The Garden Of The House Of M. Lucretius At Pompeii, an excellent example of the use made by the early-imperial bourgeoisie of decorative statuary.
At the rear, standing in a niche, a Silenus poured water from a wine-skin down the steps into the central pool; all around, scattered in the shrubbery,
were animals, birds, and satyrs; in the foreground a young satyr inspected the foot of a Pan, and cupids rode dolphins.
The average Pompeian householder of the years before 79 did not lay claim to the literary culture of Piso: he preferred to concentrate on decorative
subjects. Admittedly he might display a portrait herm of an ancestor in his atrium as a kind of guarantee of a respectable pedigree, but the bulk of his
collection consisted of Bacchic figures, putti, herms, and animals, with perhaps the odd decorative statuette of a divinity such as Venus, Apollo, or
Diana thrown in for good measure. Some of the items were inherited or bought from older collections, where no doubt they had been used in different
roles; many, especially the marbles, were churned out by contemporary local workshops. A large number of them were designed or adapted to serve as
fountain-pourers, in which capacity they could be set along the margins of the impluuium in the atrium, between the columns of the peristyle, or
actually in the garden, where they discharged their water into ponds or marble basins. A good example is the satyr squeezing water from a wine-skin
down the steps of a nymphaeum in the House of M. Lucretius. In addition to figures in the round, many collectors had reliefs, whether set in walls,
displayed on top of pillars, or hanging in the form of shields between the columns of porticoes. Whatever the theme or function of the individual
works, the householder's chief goals were to accumulate as many exhibits as possible and to place them so as to be visible from certain crucial vantage-
points: thus the garden statuary of M. Lucretius is disposed for the benefit of visitors in the tablinum and the adjacent dining-room. Bronzes in
particular, being more expensive and more highly prized, were flaunted in prominent positions.
Impluvium And Cartibulum in the House of the Wooden Partition at Herculaneum. The impluvmm in the foreground is the basin which collected
rainwater from the opening in the roof of the atrium and channelled it into an underground cistern. Behind it, the cartibulum was a marble table for
the display of utensils and serving-ware.