A Home in Pompeii: Process

Process

Now that the senator has hired you and your partner what must you do?

Your first step is to set yourself back in the past.

Look closely at the images and get a feel for the different styles. When viewing art you may first want to think about this:

General Questions when examining art work

Identify the image
1. Who was the artist?
2. Is there a caption? Title? Anything written with the image?
3. Where did the image come from?
4. What is/are the subject(s) of the picture?
Reason for the art work
1. Why was it made? Who for?
2. Is there a theme being represented? Specific event? What is it?
3. What is the artist trying to convey to the viewer?

When you have looked at the historical evidence you and your teammate must then make some decisions. Brainstorm with your partner. Some keys to brainstorming can be found at: http://webquest.sdsu.edu/processguides/brainstorming.html

Grab some paper and think about the needs of the family. These people are upper class Romans so they will have wants and needs that are different from the lower classes.

What kind of rooms will they need in their house?
Will they need a place for entertaining and other meetings?
A large or small kitchen?
How many bedrooms?
Will there be a room for slaves?
Where will the house be, close to other houses or not? (The house should be on a street).
What kind of plants are in and around the house?

First you need to develop a floor plan. (as seen below) You will want to label the rooms and give the needed measurements. The floor plan must be drawn in scale (use ¼ inch is equal to one foot) Around the floor plan you can show where there would be trees and other plants. After drawing the floor plan you will want to draw a view of the house called an Elevation ( a drawing of how the house would look as you walk up to it). You can draw only the front of the house, which would look flat or, like below, in perspective showing two sides and the top.

On your floor plan be sure to place a notation to show East, West, North and South.

Floor plan and a detailed elevation.

This would be the best elevation to start with.

Next you must think about the way that the walls inside of the house will be painted: what colors will you use, what subjects will be painted on the walls? What will be on the floors?

Wall in Pompeii

A floor in Pompeii

The last things you need to consider is what furniture will be in each room.

A Roman bed room

Here are the links to get you started:

The Roman house

http://classics.uc.edu/~johnson/pliny/villas/house-conspectus.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/10098/romanhouse.htm

http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/house.html

http://www.tcnj.edu/~anchouse/rooms.html

http://abacus.bates.edu/~mimber/Rciv/house.htm

http://home.att.net/~b.b.major/spacelecture.html

Links to orignal Roman art:

Wall paintings

http://www.accla.org/actaaccla/ramage.html

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ropt/hd_ropt.htm

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mxb/roman_painting.html

http://www.accd.edu/sac/vat/arthistory/arts1303/Rome4.htm

Houses, furniture and interior decoration

http://www.furniturestyles.net/ancient/roman/

http://www.furniturestyles.net/ancient/roman/lectus.html

http://www.furniturestyles.net/ancient/homes/roman.html

http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maecenas/italy_except_rome_and_sicily/pompeii/ac880811.html

http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jjd5t/region-vi/faun/faun-table1.html

http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/Maecenas//italy_except_rome_and_sicily/herculaneum/ac880721.html

http://rubens.anu.edu.au/raid1cdroms/italy/pompeii/houses/

http://classics.uc.edu/~johnson/hum98/Roman-arch-pompeii.asp

http://pompeii.virginia.edu/pompeii/

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/04/eust/hob_03.14.13a-g.htm

Now that you have made the decisions you must put together the proposal for the Senator. You will need the following in your presentation folder:

The floor plan drawn in ¼ scale (¼ inch is equal to one foot).
One elevation: the front of the house (would seem flat when drawn) or a more detailed multi view in perspective.
Sketches in color (or in black and white with color notes) of each wall inside the house. Walls will be identified by the name of the room and the words East, West, North or South.
Sketches of what furniture will be in each room. These will be drawn in color (or black and white with color notes). Some information about the fabrics to be used must also be included.

A sample sketch, for the walls of one room

You should not cut and paste images from the web but draw from them. Complicated images can be traced in part, transferred to paper and then drawn into. One of the best ways to work up your drawing in color is to use watercolors like the above sample. Colored pencils also work well. As part of your design you should identify where your ideas come from. You will need to say for example:

The ideas for the wall paintings come from The House of the Poet, second style.

You can work with ideas from more than one house