A new exhibit entitled The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection recently opened on September 12, 2012 at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California. According to the J. Paul Getty Museum website, the exhibition “addresses the potent legacy of the ancient city of Pompeii in the modern imagination.”
As the historical background of Pompeii goes, the city of Pompeii was “destroyed yet paradoxically preserved” as a result of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. This event led to Pompeii being seemingly frozen in time enabling art historians and conservators and others excellent access to the daily lives of ancient Romans.
The name of this fascinating new exhibition at the Getty Villa comes from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1834 novel The Last Days of Pompeii, a melodrama centered around Pompeian life prior to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The museum’s website further notes that the novel was considered “[o]ne of the most popular literary works of the 19th century” in that it “transformed perceptions of Pompeii and inspired numerous works of art, several of which are on view in the exhibition.”
A complete list of the 74 exquisite works in the exhibition may be viewed here. The Last Days of Pompeii exhibit runs through January 7, 2013.