A history resource article by Mary Harrsch © 2024
I've been intrigued with The House of the Fruit Orchard since I searched for images of artwork that compared frescos from the House of the Wounded Bear with other houses and one of those discussed by Wolfgang Ehrhardt was Casa del Frutteto. I stumbled across a wonderful account of the house's discovery by a 1913 Italian hotelier published in an Australian paper,
"The Age." So, I am working on an extensive article about the house and thought you might be interested in a shortened version of it. The house was one of those restored as part of the Great Pompeii Project in 2019 so we now have some wonderful images of the frescos thanks to Professor Johannes Eber as well as some other recent visitors. I will be uploading these images to Wikimedia Commons so they can be freely used for teaching and research.
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), looking east through doorway courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12 (Maiuri plan), painting of fountain from south wall in southeast corner courtesy of Johannes Eber
(See more images below the article) |
As I have mentioned before, here in the US, photographs of two-dimensional public domain artwork are considered in the public domain as well and that license is applied on Wikimedia Commons which is based in the US.
But first, here is a brief (well, somewhat brief!) version of my article:
As part of The Great Pompeii Project, the Casa del Frutteto, House of the Orchard, was extensively restored and reopened to the public in December of 2019. Also known as the House of Euplia and the House of the Floral Cublicula, the house was originally constructed in the late third century BCE and subsequently restructured at least four times. After the earthquake in 62 CE, a wine shop where over 150 amphorae of wine were discovered, was incorporated into the complex with an entrance opening onto the Via dell'Abbondanza at 1 9,7.
The structure was excavated first in 1913 by the proprietor of the Hotel Suisse near the buried Roman city, who had acquired a piece of land about a kilometer and a half from the Herculaneum Gate. He began excavations at his own expense with the permission of the Italian government and uncovered what he described as several small living quarters, a very large kitchen and adjoining anterooms, part of the peristyle, and thirty-foot square dining room with high vaulted stuccoed ceiling and a sweeping view of the sea. The paintings on the walls in what are now numbered Rooms 8 - 12, were described as in an excellent state of preservation.
As reported in the May 17, 1913 issue of the Australian paper, The Age, "...the eye is feasted with a riot of brilliant color, put on with that sense of harmony which distinguishes the mural decorations of the ancients. No less beautiful are the decorations of that portion of the main hall brought to view. They are almost entirely pictorial, the lines of the figures being for the most part of a deep terra cotta red, such as is frequently found on the best painted walls of Pompeii. The subjects are of infinite variety and clear up several obscure points in details relating to heathen mythology."
The Italian government immediately began negotiations for the site and effectively blocked the lucrative sale of the property to J.P. Morgan.
With the exception of a fragment of Pompeian First Style paintings in room 13, and fragments of Second Style paintings found in the tablinum but thought to have fallen from the upper story, the mostly Pompeian Third Style paintings were left in situ and excavations did not resume until 1951 under the supervision of Pompeii superintendent Amedeo Maiuri. He considered the paintings of garden and orchard to be the finest found in Pompeii as recorded in his book "Pompeii" published in 1957.
"Instead of being painted , as was done mostly, on the open and well lit side-walls of porticos and gardens, they are to be seen on the inside walls of two cubicles. These walls are divided into sections by means of slender uprights looking rather like trellis supports than like columns, and show against a black or blue background the finest varieties of fruit trees that a skilled Pompeian gardener might raise in his orchard whether within the city or in the country: figs, dark and light plums, pears, medlars, arbutuses, cherries, and by their side lemon trees with their yellow fruits amid dark foliage, that represented a garden rarity in Campania during the first century of our era. Birds flying or resting on the branches, bushes of oleanders, of honeysuckle and of rose trees must have provided the owner, resting in his inner cubicle, with the cherished illusion to be gazing upon an open air orchard, so that these paintings respond to that lively love for nature that was among the principal inspiring motifs of the decoration of Roman houses."
In his paper, "The Social Structure of the Roman House," Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, observes, "The hallmark of imperial (i.e. third and fourth style) decoration is that the architectural details, which previously had formed the focus of the decoration, are used only as a frame. This framework gives structure to the decorated wall; and it provides the context for the panel paintings which now occupy the focal point. But in framing central spaces and structuring walls, these architectural details also 'frame' the social space of the room...A similar point emerges from those triclinia in which three architecturally framed panel paintings precisely surround the three couches of the triclinium at the upper end of the room. Here the paintings are scarcely visible to the diners themselves, who lie with backs to the walls; but the social activity of the convivium is magnificently framed from the viewpoint of an observer at the bottom end of the room." He cites the black triclinium [room 11] of the Casa del Frutteto as a good example.
