The House of the New Hunt occupies almost the entire southern part of Insula 10 in Regio VII. The domus was first laid out between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, but the building was altered repeatedly over the course of its history. After the earthquake of AD 62, many of the rooms were redecorated in the Fourth Pompeian Style.
The main entrance led into a Tuscan atrium, paved with a white mosaic in the final phase. The tablinum stood on the entrance axis and had a more elaborate mosaic floor dating from the Augustan period. Cubicula, triclinia and other rooms used for domestic life were arranged around the atrium.
At the rear was a peristyle with porticoes on three sides and a black-and-white mosaic pavement. A large triclinium overlooking the peristyle had a refined opus sectile panel at the centre of its floor, composed of geometrically shaped marble slabs.
The house takes its modern name from the hunting scenes with wild animals that decorated the garden area. Nineteenth-century descriptions and drawings record a bear, a wild boar and a lion, among other animals, within a large landscape composition. Many of these paintings are now badly deteriorated or lost.
The figurative decoration documented in the house also included mythological scenes and images associated with Dionysus. The tablinum depicted the sleeping Ariadne discovered by Bacchus, accompanied by his retinue.
Doorway VII.10.14 instead provided access to the large garden connected with the house. Research has also documented a basin, an altar and plant decoration associated with domestic cult in this area.
