POMPEIANA de William Gell (éd. de 1832)
Plate XXII - Roof of the thermae |  |  |  |
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 Back to chapter 5 | This view has little to recommend it as picturesque, but it gives, more perspicuously, the portico of the Temple of Fortune, and exhibits, in the clearest manner, the external appearance of the dome, or cone, which was erected over the circular piscina, or natatorium, of the baths, the inside view of which is given in plate XXVIII. |
This dome probably terminated in a point, which, projecting above the soil, had been destroyed by time and the labours of agriculture not long after the great eruption. The window may have been of glass, and probably ground on one side, so as to prevent the gratification of idle curiosity. The interior seems to have been painted blue or black. The circular top here shown must have always been known to the labourer, but, being full of earth, it was probably considered as nothing more than an old cistern. The wall on the right, in the foreground, positively arose to the outer surface of the soil ; and its summit remained after the excavation, covered with the vegetable productions which a very thin layer of earth permitted to grow upon it, as here represented.
The window seen on the right, behind the cone, is that of the frigidarium, which was glazed in four divisions fastened by a copper bar in the form of a cross.