VI.15.14 Pompeii. Casa della Matrona ignota.

Linked to VI.15.13 and VI.15.15. Excavated 1898.

In Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, January 1897, plan on p.14, this house was not yet shown.

In Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, June 1897, (p.269), it is seen as VI.15.13. 

In Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, November 1897, (p.460), it is shown as VI.15.14. See Note on Region VI, Insula 15 plan for information.

VI.15.14 Pompeii, centre left. December 2018.

Looking south-east towards entrances on west side of Vicolo dei Vettii. Photo courtesy of Aude Durand.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. May 2006. Entrance doorway looking west.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. May 2006. Looking west along long entrance corridor.

According to NdS, this long and narrow corridor had a beaten floor and plastered walls with a yellow background.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, June 1897, (p.270)

VI.15.14 Pompeii. September 2004. Looking west along entrance corridor towards atrium at its end.

On the left is the doorway to the garden area at the rear of VI.15.13.

On the right are two doorways linking with the rooms of VI.15.15.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. September 2005.

Looking east along corridor towards entrance doorway. On the right is the garden area behind VI.15.13.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. September 2005. Looking east along entrance corridor from atrium.

On the right is a doorway to the garden area at the rear of VI.15.13.

According to NdS, from the long corridor one entered the atrium with an impluvium in the middle.

Near to the impluvium was the mouth of the cistern.

The beaten floor of the atrium was scattered with pieces of coloured marble, arranged in parallel sets.

The walls were decorated with panels on a black background, separated on the west wall by red pilasters.

The dado, or zoccolo, was yellow.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, June 1897, (p.270-71)

VI.15.14 Pompeii. September 2005. Cistern mouth in atrium.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. Plan (north side) in Notizie degli Scavi, 1897, p.460, fig.1.

(The entrance doorway lower, is on the east side of the insula, the west side of the roadway.)

VI.15.14 Pompeii. Plan (south side) in Notizie degli Scavi, 1897, p.269, part of plan.

(Note: The entrance doorway is on the upper side of the plan. The rear (west side) of the atrium is on the lower side.)

Note: the room shown as “f” on this plan would appear to be the room “m” on PPM’s plan, see below.

VI.15.13-14-15, Pompeii.

See Carratelli, G. P., 1990-2003. Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici. Vol. V. Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, p. 692.

According to NdS,

“Along the long and narrow entrance corridor “a”, entering straight ahead, opened three entrance doorways; the first into Thermopolium/Shop, no.15, the second into the spacious room “q”, which communicated by two doorways with the aforementioned Thermopolium/Shop, no.15, it could be considered as a rear room used by the clients: and the third gave access to the latrine “b”.

Entering into the atrium “c”, we found on the right, that is the north side, the tablinum “o”, used perhaps also as a triclinium, with floor of brick dust (mattone-pesto) painted red, which in the middle showed a rectangle (2.32m x 2m) of white marble and grey (bardiglio).

The walls were decorated with red frames with yellow pilasters containing painted candelabra in the rear wall (north wall) and architectural prospects/elevations painted on the side walls. In the centre of each of the red panels was a small painted panel embedded into the wall (“Una piccola tavola dipinta, incastrata nella parete”): there were probably three of them, as a result of the inserts, but of these, only the one on the north wall remains entire (0.38m high, 0.32m wide), and part of another on the east wall, while the third on the west wall had fallen along with the masonry/wall.

In the insert on the north wall you could see the impression of two horizontal and parallel sleepers, which strengthened the frame.

Two similar painted panels were embedded into the walls of the atrium “c”, as already said (NdS 1897, p.271).

On the east side of the tablinum “o” was room “p”, in which a stairway was constructed afterwards, the base was of masonry, with facing of wood on the horizontal floor of the stairs. That this room originally had been a cubiculum, can be seen from the bed recesses in the north and south walls. The stairs continued in wood, until it reached the mezzanine above the rear room "q" already mentioned.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, 1897, p.460-61, fig.1.

