DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0332
272
POMPEII
Shops were entered by means of small doors; the front was
closed with shutters. These consisted of overlapping boards
set upright in narrow grooves at the top and the bottom A
separate set of shutters was provided for the open pergula.
XIII. Walls, Floors, and Windows
The walls were covered with a thick layer of plaster and
painted; the preparation of the stucco, the processes employed
in painting, and the styles of decoration are reserved for dis-
cussion in a later chapter.
The floors were frequently made of an inexpensive concrete,
consisting of bits of lava or other stone pounded down into
common mortar. A much better floor was the Signia pave-
ment, opus Signinum, so named from a town in Latium. This
was composed of very small fragments of brick or tile pounded
into fine mortar. The surface was carefully finished, and was
sometimes ornamented with geometrical or other patterns traced
in outline by means of small bits of white stone.
In the Tufa Period a floor was often made by fitting together
small pieces of stone or marble, and bedding them well in mor-
tar. The colors are white and black, — slate is used in the floor
of the atrium in the house of the Faun ; sometimes also violet,
yellow, green, and red appear with white and black. Pave-
ments of square or lozenge-shaped and triangular pieces of
colored marble and slate, like that in the cella of the temple
of Apollo (Fig. 28), are occasionally found in houses. In the
time of the Early Empire floors paved with larger slabs were
not uncommon.
The mosaics of the Pompeian floors—using the term mosaic
in a restricted sense—may be divided into two classes, coarse
and fine. In the former the cubes, tesserae, are on the average
a little less than half an inch square. The patterns are some-
times shown in black on a white surface, sometimes worked in
colors. The finer variety, in which the pictures appear, is not
often extended over a whole room, but is usually confined to a
rectangular section in the middle, coarse mosaic being used for
the rest of the floor.
POMPEII
Shops were entered by means of small doors; the front was
closed with shutters. These consisted of overlapping boards
set upright in narrow grooves at the top and the bottom A
separate set of shutters was provided for the open pergula.
XIII. Walls, Floors, and Windows
The walls were covered with a thick layer of plaster and
painted; the preparation of the stucco, the processes employed
in painting, and the styles of decoration are reserved for dis-
cussion in a later chapter.
The floors were frequently made of an inexpensive concrete,
consisting of bits of lava or other stone pounded down into
common mortar. A much better floor was the Signia pave-
ment, opus Signinum, so named from a town in Latium. This
was composed of very small fragments of brick or tile pounded
into fine mortar. The surface was carefully finished, and was
sometimes ornamented with geometrical or other patterns traced
in outline by means of small bits of white stone.
In the Tufa Period a floor was often made by fitting together
small pieces of stone or marble, and bedding them well in mor-
tar. The colors are white and black, — slate is used in the floor
of the atrium in the house of the Faun ; sometimes also violet,
yellow, green, and red appear with white and black. Pave-
ments of square or lozenge-shaped and triangular pieces of
colored marble and slate, like that in the cella of the temple
of Apollo (Fig. 28), are occasionally found in houses. In the
time of the Early Empire floors paved with larger slabs were
not uncommon.
The mosaics of the Pompeian floors—using the term mosaic
in a restricted sense—may be divided into two classes, coarse
and fine. In the former the cubes, tesserae, are on the average
a little less than half an inch square. The patterns are some-
times shown in black on a white surface, sometimes worked in
colors. The finer variety, in which the pictures appear, is not
often extended over a whole room, but is usually confined to a
rectangular section in the middle, coarse mosaic being used for
the rest of the floor.