This segment of the Pompeii Virtual Walk video includes the House of the Faun, House of the Vetti (note - explicit frescoes - viewer discretion advised), the House of the Prince of Naples, the Castellum Aquae, and Samnite fortification wall and tower near the necropolis of the Vesuvio Gate.
I was particularly thrilled to explore the House of the Vetti as it was closed when I was in Pompeii and it is one of those dwellings where the owners went rather "over the top" in adorning almost every inch of wall space with frescoes even though many scholars think the Vettii were freedman and not aristocrats at all.
I was also excited to finally "tour" the House of the Prince of Naples that I studied for months before writing the Wikipedia article about it. Surgical instruments were scattered in the debris of the house and a skeleton was found in the barrel-vaulted cubiculum to the left of the fauces. I thought these finds suggested the house may have been occupied by a physician at the time of the eruption and one of his patients, possibly injured in the eruption, had expired and was abandoned in the rush to evacuate. Other scholars have proposed that the skeleton may be the remains of someone who broke into the house through holes in the walls and was killed by falling debris.
I was surprised when I "walked" through the House of the Small Fountain how similar it was in some respects to the House of the Prince of Naples. Both structures were originally two separate Samnite dwellings that had been joined together during the Augustan period. The atrium and forward adjoining rooms accessed through the portal numbered 23 in the House of the Small Fountain had an almost identical layout to the entrance of the House of the Prince of Naples, a fourth style-decorated cubiculum on the left and an unadorned doorman's chamber with stairs leading to the upper story on the right. Both structures featured floor pavement of punteggiato regolare, a signinum featuring spaced travertine tesserae used widely in Pompeii beginning about 100 BCE and both had a small rear garden separated from the interior by a row of columns. Instead of an ornate mosaic fountain, the House of the Prince of Naples had a lararium as the garden's focal point. German archaeologists theorized that the residents of the House of the Prince of Naples were superstitious and had the lararium positioned so that the household gods could "see" into every major occupied space in the house. I proposed an opposite viewpoint that the lararium was positioned so it was visible from almost every occupied space as a reminder to visitors (or patients) of the pietas of the resident(s). If the resident was, in fact, a physician, evidence of his pietas would have been comforting to his patients.
Both houses (as well as the House of Sallust) appeared to have been modified in the Augustan period to refocus the center of attention in the tablinum to the garden rather than the atrium, where clients may have once gathered. (In the case of the House of the Small Fountain and the House of Sallust, the rear wall of the tablinium was removed to expose the garden behind. In the case of the House of the Prince of Naples, a large opening was cut into the side wall of the tablinum since the garden was behind and off to the side.) I found this change in architecture that was popularized during Augustus' reign interesting. Augustus was always focused on his grip on power and it would be to his advantage to discourage the expansion of patron-client relationships and the potentially threatening political power they spawned. What better way to do that than to encourage a cultural focus on the natural world and entertainment rather than cultivation of political relationships?
As stated before, I have used Topaz Sharpen AI to remove the slight motion blur in screen captures as well as Adobe Camera Raw to adjust clarity, texture, highlights, shadows, and occasionally haze and white balance. I increase dynamic contrast and add a subtle vignette with On1 Photo Raw Effects and remove distracting visitors and replace empty skies with Photoshop and its Sky Replacement feature, changing the blend mode from Screen to Multiply where necessary to avoid extensive editing of the masking layer.
A wonderful collection of images from still cameras of the frescoes in the House of the Vetti can be found here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Ancient_Roman_frescos_in_the_House_of_the_Vettii_(Pompeii)
More images and closeups from still cameras of the frescoes in the House of the Prince of Naples can be found here:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Casa_del_Principe_di_Napoli
You can explore the Pompeii Walk video yourself here - no special hardware is required:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUYJ8LbF1Ys
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| A reclining Dionysys with satyr from an oecus in the House of the Vettii Pompeii Walk |
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| Front peristyle in Sulla's nephew's House of the Faun Pompeii Walk |
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| Atrium of the House of the Prince of Naples |
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| Atrium of the House of the Vetti facing the peristyle Pompeii Walk |
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| Barrel-vaulted tablinum decorated in the Fourth Style, House of the Prince of Naples Pompeii Walk |
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| Castellum Aquae that supplied Pompeii with water from an aqueduct Pompeii Walk |
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| Closeup of Tablinum with replica of the famous Alexander at the Battle of Issus mosaic House of the Faun w sky rep and adj perspective |
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| Closeup of the god Priapus in the fauces of the House of the Vetti Pompeii Walk |
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| Colonnaded peristyle with lararium in the House of the Prince of Naples Pompeii Walk |
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| Columned architectural details in the Fauces (entrance) of the House of the Faun Pompeii Walk |
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| Dionysus reveals himself to Ariadne in the House of the Vetti Pompeii Walk |
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| Entrance to the House of the Faun (ropes removed) Pompeii Walk |
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| Fauces (entrance) mosaic House of the Faun Pompeii Walk |
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| Fourth style frescoes in the House of the Vetti Pompeii Walk |
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| Fourth style oecus in the House of the Prince of Naples |
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| Fourth style oecus with opus sectile mosaic in the House of the Prince of Naples |
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| Fresco depicting the myth of Pasiphae in the House of the Vetti Pompeii Walk |
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| Another view of front peristyle from opposite direction House of the Faun Pompeii Walk |
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| Ission linked to the volcano wheel in the presence of Juno fresco in the House of the Vettii |
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| Lararia at the House of the Faun Pompeii Walk |
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| Lararium in the peristyle of the House of the Prince of Naples Pompeii Walk |
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| Large marble table (cartibulum) supported by winged griffins in the atrium of the House of the Prince of Naples Pompeii Walk |
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| Lavapesto welcome mosaic of the House of the Faun Pompeii Walk |
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| Lavishly frescoed oecus in the House of the Vettii Pompeii Walk |
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| Lavishly frescoed reception room in the House of the Vetti Pompeii Walk |
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| More modestly decorated reception room in the House of the Vettii Pompeii Walk |
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| Mosaiced impluvium with reproduction of the bronze faun found in the House of the Faun (with visitors and barriers removed) Pompeii Walk |
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| Priapus fresco at the House of the Vetti (1) Pompeii Walk |
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| Rear peristyle House of the Faun Pompeii Walk |
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| Remains of a nail-studded storage chest in the atrium of the House of the Vetti Pompeii Walk |
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| Reproduction of a sculpture of the god Priapus that was once in the peristyle garden of the House of the Vetti Pompeii Walk |
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| Samnite fortification wall and tower near the Necropolis of the Vesuvio Gate Pompeii Walk |
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| Summer triclinium with Bacchus and Venus in the House of the Prince of Naples Pompeii Walk |
