Stereoscopic albumen print

Maker & role
Unknown, Maker
 Production date
circa 1870
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Object detail

Title
Vues D'Italie, Pompei: Maison Marco Lucretio (House of Marcus Lucretius)
Production place
Pompeii/Italy
Collection
Rouse Hill Estate
Measurements
0 - Whole, H: 8.4 x W: 17.4cm (H: 84 x W: 174mm)
Credit line
Gift, 1987
Rouse Hill Estate Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Caption
Stereoscope print labelled 'Vues D'Italie: Maison Marco Lucretio' (c1870) [i.e. the House of Marcus Lucretius].
Description
A stereoscope card showing the view of the garden of the House of Marcus Lucretius, in Pompeii, as seen from the house's tablinum. First excavated in 1846/47 the house (Reg IX, Ins 3, 5, 24) was initially called the 'House of the Female Musicians' after a fresco in the house's fauces (entrance corridor). This was changed when a painting was found in a room off the garden that included the name Marcus Lucretius [not to be confused with M. Lucretius Fronto, owner of a seperate Pompeiian house]. The view shows the excavated garden with a wealth of small statues, all since removed, and an arched decorated nymphaeum (fountain) flanked by herms. The low wall in foreground is of the window from the house's tablinum. The garden was described in the contemporary work 'The buried cities of Campania' (Davenport-Adams, 1873. See R84/418): "In the peristyle which is six or 7 feet higher than the tablinum a curious alcove fountain is enriched with mosaics, paintings, shell work, and a small marble image of Silenus. On his left the water issues from a sort of leather bottle, and falls into a square stone channel, which conducts it into a circular basin in the middle of the court. This base is about 7 feet in diameter and 2 feet in depth,and has been set a hollow pedestal, which gives room for a jet d'eau. On each side stands a double figure one presenting a Faun and a Bacchante, the other Ariadne and Bacchus. Numerous sculptures are scattered around and the basin is ornamented with figures of ducks cows ibises and the like so that the scene may not unjustly be compared to a statuaries yard in the Marylebone Road."
Stereographs of the excavations at Pompeii were popular subjects for stereo views in the 1850s and 1860s. The type is the same as that in R86/67-40 and R86/67-43.
Accession number
R86/67-42

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