Pompeii and Herculaneum have been represented by art, writers, filmmakers and poets, both factually and fictionally, from the time excavations began in the 18 th C.

 Early representations focused on the neoclassical aspects of art and architecture.  As discoveries continued 18 th and 19 th century representations focused on the human disaster  In the 21 st century, with the addition of further archaeological discoveries and technology the focus has been on virtual reconstructions of the physical and human elements. Fiorelli’s plaster castes have become the iconic symbol of the Vesuvian disaster

 This painting of Vesuvius was discovered in1879 on a wall in the Casa del Centenario, one of the largest houses in Pompeii. Bacchus is pictured standing before the mountain; at the time Vesuvius was covered in vineyards.

 Edward Bulwer-Lytton, E (1834): The last days of Pompeii - most famous Pompeii novel, structured like a crime story -- as an account of people's last moments of life, based on deductions about their activities from the physical evidence. Multiple film adaptations.  Robert Harris (2003): Pompeii - A Novel – It is an historical fiction with a blend of fictional characters with the real-life eruption of Mount Vesuvius, especially notable for the author's references to various aspects of vulcanology and use of the Roman calenda

Mid-18th Century to Early-19th Century  Neoclassical Art is a severe and unemotional form of art harkening back to the grandeur of ancient Greece and Rome.  Some examples will be shown on the next few slides...

 Description: Open Triclinium in the So-called House of Actaeon in Pompeii. Ink and watercolor on paper, The Metropolitan Museum of Art  The scene depicted is an open area within the House of Actaeon, more commonly known as the House of Sallust; it was built during the second century B.C. and rediscovered in excavations that took place between 1806 and 1809 Mertens, J. R. (1981). A Drawing by Chasseriau, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15, 153 – 156.

 Engraved illustration from the second volume of Francois Mazois's Ruines de Pompei, published in Paris in 1824  Description: Xystus and Triclinium Beneath a Vine Arbor. Engraving from Franqois Mazois, Les Ruines de Pompei (Paris, 1824) Mertens, J. R. (1981). A Drawing by Chasseriau, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15, 153 – 156.

 Description: Small Triclinium Beneath a Vine Arbor in Pompeii. Engraving from Francois Mazois, Le Palais de Scaurus, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1822) Mertens, J. R. (1981). A Drawing by Chasseriau, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15, 153 – 156.

 Description: The Tomb of the Istacidi, Pompeii  The scene depicted here is located close to the Herculaneum gates and can still be found today. Everything is, however, rather more modest in appearance than this drawing would indicate /

 Description: View through the Herculaneum Gate, Pompeii  Piranesi made this drawing in the last months of his life. Etched at a later date by his son Francesco Piranesi, the study corresponds to a plate published in Antiquities de la Grande Grèce (Paris, 1804)

 The Excavations at Pompeii  Description: View of the Ruins of Pompeii surrounded by Vineyards, the Lake of Salerno in the distance, bounded by lofty mountains and in the foreground, adorned with cattle and figures

 Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement in the history of ideas that originated in late 18th century Western Europe.  It stressed strong emotion (which now might include trepidation, awe, and horror as visual experiences).  Romanticism is also noted for its elevation of the achievements of what it perceived as heroic individuals and artists.  Some examples will be shown on the next few slides…

 The Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, c. 1770s, oil, Private Collection

 Vesuvius, c. 1770s, oil, Collection not known

 The Eruption of Vesuvius  Valenciennes witnessed a Vesuvius eruption in August 1779, and he used his impressions in this depiction of the eruption of 79 AD. He shows the death of Pliny the Elder on the shore at Stabie.

 Pompeii: The Last Day (2003)  A dramatized documentary that recreates of the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.  Pompeii (2014)  A slave-turned-gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save his true love, who has been betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts, he must fight to save his beloved as Pompeii crumbles around him

 Representation of past spaces through animation and reconstruction stills, particularly in the fields of television and film.  Based on the development of novel computing solutions to the modelling, representation and interpretation of space in the archaeological past.  Computer modelling provides a unique appreciation of the site and its context.

 10 min virtual-reality film  The spectator is led to discover the many rooms of that palatial house in full detail, including the exact position of everyday objects precisely as they were found minutes before the explosion of the volcano in AD 79  For more info, visit: menu/video-guide-main/video-guide-summary/254-the- house-of-julius-polybius menu/video-guide-main/video-guide-summary/254-the- house-of-julius-polybius

 360-degree virtual reality scenes from different parts of the city, images of selected sites, and a "walking" tour of Pompeii's streets.  Visit: peii.html peii.html

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