Starting January 26, you can get a rare glimpse of art from Pompeii right here in NYC.
NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World will show off a collection of 35 Roman frescoes from Pompeii rarely seen outside Italy, including paintings representing dynamic mythological scenes, inviting landscapes, sumptuous still lifes, astonishing trompe-l’oeil, captivating portraits, and energetic genre scenes from a vanished world that most people know only by the volcanic eruption, according to the institute.
The frescos will be visiting NYC from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples at the Institute’s galleries at 15 East 84th Street, offering an intimate view of ancient painting, the tastes and values of the Romans who lived with these works, as well as the techniques used by the artists who created them, the institute says.
"The remarkably well-preserved frescoes from lost villas invite us to see beyond the ashes of the tragic city, and instead experience the vibrant world of the ancient Roman home as the Pompeians themselves knew it. Just as intriguingly, this exhibition also raises many of the same questions that we do today when we enter a home: What stories are being told through décor, and how and why? And what can these images show us about the world that a person inhabits?"
Pompeii in Color: The Life of Roman Wall Painting is free and open to the public. It runs January 26 through May 29, 2022 at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (15 East 84th Street).
