The House of the Large Fountain stands on Via di Mercurio and takes its name from the monumental nymphaeum decorating the garden at the rear of the residence.
The house’s principal layout dates to the 2nd century BC. Its façade of tuff blocks and the arrangement of its rooms reflect the antiquity of the residence, which at one stage was also connected with buildings entered through neighbouring doorways.
The entrance leads to an atrium with an impluvium. On the same axis is the tablinum, paved with a refined black-and-white mosaic, through which the view continues into the rear garden. This sequence of entrance, atrium, tablinum and garden allowed the monumental fountain to be seen while passing through the house’s principal spaces.
The main decorative feature is the large mosaic nymphaeum at the far end of the garden. Its niche was faced with mosaic tesserae, polychrome glass paste and shells. Water flowed over small steps before reaching the basin below, creating an especially sophisticated visual effect. The arrangement visible today belongs to the house’s latest phase and dates to the years after the earthquake of AD 62.
Sculptural elements completed the fountain. Marble theatrical masks stood on either side of the niche, while the basin contained a bronze statuette of a Cupid with a dolphin. Water, mosaic, sculpture and planting were thus combined to turn the garden into one of the domus’s principal reception spaces.
The nearby House of the Small Fountain VI.8.23–24 has a similar arrangement, but the two residences are distinct: at the House of the Large Fountain only one side of the garden had a portico, whereas the neighbouring garden had porticoes on two sides.
