Villa of The Papyri - Ground Plan and Works of Art

Ground Plan and Works of Art

The villa's front stretched for more than 250 meters, parallel to the coastline of what is now called the Gulf of Naples. It was also surrounded by a garden closed off by porticoes, but with an ample stretch of vegetable gardens, vineyards and woods down to a small harbor. Sited a few hundred metres from the nearest house in Herculaneum, Piso's home had four levels disposed in a series of terraces on the sloping site, and was one of the most luxurious houses in all of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The villa also housed a collection of 80 sculptures of magnificent quality, many now conserved in the rooms of the large bronzes at the Naples National Archaeological Museum. Among them is the bronze Seated Hermes, found at the villa in 1758.

The villa remains faithful in its general layout to the fundamental structural and architectural scheme of the suburban villa in the country around Pompeii. The atrium functioned as an entrance hall and a means of communication with the various parts of the house. The entrance opened with a columned portico on the sea side. Around the bowl of the atrium impluvium were 11 fountain statues depicting Satyrs pouring water from a pitcher and Amorini pouring water from the mouth of a dolphin. Other statues and busts were found in the corners around the atrium walls.

The first peristyle had 10 columns on each side and a swimming bath in the center. In this enclosure were found the bronze herma of Doryphorus, a replica of Polykleitos' athlete, and the herma of an Amazon made by Apollonios son of Archias of Athens. The large second peristyle could be reached by passing through a large tablinum in which, under a propylaeum, was the archaic statue of Athena Promachos. A collection of bronze busts were in the interior of the tablinum. These included the head of Scipio Africanus.

The real living and reception quarters were grouped around the porticoes and terraces, giving occupants ample sunlight and a view of the countryside and sea. In the living quarters, bath installations were brought to light, and the library of rolled and carbonized papyri placed inside wooden capsae, some of them on ordinary wooden shelves and around the walls and some on the two sides of a set of shelves in the middle of the room.

The grounds included a large area of covered and uncovered gardens for walks in the shade or in the warmth of the sun. The gardens included a gallery of busts, hermae and small marble and bronze statues. These were laid out between columns amid the open part of the garden and on the edges of the large swimming bath.