Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.20944

    Mural from Pompeii

    Date
    1880
    Creator
    C. F. Kell (British) , Lithographer
    After
    David Mossman (1825 - 1901, British) , Miniaturist
    Object type
    Library reference
    28424
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 316mm
    width (print): 250 mm
    Subject
    Description
    Fragment of a Roman wall painting from Pompeii, Italy. Part of an interior scene, featuring a seated female figure holding a sistrum [an ancient musical instrument] before a house shrine featuring a serpent. Traces of a decorative border remain.

    Plate VIII in the book A descriptive catalogue of antiquities, chiefly British, at Alnwick Castle, by John Collingwood Bruce (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1880). Inscribed above: ‘PLATE VIII’. Inscribed below: ’MURAL PAINTING IN FRESCO, FROM POMPEII. D. Mossman Delt. C.F. Kell Lith.’

    A note on the plate described this as; ‘a female figure seated upon a chair, which is placed upon a slightly raise platform. She is robed in a blue tunic, over the lower part of which is thrown a yellow peplus or mantle. On her head is a wreath of leaves, most probably of olive. With her right hand, which is raised, she shakes a sistrum, which served by its rattle as a call to worship. The sistrum was specially used in the religious ceremonies of Isis…’.

    John Collingwood Bruce (1805-1892) British antiquary.
    Associated place
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          > Italy
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