Athena Review Image Archive ™
Pompeii: Temple of Isis, 4th style painting with landscape + mask
Pompeii: Temple of Isis, 4th style painting with landscape (Mus.Arch Naples; photo: Athena Review)
The Temple of Isis, rebuilt between AD 62 and 79, contained numerus paintings in the 4th style. These include fanciful landscapes with villas, temples, and exotic plants and animals.
This
painting shows an architectonic framework with red background
containing a stage set-like structure. This supports a fanciful
landscape, surmounted by a tragic mask representing Dionysius (Osiris),
all typical 4th style attributes. The landscape
contains Egyptian elements including a crocodile and a temple. All
were part of the religious apparatus of the cult of Isis, practiced in
the Temple at Pompeii where this painting originated.
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