When Pompeii was excavated in the 1700s, the king of Naples bellowed, “Bring me the best of what you find!” Pompeii’s treasures ended up here. For lovers of antiquity, this museum alone makes Naples worth a stop.
On this walk, we’ll be seeing statues, mosaics, and frescoes from the ancient Roman world. All journey’s through the Naples Archaelogical Museum start at the grand staircase.
Roman Portrait Busts – This long room is lined with portrait busts. We can see Roman senators, orators, emperors, and first ladies. They were acquired by the wealthy Farnese family of the 15th and 1600s. The Farneses love the ancient world. They decorated their lavish homes, villas, and gardens with these priceless gems.
With his curly hair and scaggly beard, Caracalla is easy to spot. Marvel at how he evolved from an idealistic youth to a cruel tyrant. At the peak of his reign, Caracalla built the mammouth Baths of Caracalla in the city of Rome. At the time, that bath house was one of the largest structures on earth. And… it was decorated with larger-than-life statues.
Look how naturally this Roman noblewoman crosses her legs and just kicks back. She glances to the side, with a pensive look. This is no youthful goddess, but an ordinary woman. Notice her hairstyle – tight curls and braided in back. This was typical for the time. The Romans excelled at ultra-realistic portraits like this, showing real people with their everyday features.
Emperor Vespasian – Vespasian is smiling. He had a reputation as a humble man even as he ruled the vast Roman Empire when it was approaching its peak… oh, let’s say somewhere around the year A.D. 79.
If you look in Vespasian’s right ear, you’ll see a hole. The inside of this head is hollow. It was hollowed out in medieval times, though nobody knows exactly why.
The Farnese Collection – This grand hall is filled with larger-than-life statues. Many are over 10 feet tall. You’ll see Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. There are heroes and mythological figures.
Most of these were sculpted around 1800 years ago to decorate the Baths of Caracalla. That was a public bath house – a kind of fitness club – in the city of Rome. It was massive, covering 60 acres.
The baths’ main hall was two stories tall, and the place could accommodate 1600 bathers at the same time. Romans hit the baths daily. They came to exercise, work up a sweat in the steam rooms, then cool off in the swimming pools. There were shops, cafes, even libraries.
Statues like the ones surrounding you were an integral part of the decor. They graced courtyards, fountains, and the grand central hall. They epitomized the classy culture of the Greek world that Romans aspired to emulate. The Baths of Caracalla were famed throughout the ancient world – one of the largest building complexes on earth.
These statues themselves were also famous. They were of extremely high quality – done on a colossal scale rarely attempted before or since.
But when Rome fell – that was around A.D. 500 – the Baths of Caracalla fell with it. These statues we’re walking among wee lost, buried under centuries of rubble. but they wee still famous, because medieval scholars knew them – they knew them from descriptions by ancient writers.
In the 1500s, with the Renaissance, there was a rebirth of interest in the ancient world. The Farneses, a wealthy Roman family, financed an excavation. They were led by Alessandro Farnese – better known as Pope Paul III.
You might remember his as the guy who hired Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgement.
The Farneses excavated the baths, hoping to scavenge building material for their new palace at the Campo de’ Fiori in Rome. but when they stumbled on these statues, it was a huge bonus. They cleaned them off, hauled them across town, and used them to decorate their gardens, courtyards, and dining rooms.
These statues became the nucleus of the Farnese family’s renowned collection of antiquities. Each subsequent generation added to the collection. As Farnese princesses married into royalty, these treasures were soon gracing palaces throughout Europe. By the 1700s, the collection was in the hands of the Farnese heir, Charles III, the highly cultured king of Naples. Charles had been raised in Naples, and now ruled Spain. In 1734, Charles brought the family collection here to Naples. He commissioned this museum to house the collection. And today, we can see the Farnese collection fully restored and displayed in this bright and spacious hall. The hall is designed to that – walking among the statues – you get a glimpse of their of their original setting in the famed Baths of Caracalla.
