installation: fresco, blown glass vase, rain water 2023, led sign, sentence, marble column from the MANN depository, Naples
PH: Amedeo Benestante
A blown glass vase is superimposed like a pictorial veil over the mystical cyst represented in the Navigum Isidis fresco. The vase echoes in its form the features of the cysta, but instead of the inverted half-moon, it bears an engraved image of the Nile with a human collecting the water that drips from the marble during rain. The water contained by the vase is in fact the result of the multiple actions by which the artist has collected water from the monument over the course of 2023.
NAVIGIUM ISIDIS | Room 84 MANN – Fourth style Pompeian wall painting, 220 x 287.5 cm. unearthed on 18 October 1765 in the Sacrarium of the Temple of Isis in Pompeii (VIII, 7, 28, north wall).
The fresco depicts the transport of Osiris by Isis: it is the transport of sacred water, symbol of the regenerating god Osiris. The lower register depicts two large serpents advancing towards a cista mystica: a wicker basket with a conical lid, adorned with a crescent moon and resting on a pillar, behind which emerge two whorls with flowers, which close the composition at the bottom. The wicker basket with conical lid was carried in procession during the navigium Isidis ceremony. Most studies suggest that it contained water from the Nile, gold and/or earth moulded in the shape of a half moon. The Navigium Isidis was an annual festival in honour of the goddess Isis held on 5 March. The feast celebrated Isis’ influence on the sea and served as a prayer for the safety of seafarers.
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