Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali
Soprintendenza speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei



La PITTURA POMPEIANA
National Archaelogical Museum, Naples
30 April 2009

On 30 April, the National Archaeological Museum, Naples, is reopening its collection of frescoes to the public. This collection is truly one of a kind and unmatched anywhere in the world. The reopening marks the end of restoration work as well as a reorginization of the exhibition rooms themselves. The collection of frescoes, recovered from the cities that surrounded and were destroyed by Vesuvius in the eruption of 79 CE, gathers close to 400 works. Because of the rarity of pictorial evidence discovered elsewhere, these pieces have been used as the basis for the stylistic subdivision of ancient Roman wall painting. The recovery of the frescoes from Pompeii took place from the middle of the 18th century, continuing through the whole of the 19th century and, in exceptional cases, also in the course of the last century as well.
These extraordinary artifacts document the painting of the Roman age, in its evolution and variety, from the second through to the fourth style: from the rather sober structural style to the large scale paintings of Boscoreale in which princes, philosophers and personifications are outlined in a Pompeian red, undoubtedly an echo of the great art of the Hellenistic age; from the illusionistic architecture that delighted the social elite to the more refined arabesque style with its scenes of captivating levity populated by cupids, satyrs, and dancers suspended in midair.
The ancient colors and details, never before seen but revealed here thanks to recent cleaning and restoration efforts, have allowed the foremost experts in the field to make new discoveries: to confirm or revise prevailing iconographic interpretations, to reconstruct more fully the original contexts within the figurative program, to deepen the understanding of particular genres such as folk art or portraiture and, moreover, to investigate all the technical aspects of painting and the organization of the process.

The exhibition, done by Mariarosaria Borriello and Valeria Sampaolo, allows the visitor to travel via images through the Greco-Roman world: from the gods and heroes of myth to the sacred rituals, from vignettes of everyday life to erotic scenes, from portraits to the beginnings of still life and landscapes. The language of the images enables the visitor to consider the paintings not only from a point of view of style and form, but also and especially as an expression of a collective imagination, perhaps not at all so distant.

The reopening of the section dedicated to the Paintings of Pompeii is administered by the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Napoli e Pompei and is supported by the Region of Campania, and the Assessorato al Turismo e Beni Culturali, as part of the project, 6 journeys in Campania 2009.