The Toro Farnese – The tangled “Toro Farnese” tells a thrilling Greek myth. Two men struggle with a wild bull. They’re tying a woman named Dirce – she’s on the lower left – to the bull. Dirce had mistreated the men’s mother, and now they’re getting their revenge. They tie Dirce to the horns of a bull. Dirce reaches up and pleads for mercy. But the boys are determined, and Dirce is about to be dragged off to be dashed against the mountainside.
As we slowly circle the statue, we can watch the action come to life. The men’s capes flail as they struggle. The bull twists his head, snorts, and rears back, kicking his hooves high in the air. At the bull’s feet, a dog looks up at the bull and snarls.
Continuing to circle, the base of statue has trees and animals, evoking the setting – the sacred mountain of Dionysus. Almost overlooked in all this commotion is the central figure of the whole story. There she is standing at the back – the boys’ shamed mother, Antiope. She looks on, overseeing this harsh ancient justice with a kind of satisfaction. She carries a spear, and gestures with her hand as if to say: “Well, that’s what you get.”
The statue was understandably famous in its day. It was sculpted for the Baths of Caracalla in the 3rd century. It was based on an even earlier statue done in bronze three centuries before. For the Baths, the artists supersized it. At 13 feet, the “Toro Farnese” is the tallest ancient marble group ever found. In fact, it’s the largest intact ancient statue, period. All of the main figures – the brothers, the bull, and Dirce – were all carved out of a single piece of marble. The block would have weighed 15 tons. The “Toro Farnese” is both massive and masterful. It brings to life the grandeur that was Rome.
The Farnese Hercules – The great Greek hero looks exhausted. He leans on his club and bows his head. His veins bulge and his knotted muscles sage ever so slightly. His face is weary and deep in thought.
Hercules, the strongest man on earth, had been ordered by the gods to perform twelve tasks. This statue shows Labor number eleven. Think of what he’d already been through. Labor #1 – slaying the Lion of Nemea. No problem. Powerful Hercules strangled the lion, then skinned it as a trophy. In fact, you can see the lion’s hide, draped over Hercules’s club.
Next Labor – killing the three-head Hydra. Check. Done that. And so on. but with each successive Labor, the tasks got harder, the travel in between got farther, and Hercules got older.
The statue certainly seems to depict the heavy body of a middle-aged man.
Now Hercules is on the daunting Eleventh Labor – retrieving three golden apples from a far-off garden. To do it, he had to travel the world, fight both men and gods, free Prometheus from his rock, and even carry Atlas’s weight of the world on this shoulders. Now he’s finally returned with the prize -the golden apples.
Hercules has them cupped in his right hand. On the back side of the statue.
Hercules should be happy. He’s almost done. But the gods have just told him he did Labor number eleven wrong. He’ll have to go all the way back and return the apples. After that, will come the final labor, #12, the most impossible of all – to descend into hell itself. The Farnese statue captures the moment when Hercules gets the bad news, reflects on it all, and thinks to himself: “Oh, man!”
The statue is 10-and-a-half feet tall. His muscles are incredibly well-defined. His upper body and arms are almost ridiculously oversized, like a body-builder on steriods. Circling around back, you can see his tight buns and bulging, knotted calves.
The Farnese Hercules was sculpted in the 3rd century A.D. for the Baths of Caracalla.
Like the “Toro Farnese”, this was a large-scale marble copy of an earlier work. That was a famous Greek bronze from the 4th century B.C. This image of Hercules was enormously famous in the ancient world. Dozens of similar statues – some marble, some bronze – have been found in Roman villas and baths.
In 1546, the Farnese Hercules was unearthed at the Baths of Caracalla. It was in fragments.
If you look closely at the pictures, you can see the breaks. There’s a line in his left forearm where it was clearly broken. You can also see it pretty clearly in the legs, just below the knees.
