File:Drawings of the triumph of Bacchus (south wall) and Victory tableau (north wall) from Room 14 (pompeiiinpictures floorplan) House of the Suonatrici (aka Marcus Lucretius) Pompeii by Wilhelm Zahn 1852.jpg

English: Drawings of the triumph of Bacchus (south wall) and Victory tableau (north wall) from Room 14 (pompeiiinpictures floorplan) House of the Suonatrici (aka Marcus Lucretius) Pompeii by Wilhelm Zahn 1852;

Translated plate description: "In the first painting, we notice one of these heavy carts drawn by a couple of oxen which were used for the return of the harvest, such as we also see them on paintings of the Baths of Titus. A young satyr, placed in front of the oxen and holding the brake, as well as a bald Pan walking alongside with a pedum [shepherd's crook] on his shoulder show us, without a doubt, that this is not an ordinary harvest festival. In the chariot sits a strong, broad-shouldered man, all wrapped in a loose cloak: he is crowned with ivy and holds in his right hand a thyrsus. His hairy face gives him an expression of remarkable 'bonhomie'; he carefully holds on his knees a young naked child, who seizes the thyrsus with vivacity and who plays with the bandages, which serve him as an ornament. There is no doubt that he's Silenus, foster-father of the young Bacchus. The idea of sage and prophet, linked to that which was of the god, we see him not only take a naive part in the games of childhood, expressed so well in the famous marble group and which we also notice without this painting, but that everything in him, in his attitude and his expression, announced the highest dignity of the master. A woman richly dressed, walking by the side of the cart, presents to another woman, standing in the cart, one of those bell-shaped vases, in which one used to carry grapes and other fruits, to place it there suitably; while a third woman, placed like the other two in the cart, turns away and seems similarly occupied. On the other side of the chariot, we see the ordinary procession of Bacchus coming and going like a sporting swarm. The procession is preceded by a young satyr crowned with rushes, and covered with a fawn skin playing the double flute, then comes a bacchante beating the tympanon, and behind this, we see the heads of two girls. According to the particular conception of the ancient art of raising the life of mortals, in its different phases, to a higher sphere by immediately bringing in the gods or the demons - in which they were only following the inspirations of their religion and from their worship we see that here they have made the harvest festival or that of the vintage a triumph of Bacchus.

"It is from this analogy that, on the second tableau, we see the erection of a trophy, such as was raised after a victory, transported into the realm of mythology. At the bottom of the painting, we see hanging from a high tree trunk a helmet, a cuirass, a sword and a shield, and at the foot of the trunk, a handsome naked young man, with his hands tied behind his back, is seated on the weapons that were taken from him. To better express and publish the fame of this victory far and wide, the goddess of Victory has been placed next to the captive warrior, inscribing this feat on a large shield, which a young person, placed in front of her, raises with effort in the air, an idea that we often see reproduced later in these sorts of paintings. The latter is crowned with ivy, the ordinary attribute of Bacchus. In front of the goddess of Victory, we notice a young satyr dressed in an animal skin, who, instead of a lance, holds in the air the thyrsus, then a figure of a woman covered with rich elegant clothes holding with both hands a shield obviously destined for the trophy and having like the other a garland of ivy in her hair. We can clearly see that the procession of Bacchus came to erect here a monument in memory of the power of this god in the midst of battles, and that the two paintings match each other, since they show us the same power - the divine spread of peace and prosperity through fighting victoriously all that is contrary to them." - Otto Jahn, 1852