Image Details

Hershel Shanks

The garden wall of one villa at Pompeii, called the House of Venus in the Shell, was decorated with a fresco (shown here) of the nude goddess of love reclining on a shell while being attended by two cupids. Another elegant dwelling was the House of the Vettii, home of two wealthy freedmen-become-merchants, Aulus Vettius Restitutus and Aulus Vettius Conviva.