The forearm is a modern replacement – it’s made of plaster. But the lower legs are original. At first, those leg fragments were thought to be lost forever. So restores were hired to replace them. But then they found the originals.
Once restored, the Farnese Hercules became famous. Tourists flocked to admire it. Art students studied if from afar in prints. Louis XIV made a copy of it for Versailles, and petty nobles everywhere but small-scale knock-offs in their gardens. As result, this curly-haired hero has become the iconic image we think of when we think of the legendary Greek Hero, Hercules.
Now it’s time to move on to the see more art from the ancient world – this time from the city of Pompeii.
Pompeii was a booming port city of 20,000 people. It was a typical middle-class Roman town. The streets were jammed with chariots and shoppers. People lived in nice houses. They decorated them with statues in the courtyards, mosaics on the floors, and colorful paintings on the walls.
Then, it all changed.
On August 24th in the year A. D. 79, Mount Vesuvius literally blew its top. The eruption sent a mushroom cloud of ash 12 miles into the air. The white-grey ash began to settle over Pompeii. In just a few hours, the city was completely covered in a suffocating blanket of fine powder. For the next 1500 years, Pompeii lay buried and forgotten.
In the 1700s, archaeologists discovered the long-lost city. It was a treasure-trove, frozen in time. They meticulously removed mosaics piece by piece and cut frescoes from the surviving walls The best of it was brought here to the Naples museum.
Mosaics from Pompeii – Imagine them in their original setting, adorning some of Pompeii’s ritziest villas. There they decorated both walls and floors. But here they’re displayed on the walls like framed paintings. Some of the most popular designs at Pompeii were geometric patterns, battle scenes, and animals.
Romans loved their pets. In fact, among the ruins of Pompeii, archaeologists have found a number of dogs, preserved in the ash. Many Pompeiian homes had dog mosaics like this one, gracing the entryway. Some of them (though not this one) came with the Latin phrase “cave canem” – beware of dog.”
These columns once supported an arcade that provided shade for an open-air courtyard. Similar columns and mosaics decorated another popular feature in Pompeiian homes – a bubbling fountain. The entire city enjoyed fresh running water brought in by a system of aqueducts.
A Pompeiian family might have had a battle scene on the floor of the den. In their dining room, they might have had one of food. And a mosaic of a candelabra in the library.
Remember how that eruption of Mount Vesuvius impacted Pompeii. It wasn’t obliterated by hot lava. The destruction came mostly from light ash that fell like snow. The ash collapsed the roofs of the houses but left the walls intact. In a way, it sealed everything in a preservative layer.
The mosaic above shows street musicians. They’re stepping to the beat of a tambourine and cymbals.
The scene was created from thousands of teeny-tiny pieces of colored stone or glass. They were pressed into wet plaster. Admire the realism. The musicians and dancers move in a completely natural way. You can even see their shadows. 🙂 This particular mosaic was such high quality that it was even signed by the artist – it’s there, in the upper left corner.
The skull was the symbol of death and was a popular theme. It was a constant reminder to the Romans that life is brief, so live it up now.
Erotic Art from Pompeii – The Gabinetto Segreto – These rooms contain a sizable assortment of erotic frescoes, well-hung pottery, and perky statues. The art once decorated buildings in Pompeii – their bedrooms, meeting rooms, shops, and brothels.
We’re enthusiastically greeted by some big stone penises. These phalluses once graced Pompeii’s doorways. A massive phallus was not necessarily a sexual symbol. It could be a magical amulet used to keep evil spirits away from the house. It was a symbol of all things good – fertility, happiness, good luck, riches, straight A’s, and general well-being.
These paintings depict people having sex. The art is surprisingly realistic and frank. You’ll see pale-skinned women and ruddy-skinned men. They’re embracing, kissing, fondling… and more.
Many of these bawdy scenes hung on the walls of Pompeii’s ritziest houses. They were entertainment for the guests.
