Trompe L'oeil Entertainments!

Wall Painting
c. 70 A.D.
Villa dei Misteri, Pompeii

Having already visited the Gotti family manse today, I thought it only fitting to address the root of their decorative goods and evils--the Roman house. Long ago, in eighth grade Latin class, Pillow and I salivated over these spaces. We too wanted atriums and household gods and stalwart Roman husbands named Longinus or Julius or Cato. At present, I am most sruck by the urge to fill one's walls with figures. A woman (slave?) holding a platter of fish meets our gaze. The others consider fabric, read poetry, hold documents, contracts? This is such a varied, strange, urbane little scene. It was made only a few years before the erruption of Vesuvius, and is, thus, brilliantly preserved. The positively erotic colors (and this is where the Gottis come in) were likely meant to express wealth and consequence, as, I'm sure, were the bizarre gestures of the sitters. They are also (and this may be pretty dippy) the shades of the South, of the heated and cooked. The image is so present and vivid--what a thing, to live among its players! Click to enlarge and study. Valete citizens!