Gardens of Nudes - Part Three
The bronze statue on the left is of a sleeping faun; he was found at one end of the pool, while at the other end was a statue of a drunken faun. A statue of Hermes at rest was found along the side of the pool, opposite two naked youths that have often been called runners but are probably wrestlers who would have been facing each other. All of these nudes are male; life-sized female statues were also found in this garden, but they are all clothed. I don't know if this was typical of Roman gardens, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. The Romans may have felt that nude males were appropriate for sunny gardens, and because Venus was a goddess of gardens, her image belonged in gardens, but many of the female nudes which we have inherited from Rome are of nymphs and they would be most appropriate in a nymphaeum.
A nymphaeum is a shrine, often a grotto, which is dedicated to the water nymphs who believed to be the guardian sprits of every spring. Many springs in Greece issue forth from caves and these springs were felt to be especially mystical; caves have been felt to be sacred since prehistoric times.
The Romans often incorporated caves into their landscape gardens. We get the impression from the urban gardens of Pompeii that all Roman gardens were formal, but large Roman estates exploited the contrast between formal gardens and the surrounding landscape. It is quite possible that the Villa of the Papryi was set in a landscape garden; this villa certainly took full advantage of its location along an embankment overlooking the Bay of Naples. The Romans loved expansive views of natural landscapes.
Romans often used natural caves near their villas as dining rooms. If natural caves didn't exist, they would be carved into a hillside and water would be piped into the cave to create the nymphaeum's spring. The grotto which has been discovered at Sperlonga is an especially grand example of a natural cave which was transformed into a decorative grotto. There were fishponds before the mouth of the cave. Wealthy Romans were obsessive about their fishponds and they had elaborate systems for maintaining the proper amounts of salinity for fish that preferred salt or brackish water. Inside the cave were sculptural groups representing the adventures of Odysseus. A sculptural group
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