According to Eschebach –

The house had a long entrance corridor with neighbouring rooms: on the left, rear room of VI.15.13: on the right two doorways into the popina/thermopolium of VI.15.15, following the entrance corridor/fauces into the middle of the insula, there was the tuscanic atrium with masonry built impluvium (marble? but no longer there) and cistern. On the right of the atrium was the “cella ostiaria” (porter’s room), next to that the kitchen, latrine and stairs to the upper floor, then the tablinum (ala), and a small storeroom/cupboard. On the left of the atrium was a yard with vestibule, and then a triclinium (?) or ala (?), and another small room.

See Eschebach, L., 1993. Gebäudeverzeichnis und Stadtplan der antiken Stadt Pompeji. Köln: Böhlau. (p.222)

VI.15.14 Pompeii. September 2005. Looking east from kitchen area on north side of atrium, into rear room of VI.15.15.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. September 2005. Remains of painted wall decoration on north wall of tablinum.

The flooring of the tablinum also contained a central emblema.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. c.1930.

Tablinum flooring with site of a central emblema, and showing stars formed by Bardiglio (grey) marble hexagons and Palombino (white) marble triangles.

See Blake, M., (1930). The pavements of the Roman Buildings of the Republic and Early Empire. Rome, MAAR, 8, (p.42 & Pl.7, tav.2).

Found in Tablinum of VI.15.14, according to card at Naples Archaeological Museum. 

Now in Naples Archaeological Museum, inventory number 124666.

The mosaic shows a young woman but with a matronly aspect, with black wavy hair and pearl earings mounted in gold.

She is also wearing a pearl necklace, and a dark robe with gold embroidery.

According to Della Corte, the mosaic formed the centre of a floor of a cubiculum situated to the south of the impluvium. (note 1 = N.S. 1898, p.173).

See Della Corte, M., 1965. Case ed Abitanti di Pompei. Napoli: Fausto Fiorentino. (p.63)

According to NdS, the mosaic was found on 6th April 1898, in the centre of a floor of a cubiculum.

It was contained in a piece of travertine, framed by a strip of black mosaic and made of very small tesserae, finely executed. It was 255mm high and 205mm wide (10” x 8”) and embedded onto a small piece of travertine, with a frame which had an edge 10mm wide (0.4”): the size of the mosaic was 235mm x 185mm (9.25” x 7.28”).

The only damage was to the lower left corner of the mosaic, at the woman’s right shoulder.

See Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità, April 1898 (p.173).

VI.15.14 Pompeii. Mosaic emblema of female portrait. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella. December 2019.

Now in Naples Archaeological Museum, inventory number 124666.

VI.15.14 Pompeii. Information card in Naples Archaeological Museum. Photo courtesy of Giuseppe Ciaramella. September 2024.

VI.15.14 Pompeii, 1968. Mosaic found in the centre of a floor. Photo by Stanley A. Jashemski.

Source: The Wilhelmina and Stanley A. Jashemski archive in the University of Maryland Library, Special Collections (See collection page) and made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License v.4. See Licence and use details.

J68f1040

Now in Naples Archaeological Museum, inventory number 124666.

According to PPM –

At the centre of the floor carpet in opus sectile with hexagons, diamonds and triangles, the emblema with the female face was found. 

See Carratelli, G. P., 1990-2003. Pompei: Pitture e Mosaici. Vol. V. Roma: Istituto della enciclopedia italiana, p. 699.

(This description of the floor would seem to agree with Pernice, as in his photo there are definitely diamond shaped tiles included, see below.

In the photo by Blake, there only appears to be grey hexagons and white triangles, which appears to be the tablinum).

VI.15.14 Pompeii. Ala (?) or Cubiculum “m” (?).

Looking across flooring with a carpet of marble tiles, hexagons, diamonds and triangles, in the centre of which was fixed the famous emblema, now in Naples Museum. 

According to Naples Museum, it was found in the tablinum, which also had a central emblema.

According to Pernice, this was from an Ala.

See Pernice, E.  1938. Pavimente und Figürliche Mosaiken: Die Hellenistische Kunst in Pompeji, Band VI. Berlin: de Gruyter, Taf, 39,3.

DAIR 41.728. Photo © Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Abteilung Rom, Arkiv.

According to Pernice’s description -

Mau, RM. 13, 1898, 3 f. 16, 1901, 283 f. mit Pian Nsc. 1898, 126. 173. Nsc. 1897, 269 Bl. 42.

