[Illustration: Fig. 162.--Peristyle of the house of the Vettii, looking south from the colonnade at the north end.] The earlier paintings are found in the atrium (_c_), the alae (_h_, _i_), and the large room at the end of the peristyle (_q_). At the time when they were painted the left ala (_h_) was connected with the room behind it (_n_) by a door, and had a large window opening on the peristyle like that in the other ala (seen in Fig. 160). Afterwards both window and door were walled up and the ala was turned into a wardrobe. After this change had been made, as the remains of the masonry show, the earthquake of 63 threw down a part of the wall between the ala and the peristyle. The earlier paintings, then, must have been placed upon the walls before the year 63, in the reign of Claudius or the earlier part of the reign of Nero. The later pictures are on the walls of the fauces (_b_), the large apartment at the left of the atrium (_e_), the colonnade of the peristyle (_l_), the two dining rooms opening on the peristyle (_n_, _p_), and the small peristyle (_s_) with the adjoining rooms (_t_, _u_); to the same class belongs also the painting of the Genius with the Lares in the side atrium (_v_), which, aside from this, contains no pictures. The remaining rooms present nothing of interest. The paintings of the first group are characterized by refinement in the choice of subjects, fertility in the composition, firmness of touch in the drawing, and exquisite finish in even the smallest details. The colors used are simple and harmonious, violent contrasts being avoided. A number of these pictures show the hand of a true artist, whose work has been found in no other house, and the system of decoration is the most effective of its kind in Pompeii. The decoration of the walls painted after the earthquake is not unlike that found in other houses upon walls of the fourth style. The designs are sketchy and without painstaking in the handling of details; the lines are coarse, the colors sometimes crude. The pictures in the panels are by different painters, some of whom were not without skill, yet none far above the average. One of the decorators had a fondness for representing mythological death scenes, manifesting a taste little short of barbarous. The contrast between the earlier and the later decoration is so marked that it seems impossible to explain except on the assumption of a change of owners. We may well believe that about the middle of the first century this was the home of a family of culture and standing, who secured for the decoration of it the best artist that could be obtained, bringing him perhaps from Rome or from a Greek city. But within a score of years afterwards the house passed into the hands of the Vettii, freedmen, perhaps, whose taste in matters of art was far inferior to that of the former occupants, and a number of rooms were redecorated. [Illustration: PLATE VIII.--TWO WALL PAINTINGS IN THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII