Pompeiian paintings on show

The wall paintings that first brought the civilisation of ancient Italy home to modern Europeans went on show in Rome yesterday, for the first time in decades.

The exhibition at the Roman National Museum shows the fruit of the work of the 18th-century enthusiasts -- today we would call them vandals -- who, on discovering the entombed cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, near Naples, set about prising them from the ground and carting them off. They have been brought to Rome from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

On show are 108 different scenes from the cities destroyed by Vesuvius and elsewhere, deliberately hung as paintings in the 18th-century style. Subjects range from the heroic -- Theseus standing in triumph over the slain Minotaur -- to still-life depictions of mushrooms, eels and fruit.

From the Independent. More information on the exhibition here (in Italian). The BBC also has a slide show.

Posted by David on December 22, 2007 10:09 PM