=38. Frescos, Beautiful and Innumerable.=--From the house itself we can turn to its ornamentation and furniture. The use of marble columns and of great slabs of marble veneer has been repeatedly mentioned. Africa, Egypt, and Greece as well as Italy have been ransacked by Roman contractors for their treasures of stone.[21] Even this private mansion of the Calvi boasts its green and black monolithic pillars, as well as its ceiling of gilded fretwork. Where the sheen of polished marble does not meet the eye almost invariably there are bright _frescos_. These are the _Roman wall paper_. Even in the poorest insulæ we have met them, cheap hackneyed things, garish in color, the work not of artists but of common craftsmen. Yet most of even these are not without a certain decorative beauty and their number is enormous.[22] In the humble tenements the pictures often consist of pillars painted upon the walls, with gardens and landscapes represented as if seen between the portico, so the lodgers may have the pretence of looking upon the greenery reserved for the mighty. In a fine domus, however, the frescos, infinite in number, often approximate real works of art. There is no time to discuss their types and history; it is sufficient to say the decorative effect is amazingly effective. Some rooms have their walls covered with a variety of bright conceits and patterns,--balconies, perches, tapestries of fruit and flowers, garlanded columns and flying sprites and maidens. Another room has pictures of all the possible handicrafts and trades; but with cupids working the forges and wine presses, or chaffering as merchants. Gratia’s boudoir is full of amorous scenes of brides adorning themselves and of lovers’ meetings. In the triclinium there are elegant pictures of still life--fishes, fruit, birds; and in the peristylium and atrium are elaborate landscapes, scenes from Greek mythology, and a series of pictures depicting the voyages and adventures of Æneas.[23] There are no picture frames, but a skilful use of colored lines and sometimes of a painted setting of columns and architectural pediments makes each scene stand out to great advantage. The colors of all these frescos are very brilliant but they are never painfully crude. Where the walls are not covered by painting or marble they are tinted a soft brown or gray; and where the columns are not of naturally shaded marble they also are gently tinted to a neutral tone, although the lower third is usually painted a bright red or yellow. The numerous statues about the house are all in their turn given a kind of flesh color, with some other hue laid upon their drapery. Perhaps in the open, under the light of a northern summer these features would appear barbaric and offensive; under the gentle radiance diffused from the apertures of the atrium and the peristylium they create a scene of marvelous beauty, fascinating, and generally restful to the eye.