This backroom is furnished like an ancient brothel. The 10 frescoes on the wall functioned as a menu of services offered. It’s a virtual Roman Kama Sutra of sex positions. Strangely, the only position that seems to be missing is the “missionary”.
Brothels were just another business in the free-wheeling port town of Pompeii. There were 30 of them. They weren’t luxurious establishments – just a few small bedrooms, with a stone bench for a bed.
For nearly 200 years, this collection could only be seen with special permission from the king. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that the general public was finally allowed in.
These rooms show an aspect of life that’s often kept hidden. You get a sense of our shared humanity – that those ancient Romans really weren’t so different from us.
As one moves thru the museum, it is important to think of how these objects got here. Pompeii was one of the world’s first true archaeological digs. It was discovered in 1748, when the enlightened King Charles of the Farnese family ruled Naples. Charles personally oversaw the dig, and all of the best finds went into his personal collection.
Here we actually see the son of King Charles – Ferdinand I. The statue’s by the well-known sculptor Canova. King Ferdinand inherited his dad’s collection. He gathered it all together into one place and officially inaugurated this museum. The grand staircase – with its fanciful double stairs – was the new museum’s architectural centerpiece.
The Salone Meridiana – This long line inlaid into the floor is the meridian line, laid out in 1791. It’s part of a sundial, and it still works. Up in the far-right corner of the hall is a tiny pinhole. At noon, a ray of sun enters the hall through this tiny hole. It shines down on the line in the floor. This shows the month of the year – that is, if you know your signs of the zodiac. Pretty ingenious.
Everyday Objects from Pompeii – There are many displays of bowls and plates, jars and silverwear. It’s a reminder that the ancient Romans weren’t just about big temples and high-class art. Their daily lives were much like ours.
Before the Romans, glass was extremely rare. To make it required melting sand at very high temperatures – a technological challenge. But the Romans produced glass with relative ease. Even ordinary people might have the things that are in these cases – vases, drinking glasses – even window panes. The wealthiest Romans could afford high-quality glass, like the vials for perfume in this case. These are practically works of art.
This is the so-called Blue Vase. It’s decorated with baby Bacchuses. They harvest grapes and stomp the grapes to make wine. They play music while they work.
Then they enjoy the fruit of their labors. The vase is a kind of cameo. It was made by fusing together two layers of glass – one cobalt blue and one white. Then artist etched the scene on it, creating white figures on the blue background.
Though it’s a “vase”, it’s actually in the shape of a Roman amphora – a just for holding wine.
When this fragile object was unearthed at Pompeii, it astounded everyone. It is easy to see why.
This model shows the ruins of Pompeii, on a 1-to-100 scale. This was all that had by been excavated by the time this model was made…. in 1879.
On the wall is another model – this one show Pompeii in the year 2004 – after another century of digging. The model makes it clear that archaeologists have uncovered much more beyond the theaters – all the way up to the huge oval-shaped arena. When we visited Pompeii (soon to be posted here! 🙂 ), we saw the arenas, the theaters, the forum, and more. And archaeologists are still digging.
Frescoes from Pompeii – This fresco shows a snake, some birds, and what looks like a puffy man. It’s actually Bacchus dressed in a robe of grapes. He stands alongside a mountain. That is Mt. Vesuvius – a rare portrait of the volcano painted before it blew its top in A.D. 79.
The ancient Pompeiians had no idea they were living under a volcano. Vesuvius hadn’t erupted for 1,200 years. When it did blow, the entire top third of the mountain was pulverized instantly. The eruption sent a column of smoke and ash roaring upward, spewing for 18 hours straight. When the dust settled on Pompeii, it buried the city, suffocating 2,000 people. The next day, Vesuvius roared again. This time it sent a searing cloud of med down the mountainside, engulfing the nearby city of Herculaneum.
Paintings rarely survive from these early times. That makes these frescoes particularly precious.
