Description
By (author) Schütze, Sebastian; By (author) Kockel, Valentin
Short /annotation:
A facsimile of Le case ed i monumenti di Pompei, Fausto and Felice Niccolini’s extraordinary Pompeii publication, first issued in 1854 and featuring color plates of the buried Vesuvian city. An enduring archaeological masterpiece, the volume reveals maps and groundplans of Pompeii, stunning interior decoration and intimate everyday objects.
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When the excavations at Pompeii were first placed on ascholarly archaeological footing in the 19th century, brothers Faustoand Felice Niccolini were close at hand and ready to respond. Making useof the newly introduced technique of color lithography, they documented the buildings, frescos, statues, as well as the most ordinary everyday objects,of the city buried in just 24 hours by the catastrophic eruption ofVesuvius and preserved for over 1,600 years under a mantle of volcanicash.
The Niccolinis’ goal was to illustrate all aspects of life in the antique city. Their publication, Le case ed i monumenti di Pompei (“The Houses and Monuments of Pompeii”), which was issued in installments between 1854 and 1896 in Naples, presented over 400 color plates providing not only views, maps, and groundplans of the city and its public buildings, but also offered unprecedented access to Pompeii’s private residences.They revealed the astonishing painted wall decorations that adornedthese long-buried abodes, their intricate works of art, and thepractical utensils of everyday use, conjuring up a vivid picture of eachhouse as a real domestic space. In addition, “animated” representations visualized daily life inPompeii’s workshops, taverns, and shops, on its public squares, and inits temples, theaters, and baths.
This meticulous facsimile revives the Niccolinis’ extraordinaryachievement with selected color plates and two introductory essays settingthe project in its contemporary context and presenting the historicalprotagonists of the Vesuvian excavations. In addition, weexplore the remarkable influence exerted by Pompeian art—and by thehaunting plaster casts made of victims of the eruption—on the visualarts. Across painting, sculpture, and interior design, we tracethe Pompeii legacy in the work of Robert Adam, Anton Raphael Mengs,Angelika Kaufmann, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Lawrence Alma-Tadema,Pablo Picasso, and Giorgio de Chirico, right through to recent mastersDuane Hanson and George Segal.
Review quote:
“The precious treasures of Pompeii are now secured for posterity.”
Review quote:
“TASCHEN resurrects [the Niccolini brothers’] achievement in this sumptuous tome.”
Biographical note:
Sebastian Schütze was a longtime research fellow at the Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome. He is a member of the academic board of the Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Filosofici in Naples, and a member of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. From 2003 to 2009 he held the Bader Chair in Southern Baroque Art at Queen’s University in Kingston. In 2009 he was appointed professor of early modern art history at Vienna University. Valentin Kockel studied classical archaeology and obtained his doctorate in 1978 with a thesis on the necropolises of Pompeii. He has worked at the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, the Technical University of Darmstadt, and until 2014 he was Professor at Augsburg University. Kockel has headed excavations in Ostia Antica and at the Forum in Pompeii.
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