Pompeii at the British Museum
When you walk round Pompeii, the biggest crowds always gather in front of the poignant plaster casts of the dead Romans – killed not by the lava, but by the intense heat and fumes that rushed through the streets before the lava engulfed them.
You feel an immediate, agonising human sympathy with these poor, ancient Italians – their bodies hunched in terror – even though they were wiped out almost 2,000 years ago. In a nutshell, that human element is what makes the Pompeii story so eternally compelling; and what will make next spring’s blockbuster at the British Museum as big a draw as the last Pompeii exhibition, one of the great British shows of the 1970s, along with the Tutankhamun exhibition.
The volcanic eruption miraculously preserved whole houses and grids of streets, mosaics, erotic frescoes and sculptures. But it is the human story that ensures Pompeii’s continued grip on the imagination of the wider public, and not just the Senior Common Room. Drawing heavily on the collections in Naples and Pompeii, the British Museum show will include staggering survivals among its 250 objects. Many of them have never been outside Italy – including delicate marble reliefs, intricate ivory panels and the moving wall painting of the baker Terentius Nero and his wife, brandishing the writing materials that advertise their literacy.
Herculaneum – the seaside town next to the bigger trading port of Pompeii – was affected in a different way by the eruption, leading to some unique survivals. Six pieces of wooden furniture were carbonised by the boiling hot ash that covered Herculaneum, but they weren’t obliterated as they would have been in Pompeii, where the volcano’s force was more powerful. That furniture includes a linen chest, inlaid stool, garden bench and, most stirring of all, a baby’s crib, still rocking on its curved runners.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/9556419/Pompeii-at-the-British-Museum.html
I went to Pompeii in 1991. Its just totally amazing with the town's buildings and streets intact more or less just as they were 2000 years ago. Some of the frescos are as vibrant as were then having now had just the top layers cleaned off - frescos are built up in layers. The only repros I recall were some of the gold garden ornaments and statues - the originals kept getting nicked so they were removed to safety elsewhere.
If anyone is likely to go to Pompeii as opposed to the Museum's exhibition next year then be warned - you need thick soled shoes and and a brolly to protect yourselves from the fierce heat both underfoot and overhead and avoid midday at all costs.
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"Beware of the Dog"
I too found the cast of the dog just as heartbreaking as the human ones.
