Fig. 8.1 Pompeii, victims of Vesuvius, from House of Cryptoporticus.
(V. Spinazzola, Pompeii: ... Via dell’ Abbondanza, 1, p. 443)
For a century and a half after their rediscovery the two sites were treated almost entirely as a quarry for works of art, as a plaything for the various dynasties that misruled Naples, and as a romantic stop on the Grand Tour. The discovery of ancient artifacts here revolutionized the taste of Europe: Ludwig of Bavaria built a replica of a Pompeian house at Aschaffenburg; Winckelmann, the great Romantic art historian, conceived here many of his notions of the wonders of Greek art; Casanova’s brother copied some of the paintings, and did a brisk business in forgeries. Nelson’s mistress, Lady Hamilton, was a frequent visitor: her husband was British ambassador to Naples. Goethe was impressed by Pompeii’s smallness; Napoleon’s marshal Murat supervised the dig, and Garibaldi made Alexandre Dumas his Director of Antiquities here. A generation of Victorians sobbed over The Last Days of Pompeii, and the young Queen herself visited the Site in 1838.
But it was not till the era of scientific archaeology—which came to Pompeii and Herculaneum with Fiorelli in 1860—that the buried cities began to add their never-ceasing stores to the sum of our knowledge of ancient town-planning, public life, private life in town and country houses, trade and tradesmen, religion, and art.
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Fig. 8.2 Pompeii, air view. (University of Wisconsin Classics Dept. collection)
Fig. 8.3 Pompeii, plan. (MPI)