with a window, is blue with black dado; copied from the House of the
Second Fountain. The chief picture on the wall opposite the door is the
deserted Ariadne, a subject many times repeated at Pompeii, and with a
great variety of treatment. Ariadne is represented sitting on the shore
of Naxos just awaking, and beginning to be aware of her forlorn
situation; Cupid, at her side, points to a ship far away, with
full-spread sail and many oars, which is bearing off Theseus, her
faithless lover. A crimson cord, for necklace, is crossed also over her
naked body, a purple drapery covers her lower limbs. The scene is
indicated by wild crags, and the horizon is placed remarkably high up in
the picture. The wings of Cupid are green, the ship yellow with a white
sail. This picture is copied from one in the House of the Tragic Poet;
it has been engraved in the Mus. Bor., vol. ii., tav. 62., and Zahn,
vol. i., pl. 33. Gell’s Pompeiana, vol. i., pl. 43, page 169.
On each side is a graceful floating female figure, the one to the left
holding a patera in one hand, and a garland in the other; the female on
the other side, has a similar action, her drapery is yellow: both
figures are remarkably elegant. On the opposite wall, next the door, is
a picture of a very playful character; it is a Cupid seller. On the
ground is a square strongly constructed cage, such as is used for birds,
with an opening at the top, through which an old man is in the act of
lifting out a Cupid; other Cupids are within the bars, and show by their
gestures the irksomeness of their confinement. The old man dressed in
the _exomis_, a garment peculiar to the working classes, lifts the
struggling Cupid by one wing; he holds the square trap door in his left
hand; a handsome lady who has come as a purchaser stands on the other
side and looks up to a Cupid flying above, holding two bright stars; her
right hand seems to point to the cage from which the object of her
attention may have escaped. Another Cupid has eluded the vigilance of
his keeper and hides himself behind the lady’s dress. The scene takes
place in a handsome portico with two Ionic columns. This has been
engraved in Zahn, 2nd series, taf. 18. Another picture, found at Stabiæ,
of a female Love merchant is much more pleasingly and better composed.
There the woman holds up the victim by both wings, and offers it like a
live chicken to a lady who is seated on the other side. Another Cupid
remains within the cage, which is elegantly made and circular. This
well-known picture is engraved in the Pitt. Erc., vol. iii., tav. 7.,
and Mus. Bor., vol. i., tav. 3. To the left of the picture on this wall
is a beautiful floating female figure, holding a _tympanum_ or drum in
the right hand, with the other raised holding a _thyrsus_. A _nebris_,
or fawn-skin, passes over her right shoulder, her drapery is red lined
with white, feet bare. The effect of colour upon the blue ground is very
charming.