Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE B: ITALIAN ART
Preferred Title:
Scene from Cult of Harpocrates
Alternate Title:
Affresco raffigurante onori resi al simulacro di Arpocrate
Image View:
Overall view, showing cult statue, left, priest right and rendering of temple in the background
Creator:
unknown (Roman (ancient))
Location:
repository: Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples, Campania, Italy) 8975
Location Note:
Piazza Museo 19
GPS:
40.853378 14.250486
Date:
ca. 62-79 CE (creation)
Cultural Context:
Roman (ancient)
Style Period:
Fourth Style; Greco-Roman; Imperial (Roman)
Work Type 1:
fresco (painting)
Classification:
Paintings
Material:
pigment on plaster
Technique:
fresco painting (technique)
Measurements:
95 cm (height) x 107 cm (width)
Subjects:
deities; Egypt--Religion; Roman Empire
Description:
Fresco on a red background depicting a Priest of Isis who bears two candlesticks to a statue of Harpocrates standing outside of the temple of Isis. The fresco was found in 1765 in the alcove in front of the Temple of Isis (VIII.7.28) in Pompeii. The fresco, which was cleaned in the 1990s, now is one of the most important representations of the temple before destruction. In front of the statue is placed an olive branch. Advancing at right the priest, dressed in the typical apron, leaving the shoulders bare, carries two silver candlesticks, topped with cup-shaped bronze reminiscent of those found in the temple (inv. 72192-72193). The cult of Isis was part of the syncretic tendencies of religion in the Greco-Roman world of late antiquity; the Romans having acquired it from the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. (Source: Naples National Archaeological Museum [website]; http://cir.campania. beniculturali.it/mus eoarcheologiconazion ale)
Collection:
Adjunct Module B: Italian Art
Identifier:
7A3-R-NAM-TI-CH-A01
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Scene from Cult of Harpocrates