La pittura parietale di Ercolano: i temi figurati

The fact that the herculaneum wall painting speaks a specific language, that is different, in decorative and figurative choices, from that of the Pompeian wall painting, is generalli acknowledged by the scientific community. In the history of the studies, nevertheless, the awareness of this specificity has not corresponded to a systematic analysis of the archaeological evidence, in order to verify the existence and extent of a "local style", or "taste of site". The systematic and exaustive study of the Herculaneum wall painting in its contexts (Physical, historical, cultural), with the view of creating a corpus, is included amongst the objectives of the "DHER (Domus Herculanensis Rationes) Project" of the University of Bologna. In order to obtain the indispensable documentary base, an integrative approach is adopted, archaeological and archaeometric, both for the remains in situ and for the fragments in the Museum of Naples, with four main complete and systematic actions: - photogrammetric survey; - Archaeometric analyses; - verification of provenance of the documents out of context; - formal analysis (iconographic and stylistic) of the archaeological evidence. Given its complexity, the research plan is divided into modules: the results of the module dedicated to the figurative themes are the subject of this contribution.