1841. Entrance middle pillar. Drawing by G. Abbate of Bacchus and a goddess possibly Venus Pompeiana.
The middle pillar had a painting of a grape-crowned Bacchus wearing sandals and a cloak.
He stood with his elbow on a pillar and left foot on a podium.
His right hand was raised, touching a standing Thyrsus.
His left hand held a cantharus from which he fed a panther that sat to the left.
To the right was a small Eros and another god possibly Venus Pompeiana.
Now in Naples Archaeological Museum. Inventory number ADS 103.
See Fröhlich, T.,
1991. Lararien und Fassadenbilder
in den Vesuvstädten. Mainz: von Zabern. (p.316, F27)
Photo © ICCD. http://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it
Utilizzabili alle condizioni della licenza Attribuzione
- Non commerciale - Condividi allo stesso modo 2.5 Italia (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 IT)
IV.5.b Pompeii. 1841. Entrance east pillar. Drawing by G. Abbate of Mercury.
On the east pillar was a painting of Mercury wearing winged sandals, petasos (hat) and a cloak.
In his right hand he had the marsupium and on the left shoulder the caduceus. To the left was a cockerel.
Now in Naples Archaeological Museum. Inventory number ADS 102.
See Fröhlich, T.,
1991. Lararien und Fassadenbilder
in den Vesuvstädten. Mainz: von Zabern. (p.316, F27)
Photo © ICCD. http://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it
Utilizzabili alle
condizioni della licenza Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Condividi
allo stesso modo 2.5 Italia (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 IT)
IV.5.b Pompeii. May 2006. Large block of stone on west side of door façade.
IV.5.b Pompeii. May 2006. Entrance (left) and site of window or ancient door (right).
IV.5.b, Pompeii. May 2006. Site of window, or ancient doorway.
IV.5.b, Pompeii. May 2005. Site of window, or ancient doorway.
IV.5.b May 2006 Site of window, or ancient doorway.
See Van der Poel, H. B., 1986. Corpus Topographicum Pompeianum, Part IIIA. Austin: University of Texas. (p.68).
![Gladiators near the Nola Gate, c.1819 sketch by William Gell, from an unknown wall.
See Gell W & Gandy, J.P: Pompeii published 1819 [Dessins publiés dans l'ouvrage de Sir William Gell et John P. Gandy, Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompei, 1817-1819], p. 128/158.
See book in Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art [France], collections Jacques Doucet Gell Dessins 1817-1819
Use Etalab Open Licence ou Etalab Licence Ouverte
(Note: according to Jacobelli (see drawing by Morelli in Fig.64 on page 76), this painting on a wall may have been seen in VII.4.26.
However, beneath the Morelli painting is written “Alla porta settentrionale di Pompei in Atrio non lungi dalla medesima”.
(“At the northern gate of Pompeii in an atrium not far from the same”), which would seem to indicate a room not far from the Herculaneum Gate or in Insula Occidentalis.)
See Jacobelli, L., 2003. Gladiators at Pompeii. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.76).](4%2005%20b_files/image022.jpg)
Gladiators near the Nola Gate, c.1819 sketch by William Gell, from
an unknown wall.
See Gell W & Gandy, J.P: Pompeii published 1819 [Dessins publiés dans l'ouvrage de Sir William Gell et John P. Gandy, Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompei, 1817-1819], p. 128/158.
See book in Bibliothèque de l'Institut National
d'Histoire de l'Art [France], collections Jacques Doucet Gell
Dessins 1817-1819
Use Etalab Open Licence ou
Etalab Licence Ouverte
(Note: according to Jacobelli (see drawing by Morelli in Fig.64 on
page 76), this painting on a wall may have been seen in VII.4.26.
However, beneath the Morelli painting is written “Alla porta settentrionale di Pompei in Atrio non lungi dalla medesima”.
(“At the northern gate of Pompeii in an atrium not far from
the same”), which would seem to indicate a room not far from the Herculaneum
Gate or in Insula Occidentalis.)
See Jacobelli, L., 2003. Gladiators at Pompeii. Rome: L’Erma di Bretschneider. (p.76).