| Vitruvius is the ancient author who gives the best focus to Roman housing as a subject. He largely concentrates on the dimensions of a house, for example his description of courtyards and the basic angles and measurements that are generally used in each type (Vitruvius 6.3. 1). His account could be explained as a set of rules for the perfect Roman house, such as when he states that the portraits in the atrium had to be the same height as the breadth of side rooms (Vitruvius 6.3. 6). Ellis (2000: 14) believes that some of the features described by Vitruvius may not actually have existed. It is true that Vitruvius does not give examples of houses that conform to his descriptions, but it is unlikely that an individual house would have all the features he mentions as he is describing the ideal. It seems possible that there were houses that each had some of the characteristics he describes. As to the uses of space there is some information described by Vitruvius, for example he tells us that winter dining rooms and bathrooms need to face south west to maximise the use of the evening light and sunset and the need for libraries to face east to protect the books from rot (Vitruvius 6.4. 1). He also states that certain spaces were reserved for family members, while places like vestibules and courtyards could be entered by any of the public even when not invited (Vitruvius 6.5.1).Ellis' (2000: 14) view is that although Vitruvius seems to go into great detail when describing the 'Roman House', it is very much focused on the Italian province as Vitruvius does not know as much about provincial architecture. Although at one point Vitruvius does describe Cyzicene halls, which are different from Italian ones (6.3. 10) it seems that unless Vitruvius had travelled widely, he may not have seen other examples of housing from different areas. Had he seen them he may not have thought they were as important to discuss, as they were not generally the result of Roman architectural styles alone but incorporated some native designs. Indeed as Allison (2001: 188) states, studies of houses outside Italy rely a lot more on archaeology than literature for evidence. This shows that the few writers that did explore the genre of housing in the Roman period only really focused on houses from a very small area, both geographically and economically. Ellis (2000: 14) mentions that Vitruvius only talks about the housing of the wealthy. As insulae were sometimes created when an older building became run down and leased out as smaller apartments, perhaps Vitruvius thought they were not worth describing as there was no real building process involved in their creation. As with many ancient writers he was only interested in writing about the lifestyle of the rich, as they would have been his audience. The weakness of Vitruvius is that he does not give much information about the use of the different rooms he describes, remaining very much with technical descriptions. Pliny the Younger is another writer we can examine who gives an account of Roman housing. He does this through a different perspective to Vitruvius, putting two descriptions of his own coastal villa near Rome in his letters to Gallus (Letters, 2.17) and Domitius Apollinaris (Letters, 5.6). In both letters Pliny is very descriptive urging his reader to believe all the merits, which his villa displays. He describes some of the rooms for example the small courtyard, dining room and hall (Letters, 2.17) and he explains that he uses the villa in bad weather due to its good design (Letters 2.17). Pliny's aim is to amaze his friends with his description, therefore he is bound to exaggerate the merits of his home and not mention any faults or dislike of certain features that he may have had. Some scholars (Fortsch 1993 and Drummer 1994, cited by Allison 2001: 183) |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.