Pompeii and Herculaneum: A Late Review and a Bit of Background

I finally got round to seeing the British Museum's Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition last month (just before the exhibition closed) and I have to say, that was fantastic!

I'd finally been able to plan a day when I would be in London so was able to book in advance and walked straight into the exhibition. After walking along a dark winding corridor (purposefully reminiscent of the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome?) you arrive at an audio-visual introduction to the exhibition, detailing the history of the excavations and the kinds of objects that have been found.

Most exciting of all was how the exhibition space had been planned - constructed in the shape of a 'standard-type' Roman house, (I think perhaps modelled on the plan of the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii), each 'room' of the exhibition reflected the objects and function of that part of the house.

The exhibition certainly focused on the 'Life' in Pompeii and Herculaneum, bringing together an atmospheric street-front with a detailed domestic interior, much of which included items from museums all over Europe, so it was particularly thrilling to see them all in one place, which really gave a good impression of what real Roman life was actually like.

A carbonised loaf of bread, stamped by the baker, from the cucina (kitchen) of a Roman house.

The 'Death' aspect was certainly more serious, and took up less of the exhibition, and perhaps rightly so. When I was last in Pompeii (not that regular an occurrence, honest!) I was with a group of Classics students and we decided that we didn't need a map as we had studied these streets and could find our own way. Our confident attitude apparently meant that we were a magnet for American tourists, who would come up and ask "where the bodies" were. For a start, the "bodies" are plaster casts, filling the empty space caused by decayed organic matter that was encased in volcanic ash, but more importantly why, when you're visiting a very special heritage site like Pompeii, would your main concern be the physical remains of humans? It just felt very morbid. And meant that visitors were less interested in the fantastic wall-paintings and mosaics of the buildings than they were in seeing dead people. Anyway ...

I was pleased that the British Museum exhibition didn't focus too much on the 'Death' side of the exhibition, other than to point out that it was a particularly tragic event, where whole families died suddenly, as the casts at the end of the exhibition showed.

Perhaps of more interest to a specialist, is the question of 'what happened after Vesuvius?', which was not really asked in the exhibition. Well, the work of projects such as the Apolline Project, which I took part in a few summers back, aims to show that there were more settlements up and down Vesuvius than just Pompeii and Herculaneum. Evidence from a post-AD 80s site also shows that resettlement of the area, according to brickstamps, actually occurred within 15-20 years after the well-known eruption. Certainly the Vesuvian eruption was a tragedy, but life had to continue.

The 'Villa with Baths', Pollena Trocchia, excavated by the Apolline Project.

All in all I was very excited to actually attend the exhibition, and very impressed with its scale and treatment of the topic. I was a little disappointed by how crowded it was, making it difficult to move round, but that perhaps shows how much this exhibition captured the public interest (and how people want to feel as though they have got the most out of their money!)

Five Stars in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum
28th March - 29th September
British Museum, London

I am excited about this, I have to say. The exhibition opens on Thursday and I can't wait for the excuse to go and see it next time I'm in London.

Vanessa Baldwin, who was on my undergraduate course at university, is actually co-curating the exhibition (I'm only a little bit jealous), and has even co-written the guide book to go with it! Knowing her, I'm convinced it's going to be good.

The whole point is that this exhibition is about daily life, rather than public spectacles, theatres or famous statues. We can expect commonplace items, such as tables, which have been remarkably preserved in the ash of Vesuvius in the eruption of AD 59.

I've had a look at some of the objects that are being featured:

Terentius Neo and his wife

Terentius Neo, baker, and his wife. AD 50-79.

Not only is this a lovely portrait of a man and his wife, it is also exceptional for being a portrait. This represents the people who actually lived in this house, the man staring straight out at the viewer, his wife's eyes slightly averted. She also has a stylus pressed to her lip in a contemplative gesture, whilst he rests his chin on a scroll. This shows how they are not only thinking, but they are also able to think, to read and to work, which was also a sign of just how successful a baker he was. She also holds a wax tablet, which shows that she was involved in the business side of the bakery. It shows how educated this pair were, (or how educated they wanted the viewer to think they were) and it is both delightful and unusual to find such a portrait preserved in a Roman house.

House of the Golden Bracelet fresco:

House of the Golden Bracelet, Garden fresco.

This lovely fresco was found along the wall of the triclinium (dining room) of a large town-house. This particular scene shows an open and fantastical garden, populated by all kinds of species of birds, so to seem as though the dining room itself was open to a garden. The 'heads' hanging from the sky are in fact theatre masks, which reflect a flimsy theatre-like structure painted above this open scene. Painted women recline in the rectangular pictures, supported by the heads of herms, making this garden something of a picture gallery - a pinakothekai - in this fantasy garden.

Pan and goat:

Pan and goat. (see Telegraph article)

Don't be prudish, this is sex and sex is amusing and fun. Notice how Pan even seems to be leaning tenderly over the goat, as if reassuring her that everything will be ok? This piece is bound to get a few giggles in the exhibition. It completely throws us as we have no idea whether to take it seriously or as a joke. Normally is it confined to the 'Secret Cabinet' room of the Naples Museum. I can't wait to see how they explain this piece. The phallus was seen as a lucky object, and fauns were naughty, cheeky and sexually depraved. They were also part-goat. So really, I see this as an amusing talking point in a Roman garden, not meant to shock, but just, titillate.

In any case, I'm excited for the new exhibition and can't wait to see what objects have made it out of Italy to amuse and interest us in the UK.

Reviews of the exhibition can be found here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21938225

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21897925