Why is this column in Pompeii constructed in two parts?

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Accepted answer

Short answer:

  • Why two parts: such columns were common.

  • Why parts of different form and color: that might reflect (as said in @Jan's comment) the recycling of building material during the construction or restoration of a relatively modest building.

Longer answer:

Considering the question title, the OP seems to think that multi-part columns were unusual; but they were not. Consider the culmination and model of that art, the Parthenon:

enter image description here

On the Acropolis this technique is dominant

More here.

Is it made of one or more pieces?

The body of the columns is made of more than one piece, named “drums” (or “spondyloi”). Sometimes the column body may consist of one unique piece of stone, like the columns of the Athena Nike Temple.

Nowadays, during the restoration works that take place at the Acropolis monuments, the ancient and damaged columns are usually completed with drums made of new marble.

The column in your picture might very well bear the sign of restoration and/or recycling of material. (I guess the mismatch in color and form of flutes cannot be described otherwise than recycling.)

The less wealthy and prestigious a building, the less harmony in the detail and the technique of combining the parts, something which could explain the fact that the two parts of the column in the question's image (seemingly of a relatively modest or at least not very rich private house) have even different color and texture. But the above images are of the most prestigious kind.

One-body (monolithic) columns were the exception.

Wikipedia has an article on monolithic columns saying:

Smaller columns are very often made from single pieces of stone, but are less often described as monolithic, as the term is normally reserved for less common, larger columns made in this way. Choosing to use monolithic columns produces considerable extra difficulties in quarrying and transport, and may be seen as a statement of grandeur and importance in a building.

An example as such statement is the Pantheon in Rome, which displays sixteen, monolithic exterior columns. But in the interior there are columns made of multiple parts:

enter image description here

Looking for some other examples with this feature, we find the most important Roman temples of all:

The Temple of Augustus and Livia, Vienne, France

enter image description here

Maison Carrée in Nîmes, France:

enter image description here

Temple of Augustus of Pula, Croatia:

enter image description here

Temple of Bacchus in Baalbek, Lebanon:

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Garni Temple, Armenia:

enter image description here

As for Greek temples, there is no surprise that the same trend is dominant. I'll not add more pictures (which can be easily found on the internet), but one could mention the most important monuments (beside the aforementioned Acropolis complex): Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, Temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae, the Doric Temple of Segesta, the Temple of Hera at Paestum, Italy, Temple of Concordia - Agrigento, Italy, beside many others.

So, Greek/classical marble columns were made of parts, much like our ...vertebral column, because σπόνδυλος (spondylos) mainly means vertebra (whence the name of the malady spondylosis).

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