Le scene di vendita nella pittura di Pompei

Although only a small number of images representing sale scenes stands out from the rich imagery offered by the Vesuvian sites, they play a significant role in portraying the daily life, but have yet to be thoroughly analysed. Depicted as the final phase in a production process of a workshop or a shop or used as single commercial signs these representations of sales can be found not only in trade contexts, used for obvious advertising purposes, but they have been employed in household con- texts also, although to a lesser extent. With the aim to fully capture all the nuances of the subject and its deployment, the complete evidence survey on which this paper is based has taken into consideration not only representations of actual sales, but also all the comparable scenes or the imagery inspired by them as, for instance, some mythological episodes that allow for the hypothesis of the use of the same iconographic scheme (Daedalus and Pasifae, Achilles in Scyrus, Thetys in the for- gery of Ephestus). Particular attention has been paid to commercial signs from shops facades and trade spaces in order to understand the role played by representations of sale scenes within the varied imagery that had the purpose, yesterday like today, to convey short messages readily understandable. Basing on this large database this paper aims to raise issues about social impacts of trade activities and communication and persuasion strategies to influence the purchasing behavior.