The bronze statue of a dancing faun is what gives the House of the Faun its name--and it is located where it would have been seen by people peering in the main doorway of the House of the Faun.
The statue is set in the so-called 'Tuscan' atrium. The Tuscan atrium is floored with a layer of plain black mortar, and in the center of it is a strikingly white limestone impluvium. The impluvium--a basin for collecting rainwater--is paved with a pattern of colored limestone and slate. The statue stands in above the impluvium, giving the statue a watery surround.
The statue at the House of the Faun ruins is a copy; the original is in the Archaeological Museum of Naples.
Sources
For more on the archaeology of Pompeii, see Pompeii: Buried in Ashes.
Beard, Mary. 2008. The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
Christensen, Alexis. 2006. From palaces to Pompeii: The architectural and social context of Hellenistic floor mosaics in the House of the Faun. PhD dissertation, Department of Classics, Florida State University.
Mau, August. 1902. Pompeii, Its Life and Art. Translated by Francis Wiley Kelsey. The MacMillan Company.