Das ganze Haus ist völlig verbaut, so dass ein Normalplan nicht mehr zu gewinnen ist. Sicher ist nur das Atrium mit den beiden Alae, in denen wertvolle Pavìmente liegen (s. u.). Schon, weil man in einem so unbedeutendem Hause in der letzten Zeit schwerlich so feine Boden gelegt haben würde, müssen sie alter sein. Vestibulum und Atrium haben Tonsigninum; darin eingelassen kleine weiße Tessellae und größere gelb und weiße Steinstucke (1), im Atrium offene Reihen von größeren Tessellae und an der Westseite einige Sechsecke aus blaugrauem Stein (Wiederbenutzung eines älteren Paviments). Die linke Ala hat eine Schwelle aus blaugrauem Marmor. In die Mitte des mit Tonsigninum belegten Raumes ist ein Mosaik aus blaugrauen und weißen Sechsecken, ebensolchen Rauten und weißen und roten Dreiecken 1,20 breit und ehemals 1,94 lang gelegt (Taf. 39, 3), das in seiner Mitte das ausgezeichnete Mosaik mit dem weiblichen Kopf Taf. 78 enthielt. Dass das Mosaikbild ursprünglich für diesen Platz bestimmt war, ist kaum anzunehmen. Denn erstens verträgt das Paviment in seiner Zusammenstellung ein Bild überhaupt nur schlecht und ferner sind die Sechsecke um das Bild erst zurecht gehauen, um es verlegen zu können. Die Steine, aus denen die Platten bestehen, gab Winter bald als Marmor, bald als „Steinplatten“ an. Ich habe geglaubt, feststellen zu können, dass die blaugrauen Steine Marmor sind; auch die weißen sind eher Marmor als Travertin. Die rechte Ala enthält den von Blake Taf. 7, 2 abgebildeten Boden, gleichfalls aus blaugrauem Marmor, in dessen Mitte eine von schmalen Leisten umgebene blaugraue Marmorplatte (0,67 : 0,43) liegt. Sowohl die Sechsecke und die Dreiecke, wie auch die äußere Umrahmung des Paviments, längliche, rechteckig geschnittene, nicht sehr sorgfältig zusammengesetzte Steinplatten sind aus Marmor.

1.   Ich muss mich hier, wie auch sonst öfter, auf meine älteren Notizen verlassen, da die Boden sich mit Grün bedeckt haben.

(Translation - The whole house is completely blocked up, so that a normal plan is no longer to be gained. Only the atrium with the two alae, in which valuable pavements lie (see below), is safe. They must be older because it would have been difficult to lay such fine floors in such an insignificant building in recent times. The vestibule and atrium have clay signinum; set into them are small white tesserae and larger yellow and white stone pieces (1), in the atrium open rows of larger tesserae and on the west side some hexagons of blue-grey stone (reuse of an older pavement). The left ala has a threshold of blue-grey marble. In the centre of the room, which is covered with clay signinum, a mosaic of blue-grey and white hexagons, diamonds of the same colour and white and red triangles is 1.20 wide and formerly 1.94 long (pl. 39, 3), which in its centre contained the excellent mosaic with the female head, pl. 78. It can hardly be assumed that the mosaic picture was originally intended for this place. Firstly, the composition of the pavement does not allow for a picture at all, and secondly, the hexagons around the picture were first hewn into shape in order to be able to lay it. Winter described the stones of which the slabs are made as marble, then as "stone slabs". I believed I could determine that the blue-grey stones are marble; the white ones are also marble rather than travertine. The right ala contains the floor illustrated by Blake Taf. 7, 2, also of blue-grey marble, in the centre of which is a blue-grey marble slab (0.67: 0.43) surrounded by narrow mouldings. Both the hexagons and the triangles, as well as the outer frame of the pavement, elongated, rectangularly cut, not very carefully assembled stone slabs, are made of marble.

1.   I have to rely on my older notes here, as I often do, because the floor has become covered in green.)

See Pernice, E.  1938. Pavimente und Figürliche Mosaiken: Die Hellenistische Kunst in Pompeji, Band VI. Berlin: de Gruyter, p. 88.