Left Atrium Wall

This view shows the left wall of the atrium, where stand three doors to three cubicula, which were bedrooms used by guests of the paterfamilias. The wall is very colorfully decorated in what modern scholars call the "First Style" of Roman wall painting, which employed painted stucco to imitate expensive blocks of stone. Although this is the most primitive and austere of the styles of Roman wall painting, it is still very vibrant (or even gaudy) by modern Western standards.

This vibrancy stands in stark contrast to the false image most modern people have of ancient Rome and the Classical world in general: that it was an austere landscape of plain white marble buildings. In reality, the Roman world was colorful, musical, boisterous, and vibrant, as even this rather formal Pompeian architecture demonstrates.

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