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 specify 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 protector 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 arrangement 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 atmosphere 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 is particularly difficult to draw a line between statuettes bought and valued as pieces of art and others used in the domestic rituals. One of the most famous bronzes in Novius Vindex’s big private collection was certainly the Herakles Epitrapezios (“Hercules at [or on] the table”) which the poet Martial admired when invited to his patron’s house (Mart. 9.43-4) (Bartman 1992: 147-86). It is obvious that less importance was attached to the subject itself than to the artist (in this case allegedly Lysippus) and the piece’s pedigree. Still, there is a close connection between the motif - Hercules drinking at the symposium - and the function of the statuette as a table adornment. This same function is attested for lararium statuettes as well (cf. Petronius 60.8-9).