DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61617#0518
SCULPTURE
44i
of the house of Lucretius; the water spurts from the opening
in the wineskin which the old man carries. The design of the
small bronze satyr in the peristyle of the house of the Centenary
is more pleasing; an opening in the wineskin, held under the
left arm, cast a jet against the outstretched right hand in such
a way that the water was thrown back upon the satyr’s body.
Fountains were adorned also with genre groups and animal
forms. We have already noticed the two bronze groups in the
peristyle of the house of the Vettii, each representing a boy
holding a duck, from the bill of which sprang a jet of water
(Fig. 155). The largest collection of animal forms was about
the basin in the middle peristyle of the house of the Citharist;
it comprised two dogs, a boar, a lion, a deer, and a snake, each
throwing a jet into the basin below. The fountain jets, how-
ever, were not in all cases so closely related to the ornamental
pieces. A number of those in the house of the Vettii sprang
from lead pipes near the figures. The familiar-bronze statue of
the seated fisherman, in the Naples Museum, belonged to a foun-
tain, in which the jet was thrown forward, not from the figure,
but from the mouth of a mask projecting from the stump on
which the fisherman sits.
Of the statues of divinities set up for worship in the temples,
there are unfortunately but few remains. The most important
fragment is the head of Jupiter, discussed in a previous chapter
(Fig. 22). Three wretched terra cotta statues of the gods of the
Capitol were found, as we have seen, in the temple of Zeus Mili-
chius; and mention has been made also of the herms and other
specimens of sculpture in the courts of the temples of Apollo
and Isis, and in the palaestra. More numerous than any other
class of sculptures, however, are the small bronze images of
tutelary divinities preserved in the domestic shrines. These
are of interest rather from the light which they shed on the
practices of domestic worship than from their excellence as
works of art, and it seems unnecessary to add anything here to
what has already been said in regard to them in the chapter
dealing with the arrangements of the Pompeian house. But
occasionally there were large domestic shrines, in which statues
of merit were placed ; among these are two worthy of mention.
44i
of the house of Lucretius; the water spurts from the opening
in the wineskin which the old man carries. The design of the
small bronze satyr in the peristyle of the house of the Centenary
is more pleasing; an opening in the wineskin, held under the
left arm, cast a jet against the outstretched right hand in such
a way that the water was thrown back upon the satyr’s body.
Fountains were adorned also with genre groups and animal
forms. We have already noticed the two bronze groups in the
peristyle of the house of the Vettii, each representing a boy
holding a duck, from the bill of which sprang a jet of water
(Fig. 155). The largest collection of animal forms was about
the basin in the middle peristyle of the house of the Citharist;
it comprised two dogs, a boar, a lion, a deer, and a snake, each
throwing a jet into the basin below. The fountain jets, how-
ever, were not in all cases so closely related to the ornamental
pieces. A number of those in the house of the Vettii sprang
from lead pipes near the figures. The familiar-bronze statue of
the seated fisherman, in the Naples Museum, belonged to a foun-
tain, in which the jet was thrown forward, not from the figure,
but from the mouth of a mask projecting from the stump on
which the fisherman sits.
Of the statues of divinities set up for worship in the temples,
there are unfortunately but few remains. The most important
fragment is the head of Jupiter, discussed in a previous chapter
(Fig. 22). Three wretched terra cotta statues of the gods of the
Capitol were found, as we have seen, in the temple of Zeus Mili-
chius; and mention has been made also of the herms and other
specimens of sculpture in the courts of the temples of Apollo
and Isis, and in the palaestra. More numerous than any other
class of sculptures, however, are the small bronze images of
tutelary divinities preserved in the domestic shrines. These
are of interest rather from the light which they shed on the
practices of domestic worship than from their excellence as
works of art, and it seems unnecessary to add anything here to
what has already been said in regard to them in the chapter
dealing with the arrangements of the Pompeian house. But
occasionally there were large domestic shrines, in which statues
of merit were placed ; among these are two worthy of mention.