The House of the Infant Bacchus is one of two Hadrianic medianum apartments to the west of the large garden in the Insula of the Paintings. The building is dated accurately through many brickstamps from 127 AD, bringing it to the years 128-138 AD (opus mixtum). The excavation took place in 1917, the report was published by Guido Calza in 1920.
Plan of the houses in the block, Hadrianic phase.
Ground floor (top) and first floor (bottom).
North is to the left. DeLaine 1995, fig. 5,2.The apartment received light and was accessible from the garden and from Via dei Dipinti to the west. The road was never paved with basalt blocks. The medianum (16) is flanked by the representative rooms 13 and 20, the ceilings of which were two stories high. An internal staircase in room 19 led to the first floor of the other rooms. Further, independent apartments on the upper floors were reached via stairwell 22-23, with corridor 22 below the staircase leading from the street to the garden.
Almost all rooms had floors of geometric black-and-white mosaics, belonging to the first, Hadrianic building phase. The pattern of the floor was different in each room. In room 14 is also a depiction of a kantharos with pigeons on the handles. Room 19, with an internal staircase and originally probably also a kitchen and a latrine, has a floor of opus spicatum. In the later second century some modifications took place in rooms 15, 17 and 19.
As to the paintings on the walls, in main room 20 two phases can be distinguished. The oldest paintings consist of many red and yellow panels, surrounded by bands of varying width and containing little objects: masks, heads, shields and garlands of leaves. In the centre of the three walls, at eye level, are little panels with human figures. On the west wall Calza recognized a nude Ariadne, lying down, the right arm behind the head, the left arm hanging down along the body. The blue background may indicate the sea. Near her stands a man with a mantle hanging down from the shoulder, Theseus or Bacchus. Above the scene is a pitched roof supporting on the corners two felines. On the north wall is a pavilion with a white background, consisting of columns and a pediment. Between the columns are two small panels above each other, below a rolled up curtain. In the upper, dark red panel is a disc resting on a cylindrical pedestal. In the lower one are two figures: a red, largely naked male figure, running and with a fluttering mantle behind him, stretching out his right arm to a woman wearing a purple dress. She looks back at him and stretches out an arm holding a disc. It must be the abduction of Helena or a similar scene. In the pediment is a male figure wearing a mantle, standing like a statue (the same motif is found in room 10 of the neighbouring House of the Paintings). The paintings on the south wall were mostly covered by a second layer, but seem to have been similar to those on the north wall (a pavilion with two columns containing little panels, variously coloured panels).
In a second phase the paintings in main room 20 were covered with a very thin layer of whitewash, on which panels were painted. Most of this layer had already disappeared when Calza wrote, three years after the excavation, but he had described it in 1917, together with prof. Lucio Mariani and his son Valerio. There were three large panels on each wall, the central one the largest, each surrounded by a triple cornice of various colours, becoming narrower towards the interior. In between were variously coloured square and rectangular panels, according to Calza imitating marble slabs. There were no architectural elements. The panels had a white background. The central panel on the south wall, where the layer was preserved best, contained three figures standing on a red line. The first figure was Mercurius, in profile. He was naked, apart from a mantle hanging down from the shoulder. His right arm was extended, holding a caduceus, his left arm folded, according to Calza to support the child Bacchus, that seems to be hidden by the mantle. A seated woman is ready to receive the child, presumably a nymph (Ino-Leukothea or Nysa?). Her left arm is curved and touches her head, that seems to have a wreath of leaves, in her right arm is a thyrsus rod. On a flanking panel Calza distinguished a yellow Silenus next to a tree. Above the paintings is a multiple brick cornice, apparently not to carry a ceiling. It was painted as well. Below it, compartments were created with red lines, the lateral ones with a curved top. In these lateral panels Calza saw a yellow chalice flanked by cornucopiae, in the central one a seated female figure. She was wearing a yellow dress. With her right hand she touched the ground, with the other she held an unclear, red object. The second layer was present in the other rooms as well, but only traces were seen.
The paintings were described and discussed in 2004 by Stella Falzone, using old photos. In room 17 she notes two layers, superimposed. The superimposed layer has a white background with red aediculae and garlands. In the areas between the aediculae are red-and-yellow dolphins and a mask. Room 14 too has plaster with a white background, also on the later dividing east wall. In room 15 are paintings on a yellow background, also on the dividing west wall. Large and smaller panels are created by red bands and white lines. In medianum 16 a yellow-and-white band separates a red lower zone and a yellow upper zone. Red, yellow and white were used to create aediculae and garlands. Room 13 had solid red and yellow panels, separated by white lines.
The first layer in room 17 may well be the first, Hadrianic decoration, but nothing can be said about it. The other paintings, with the exception of the thin layer in room 20, have been assigned by most scholars to the reign of Commodus.
Plan of the houses in the block, Severan period.
Ground floor (top) and first floor (bottom).
North is to the left. DeLaine 1995, fig. 5,4.
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