Agneta Freccero, in his 2019 paper, Insula I 9: paintings, that appeared in Vol. 30 of Rivista di Studi Pompeiani, expressed his opinion that the four subject paintings in the triclinium, the Fall of Icarus on the east wall, the Duel of Eteocles and Polynices on the north wall, Artemis' revenge on Actaeon on the west wall, and the Punishment of Dirce on the south wall, point to an overall theme of the tragedy of unhappy love.
"...in each single painting we can follow a story from the beginning to the final punishment and fall," Freccero notes.
Freccero also attributes the paintings to the Boscotrecase painter, comparing them to those in the Casa di Marcus Lucretius Fronto and the Casa del Bell'Impluvio. He also observes other scholars have compared the garden paintings to those from the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, to paintings in the Auditorium of Maecenas and to those in the Casa del Bracciale d'Oro.
Based on the high-quality paintings and finds, including a rare obsidian mirror found only in three other houses in Pompeii, a fine candelabrum, a rare bronze water heater, and ceramic and bronze tableware, Freccero concludes the proprietor was a prosperous man with a severe religious or occult outlook on life.
Images: A note about the room numbers. The room numbers have been modified to reflect room numbering as it appears in Maiuri's original excavation floorplan, not the sequence of
pompeiiinpictures.com. Maiuri's room numbers are used by many academic scholars including those working on the Regio I Insula 9 Project of the British School of Rome. I have included a floorplan based on Maiuri's floorplan for your reference and it will also be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons as well.
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), detail from south wall with painting of Ariadne and Dionysus courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2018 Room 8 (Maiuri plan) looking east along south wall towards south-east corner courtesy of Aude Durand |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2017 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), zoccolo from lower east wall courtesy of Buzz Ferebee |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), Detail of painting of Egyptian pharaonic statue and cherry tree courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), Looking towards northeast corner and centre of east wall courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), detail from upper east wall courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2023 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), looking east through doorway courtesy of Miriam Colomer |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 8 (Maiuri plan), Detail of painting of Egyptian pharaonic statue and lemon tree north end of east wall courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) garden painting from upper west wall of cubiculum above doorway courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) upper painted panel of birds in tree from south wall in southeast corner courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2021 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) looking towards east wall, south-east corner, and south wall courtesy of Davide Peluso |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) looking towards zoccolo on lower east wall of cubiculum courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) detail of painted table with Isis jug or jar on east wall courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) looking towards centre of east wall with painted table with Isis jug or jar of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 1966 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) east wall of cubiculum with detail of garden trellis painting white vases and Isis jar courtesy of Stanley Jashemski |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) east wall of cubiculum with painting of a snake in a fig tree with birds courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) looking towards east wall of cubiculum courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) painting from upper north wall at east end courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) partially recomposed ceiling courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2017 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) looking east across flooring courtesy of Annette Haug |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2023 Room 12, (Maiuri plan) looking east from doorway courtesy of Miriam Colomer |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 11, (Maiuri plan) west wall of triclinium. Painting of Acteon and Artemis, or Diana courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 11, (Maiuri plan) north wall of triclinium Painting of the War under Troy or Seven against Thebes courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2023 Room 11, (Maiuri plan) looking towards north wallcourtesy of Miriam Colomer |
%20looking%20towards%20north%20wall,%20north-east%20corner%20and%20east%20wall%20courtesy%20of%20Aude%20Durand.jpg) |
| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2018 Room 11, (Maiuri plan) looking towards north wall, north-east corner and east wall courtesy of Aude Durand |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2022 Room 11, (Maiuri plan) triclinium, east wall with central painting courtesy of Johannes Eber |
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| House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2017 Room 5 (Maiuri plan), looking south from flooring in atrium, across mosaic doorway threshold and flooring in tablinum courtesy of Annette Haug |
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House of the Orchard I 9,5 Pompeii 2019 Room 5, tablinum, (Maiuri plan) fragment of decorated upper wall courtesy of Klaus Heese
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Floorplan:
Bibliography:
Wallace-Hadrill, Andrew. “The Social Structure of the Roman House.” Papers of the British School at Rome, vol. 56, 1988, pp. 43–97. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40310883. Accessed 16 Sept. 2024.
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