program for all the mosaics in one house. Dining rooms tend to be decorated with
Dionysiac scenes, with scenes of the marine thiasos, or with xenia(small presents
for the guests). Of growing importance are topics taken from the experience of the
villa’s owners, such as hunting and amphitheater scenes. When mythological subjects
are represented, specific scenes out of a story are chosen, namely those representing
important values in society like virtus, or illustrating otium. A preference for the erotic
aspects of mythology is undeniable, although this is most probably not the primary
and almost exclusive idea behind it, as a recent theory of Susanne Muth’s would like
to suggest (Muth 1998).Sculpture
Sculpture is also a medium for religion in the house. Here we have better evidence
from ancient writers than in the case of wall painting or mosaics. Polybius (second
century bc) tells us about the first Greek works of art being transported to Rome
after the conquest of Syracuse in 211 bc, “using such as came from private houses
to embellish their own homes” (9.10.13). Cicero’s letters to Pomponius Atticus
and his speeches against his enemy Verres inform us in great detail about his own
purchases of statues as well as about Verres’ collections of stolen art. They not only
testify to the very high appreciation of Greek statues (and Roman copies) but spec-
ify as well where within the house or garden the statues were set up.
If we go through the lists of statues Cicero ordered from his friend Atticus in
Greece for decorating the various parts of his Tuscan villa, we realize that his main
concern was not the subjects of the statues but that they should be suited for his
so-called gymnasium, built following Greek traditions (Neudecker 1988: 12–14).
Thus in the end he got some herms (amongst them Minerva and Hercules), some
unspecified statues of Megarian marble, and a few terracotta reliefs. Obviously,
religious concern was not the decisive factor for his choice. In his house in Rome,
however, there was a statuette of Minerva, whom he regarded as his personal pro-
tector and whom he took with him when fleeing from home into exile in 58 bc.
Despite the difference of almost a century we might perhaps compare the arrange-
ment in Cicero’s Tuscan villa with the sculptures in the peristyle of the House of
the Golden Cupids (VI 16.7, 39) in Pompeii (Seiler 1992). Here too, the guiding
principle seems to be the allusion to Greek models. Herms, suspended marble tondi
(oscilla), and masks, all covering Bacchic subjects, were meant to evoke the atmo-
sphere of a Greek sanctuary’s sacred landscape. On the other hand, the religious
character of a Hellenistic votive relief with Venus and Amor, fixed in the peristyle
wall, cannot be denied, even if its owner might have purchased it mainly for the sake
of having a Greek original piece of art.
Interestingly, the display of sculpture in the domestic realm remained in fashion
for many centuries down to late antiquity, as is demonstrated by the richly equipped
villas of southwestern Gaul (Stirling 2005).
Collections of small bronzes were another kind of sculpture present in the
home. The most desirable were the very expensive so-called Corinthia. Here it is192 Annemarie Kaufmann-HeinimannACTC14 26/04/2007 09:38 AM Page 192