The walls of the large room in the back of the temple were covered
with paintings. The wall was divided into panels and registers with
painted columns and trim. The bottom register contained painted panels
with fantastic creatures- sphinxes, dragons, dolphins and hyppocanths,
which are half-horses and half-sea-monsters. Such panels are extremely
common in both houses and public buildings in Pompeii. Above this are
large paintings with mythological subject matter. The central one
contains Isis greeting Europa in Egypt. The two side paintings are
fantastic landscapes; they probably represent some of the sites in
Egypt where Isis found pieces of the body of her murdered husband,
Horus. The subject matter is what we would call "romantic" dramatic,
exaggerated, and exotic. However, the painting style is what we would
term "impressionistic", with broad brush strokes, somewhat abstracted
forms, and a great deal of interest it light and shadow.