The man is named Terentius Neo, and the woman is his wife. Terentius holds a scroll, while Mrs. Neo holds a pen and a writing tablet. This suggests they were typical, educated, middle-class Pompeiians. Gaze into their eyes. They may have been two of the 2,000 people killed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.
The Villa dei Papiri Scrolls and Statues – These rooms contain artifacts from the town of Herculaneum, which was also destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius in A. D. 79. The objects all come from a single villa. It was the holiday home of a prominent Roman – in fact, the father-in-law of none other than Julius Caesar.
The display case above contains to shriveled-up and blackened scrolls. They were burned to a crisp when the hot volcanic cloud rushed through Herculaneum. These are just two out of 2,000 scrolls found in the villa. They were made from papyrus, a kind of paper popular in ancient Egypt. These scrolls are what prompted scholars to give the villa its name – the “villa of the papyrus.” The displays explain how archaeologists have managed to delicately unroll the half-burned scrolls. Some could even be read. Turns out that most were written in Greek, some in Latin. They cover a wide range of subjects, from Greek philosophy to Latin history. Clearly, Caesar’s father-in-law was an educated man.
Here we find bronze statues from the villa. Think of their original location. They decorated the rooms, gardens, and courtyards of one of the largest and most luxurious villas in Herculaneum.
The villa’s owner was named Piso. He was the father of Caesar’s third wife, Capurnia. Calpurnia was only 16 when Caesar married her, and Caesar and Piso were the same age. Like Caesar, Piso was a politician. He’d even served as Rome’s counsul – essentially the defacto ruler of the entire Roman world. He tangled with the orator Cicero and made alliances with Mark Antony. Pisa was a follower of Epicureanism. That was a hedonistic philosophy that urged followers to enjoy life. His fancy villa in the seaside resort of Herculaneum would have allowed him to do just that.
These graceful maidens are called the Five Dancers. They have inlaid-ivory eyes and elegant poses. These statues stood in the villa’s main courtyard. These dancing maidens may have served as columns, to hold up a portico. Others claim they’re not dancers at all, but mythological figures. They myth went that they were wives who’d murdered their husbands. As punishment, they were condemned to fetch water for eternity. That what their poses are: they were holding water jugs on their heads.
These are the intense-looking “Corridore” or “runners.” They stand at the starting line, bent on doing their best. Sporting events similar to the Olympic Games were big in ancient Rome. As these statues show, athletes always competed naked. Winners could become rich and famous, and snag endorsement deals.
Here’s “Resting Hermes.” Hermes was the fleet-footed messenger of the gods, who flew along with little wings on his heels. No he’s tired and needs a break.
The statue of Hermes is extremely high quality. His pose is natural and relaxed. One hand is resting casually, and his upper body is turned slightly.
Bronze statues like this were not made by hammering sheets of metal, but with the classic process known as the “lost wax” technique. First, the artist would make a full-size version of the statue out of clay. Then he’d cover that with layer of wax. Next, add another layer of clay over the wax – making a kind of “wax sandwich.”
They they’d heat the whole thing in a furnace. The wax would melt, leaving a narrow space between the inner and outer clay molds. They’d refill this space by pouring in molten bronze. The metal cooled and – voila! – you have a hollow bronze statue. And that’s the lost wax technique.
Wrapping up – here is the “Drunken Faun”. Look at him – he’s completely blitzed. He sprawls across his lion-skin blanket, happy as can be. He’s singing and snapping his fingers to the beat, with a wineskin at his side. This guy is clearly living for today. He epitomizes the carpe diem lifestyle of his age. It was the Epicurean philosophy followed by Caesar’s father-in-law and so many other Romans in Herculaneum and Pompeii. They were living the good life. That is, until that fateful morning of August 24th, AD 79, when Mount Vesuvius changed everything.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like we’re better prepared to take on the actual ruins of Pompeii – coming up in just a day or so! 🙂