The “Isiac Ceremonies” in the Paintings from Herculaneum: MANN, Inv. 8924 and 8919. A Reappraisal

The two paintings from Herculaneum (MANN, inv. 8919 and 8924), found in 1745 during
the Bourbon excavations, have been the subject of numerous analyses, as they are
two of the few examples of Roman imperial paintings that document Isiac ceremonies
in considerable detail; interpretations of them vary from author to author, sometimes
quite considerably, and, to date, no common or even widely shared opinion has been
reached.
Yet, given their considerable documentary value, I found it useful to tackle their
analysis again, thanks also to the opportunity to observe them on high-definition digital
photographs, kindly made available by the MANN Photographic Archive.
The study starts with an analytical description of the two paintings, which will
form the basis for a new series of reflections on some of the issues debated and still
unresolved: a)The identification of the ceremonies depicted and, consequently, the
level of reliability and the actual documentary value of the two scenes; b) The identification
of the figures involved; c) The number and arrangement of the paintings in the
original architectural space, which most scholars believe must have been domestic in
nature; d) The identification of the buildings depicted, a subject that is generally only
mentioned briefly, despite the considerable architectural differences between them.