Antiquities Exhibits

Almost 100 watercolors of Pompeii by Luigi Bazzani now on Wikimedia Commons!  Nineteenth century Italian Neoclassical artist Luigi Bazzani spent over 30 years documenting the ruins of Pompeii as it was excavated between 1880 - 1915.  These images illustrate the kaleidoscope of colors used by the Romans in the decoration of their public and private living spaces.  Sadly, many of the original structures have been lost to deterioration or destruction during the twentieth century.  But now images of these watercolors have been added to the Pompeii Wikipedia page along with a link to the entire archive of Bazzani's paintings on Wikimedia Commons for everyone to enjoy and study. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bazzani_Watercolors_of_Pompeii Image: Watercolor of a mosaic fountain niche in Pompeii by Luigi Bazzani. (PD) Note: Bazzani painted images of a number of beautiful fountains like this one but sadly I saw not a single one when I vi...

Luigi Bazzani, who spent 30 years documenting the ongoing excavations of Pompeii with watercolors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Bazzani I have been working very hard on a Wikipedia page for Italian Neoclassicist painter Luigi Bazzani. I researched and identified 70 of his paintings of which 47 are watercolors of various villas and other structures in Pompeii just after they were excavated. I was amazed at the veritable kaleidoscope of colors originally unearthed and sad that we have, with only a few exceptions, just a skeleton of what remains of the once vibrant Roman city today. Although I was very excited to visit Pompeii the first time in 2005, I was admittedly a bit disappointed at how little remained of the artwork. Most frescoes and mosaics had been hacked out and either whisked away to museums or, in some cases, to the royal collection of various European monarchs. I was so excited to find just a small, damaged painting of a little centaur forgotten near the baseboa...

Back in 2013, an exhibit of Luigi Bazzani's watercolors of freshly excavated Pompeii was presented at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. Fortunately for us, images of six of the 31 beautiful watercolors are still available to view online. Luigi, a painter and set designer, rendered glimpses of Pompeii from the Forum to the Baths, up to the House of the Vettii and the district of the Theaters. A number of Luigi's original watercolors of Pompeii can be seen in the Prints & Drawings Study Room, level E of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Newly excavated Pompeii fountain by Luigi Bazzani (PD) See the slideshow: https://napoli.repubblica.it/cronaca/2013/07/03/foto/museo_archeologico_la_mostra_di_bazzano-62320333/#1