with a yellow dado. The wall facing the atrium has a square picture of a
poet or bookseller, and a comedian. On each side of this picture are
painted tall, thin, yellow columns, with yellow shields suspended
between them. Medusa and Lion heads are in the centre of these shields,
as they were found in the house described by Mr. Falkener (p. 46). The
poet, in the picture opposite the door, sits on the left, with his legs
crossed. His head is crowned with ivy, and the lower part of his figure
wrapt in blue and red drapery. He holds an open scroll in his left hand,
and with his right seems to be giving instructions to the player, who
stands before him with his mask raised over his head, as may also be
seen in the mosaic from the tablinum of the Tragic Poet’s house. (Gell,
Pompeiana, pl. 45, vol. i. p. 174). The comedian is dressed in a purple
tunic with sleeves, and a full yellow mantle like a pallium thrown over
it. In his left hand he holds a _lituus_ or curved stick much used by
the players. It resembles the crooked staff borne by the augurs, and so
often seen upon gems, Roman coins, and Etruscan paintings. It was
generally carried by actors. (Wieseler, Theatergebaüde, &c. Pl. 11, No.
3, Pl. 12, Nos. 23 to 28; and Pitture d’Ercolano, vol. ii. tav. 3. p.
19). The lituus was curved more than the pedum or shepherd’s crook,
which is simply a stick with a hook at the end of it.
At the foot of the sitting figure is a round box called _capsa_ or
_scrinium_, it has rings and cords on the outside. This box is, in fact,
a library, it contains the volumes or rolls such as have been discovered
in the villa at Herculaneum (see _ante_, p. 20), one of which the poet
may be supposed to have taken out and to be holding in his hand. Many
instances of these _scrinia_ occur among the Pompeian paintings, with
tickets or titles of the books hanging out at the top. (See also a
statue of Sophocles, No. 322, where the _scrinium_ is open and the rolls
clearly displayed.)
Above this composition, is a landscape in an oblong frame. It contains a
long villa and trees with awnings extended for shade, a yellow isolated
column and a separate ædiculum. This is one of the examples of landscape
painting prevalent during the time between Nero and Titus. Landscape
painting did not at first become a separate branch of art but Ludius
appears to have introduced the style. The ancients rarely indulged in
the modern taste for representing wild and romantic scenery; all their
compositions are made of long lines of building, basilicas, villas,
trees pleasantly disposed, bird’s-eye views of sea ports and
artificially arranged gardens. Places in fact _to go to_ and not in
accordance with the feeling of our own times, which leads us to enjoy a
grand scene, a combination of earth and sky without any desire to move
from the spot upon which we have been placed. A description of the Vale
of Tempe in Ælian has always been referred to as implying that the
ancients had _some_ feeling for the picturesque, and surely the back
grounds to many of their figures show considerable invention and
romantic appreciation, although deficient in the modern arts of aërial
perspective and chiaroscuro. Above this landscape, is a female figure,
the lower part draped, with an elephant’s trunk on the head, and a lion
at her right side. In this manner Africa is personified on coins both of
Hadrian and Septimius Severus, (Millin, Gal. Myth., Nos. 371 and
372).[58] The left foot of this figure is placed on an elephant’s head,
of which the trunk and tusks only appear (compare Falkener, page 52,
note). The yellow dado is ormented with white swans, holding purple
ribands. On the left wall, opposite the side vestibule, is a pretty
little group of a winged Cupid leading an ibex or chamois, painted on a
very dark purple ground.
[58] The skin with trunk and tusks of an elephant’s head may be seen
applied in a similar manner upon the coins of the Bactrian Demetrius.
Compare also a small double Hermes in the Roman Gallery, No. 385.