FRESCOES OF THE ROOM OF THE CUPIDS IN THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII, 50-79 CE. POMPEII This magnificent room is best known for its bands of black painted friezes with Erotes working away at various trades. But the overall impression of the room is one of red, with the walls largely covered in red cinnabar, one of the most expensive of pigments. In this corner we see two floating couples. At left a nymph and a satyr are already embracing within their red panel, and at right a male Apollo-like god is importuning a nymph who's saying no, not that the gods took no for an answer. It is interesting to note the discolouration of the red wall at right. This was caused by the heat of the boiling mud that invaded the house during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.

#FrescoFriday in #Pompeii brings us to the #HouseoftheVettii, one of the most splendid #domus in the city. In the room of the #Cupids, the dominant colour is red #cinnabar with floating couples, 50-79 CE. Heat from the volcano's pyroclastic flow has altered the red wall at right. #AncientBluesky 🏺

LEDA AND THE SWAN, 62-79 CE. HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII This is a detail from the upper register of the south wall of the southern œcus off the main atrium in the House of the Vettii. This room is decorated with scenes of love and struggle: directly below this detail is a scene of Eros and Pan fighting. Here, atop a fictive wall forming the main decorative register, is an ædicule flanked by green columns. In the centre, against a white background, is Leda sitting upright, undoing her dress and lifting its edge over her right shoulder to disrobe. Clinging to her left side is Jupiter in the form of a swan, with an improbably curved neck, wings fluttering. Her legs are still covered with her red dress, but it's been pushed down almost to her knees. Forbidden coitus imminent!

#FrescoFriday takes us into the southern #œcus of the #HouseoftheVettii in #Pompeii, where a seated #Leda is eagerly getting ready for some #avian #sex with #Jupiter, which will have strange effects on her reproductive system, producing two #eggs each containing #twins. Ouch. #AncientBluesky 🏺

IMAGINARY ARCHITECTURE, 62-79 CE, HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII The southern triclinium of the House of the Vettii is decorated as if the three central frescoed panels on the three walls of the room were flanked by illusory windows giving the viewer the sense of looking out over the upper floors of an urban streetscape, with a complex series of pergolated terraces atop ornate buildings against a white background (a grey day at the seaside?). Were Pompeian houses really like this upstairs, or is this merely stage-set fantasy? There are no human figures to distract us from the three main scenes. But this architecture does pull us out of the room, lovely though it is, and makes us think of an outside world, clean, splendid, and free of the mess of human life. Perhaps we are on a Roman Olympus, flattered, as guests, to be in the abode of the gods.

#FrescoFriday returns us to #Pompeii and the southern #triclinium of the #HouseoftheVettii, where the #fresco architecture is trying to convince us we're way up high, looking out at the roof terraces of our neighbours. But did #Roman skylines ever really look like this? #AncientBluesky 🏺

SMALL PERISTYLE, 62-79 CE. HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII This three-sided peristyle opened onto a small garden space closed by a wall out of the photo to the left. The original roof sloped downward toward the garden space. The peristyle, entered from the main garden, gives onto two rooms that are only accessible through this peristyle, a small apartment within the huge domus of the Vettii. This has long been posited as a gynæceum or womens' quarters, private and separate. The fresco decoration has panels of red cinnabar which only have white frames on them and somewhat ghostly birds and gryphons painted on them a secco. These are divided by white panels with yellow-gold candelabra atop a block of black, and all along the bottom of the two visible walls here is a dado or zoccolo in black. Up under the eaves, fictive architecture on a white background teases the eye.

#FrescoFriday brings us back to the magnificent #HouseoftheVettii in #Pompeii, this time to the quiet #peristyle of the so-called women's quarters, the #gynæceum. #AncientBluesky 🏺

EROTES AT WORK, 62-79 CE. HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII The long chair-level frieze in the triclinium of the House of the Vettii in Pompeii shows Erotes performing various activities, sometimes described as "humorous", but I think a better word would be "adorable". This detail shows a perfume workshop. Against a black background, two cherubs at right are pounding ingredients in a large mortar, while to the left a third cherub, at a workbench covered with phials, flowers, and tools, is holding a glass bottle of oil and looking at the other two as if waiting for them to call him over and add it to their mixture. Further to the left is a large cabinet with its doors open, in which we can see more containers holding presumably scented ingredients, all presided over by a little white statuette of Venus on the top shelf. At far left a pot of perfumed oil is cooking over a little fire. Offscreen at left, a little Psyche is sitting and judging the results. "More bergamot, I think!"

For #FrescoFriday we return to the #triclinium of the #HouseoftheVettii in #Pompeii to marvel at the endless, detailed activity of #Erotes at work. #Perfumery was an abiding interest in Pompeian #frescoes, probably because the production of #perfume was an important industry in #Campania.

PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA, 62-79 CE. HOUSE OF THE VETTII, POMPEII In the famous Room of the Cupids in the House of the Vettii in Pompeii, the amazing cinnabar red of the walls backs floating couples from mythology. Damage to the surface of the figures shows cinnabar underpainting - so these must be painted a secco on top of the expensive Pompeian red. Perseus, at right, is nude apart from a Phrygian cap and a yellow cloak over his left forearm. Along with the head of Medusa he holds a wicked-looking knife, but he's not making any particular effort to hide the head behind him or put it back into Athena's magic bag. In fact, based on his expression, he looks more dopey than heroic, which might explain the scornful expression on Andromeda's face as she raises her arm to hold part of her grey billowing drapery to block Medusa from her gaze. She's sitting across one of his thighs and the beautiful painting of the figures' feet displays the high quality so notable in this magnificent domus.

#FrescoFriday brings us to the #HouseoftheVettii in #Pompeii, where #Andromeda seems to be thinking "What kind of an idiot is this #Perseus, anyway?" #Medusa looks similarly unimpressed, and he's already decapitated her. But the extraordinary beauty of this work survives.