How do you draw a roman villa?

Answer 1

A Roman villa could be a villa rustica, the farmstead of a large landed estate, or a holiday villa. The latter was modelled on the domus, the detached houses of the rich. Some of them could be more sumptuous than the domus and have more than one garden. A description of a domus may be useful to work out how to draw a Roman villa.

The domus was divided into the areas. There was a public area centred on an atrium (courtyard) where the social life of the family took place and were guests were received. There was also a private area just for the family members, which was centred on a garden which was called peristyle, which was adopted from the Greeks.

There was a vestibulum (vestibule) which was the main entrance hall which led to a large central hall (the atrium) which was the focal point of this aprt of the house. The atrium was open at the centre and was partly surrounded by a portico with high ceilings. It often has sparse furnishing to give a stronger feel of a large place. At the centre there was the compluvium, a square roof opening which let water in,, which was channelled inwards by an inwardly sloped tiled roof. The water was collected by the impluvium a shallow rectangular sunken portion in the centre of the atrium. It drained the water into an underground cistern which had sand to filter the water. The bedrooms of the family were on the sides of the atrium. At the sides of the bottom of the atrium there were the alae (wings) which were open spaces that extended this portion of the atrium to the sides of the house. Their purpose is unknown. At the bottom of the atrium there was the tablinium, which was the study of the head of the household. The side facing the atrium did not have a wall, and at the opposite side there was a passage to the peristyle. Therefore the study acted as a passageway between the atrium and the peristyle parts of the house. The head of the household was able to command the house visually from the tablinium. On both sides of the tablinium there were the fauces, which were like two corridors which also provided passages to the peristyle separate from the tablinium. The Triclinium was the dining room where guests reclined on three couches along three sides of a table to eat. It was at the bottom of the atrium, but separated from it by walls, and next to one of the fauces. It could be accessed either from the bottom of the atrium or the peristyle.

The peristyle (peristilum) was a garden surrounded by columns which supported a roofed portico which provided shade. It had flowers, shrubs, benches, statues, fountains and a fish pond. There were frescoes on the walls. In this area there was also the culina, the kitchen. It had no chimney; therefore it was filled with smoke. It was a dark and gloomy room. By the kitchen there was also the Posticum. This was the servants' entrance or the access to the servants' quarters. Family members sometimes used it to exit unobserved.

The villas also made generous used of mosaics for the floors, and sometimes there were mosaics of the walls as well. The walls could also have frescoes.There was also Lararium, a shrine of the lares, the guardian gods of the household. This could be in the atrium, the peristyle or in a room of its own