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The House of Vettii in Pompeii

A luxurious villa discovered during the  archaeological excavations of Pompei, the house of Vetti, ascribed to the two freedmen Aulus Vettius Restitutus e Aulus Vettius Conviva,  is famous for its numerous paintings on the walls. The villa still retains the ancient structure with two halls after the restoration made in the first century A.C  and the restoration works of 62 A.C.

The first hall, in Tuscan style, was  the patronal house while the second hosted the slavery.
Portrayed at the entrance is Priapo Itifallico, an emblem of well-being and fecundity, weighing his big phallus on a scale with  a sack full of coins as the counterbalance .

Two safes covered with iron and decorated with bronze elements are found in a corner of the hall, while striking paintings on the walls portraying mythological scenes such as the fight of  Amore and Pan in front of Dionisus and Arianna and the myth of Ciparisso. The hall of the slavery in the centre of tufa impluvium  and a niched lararium  with Coirntium semi-columns which hold  a triangular typanum , portraying  a Genius guardian of the family in the looks of  Nero, wearing a  toga covering his head while toasting, with two dancing lares. The garden is surrounded by  marble and bronze fountains, while the Peristilium is made up of eighteen columns.

On the left, in the entrance of the Peristilium, on the yellow walls there are revivals of the mythological episodes of Anfione and Zeto tieing Dirce to a bull, Penteo killed by Baccanti and  Hercules as a child strangling the snakes.
The north-east wall shows a painting of Dedalus while giving Pasifae the wooden cow built in her honour. On the bottom wall  is portrayed the myth of Issione condemned by Zeus to run in a wheel, tied  with snakes. In the north of the peristilium there is the triclinium, the palace where parties and banquets where held, hosting the well-known pictorial complex of the villa representing the La cherubs and  psycai busy in different activities.


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