Pompeii Exhibit Narrates Final Moments

Head of an Amazon, marble, mid-1st Century AD. SAP 80499. Found at the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, this is one of the best Roman copies of a type of Amazon of the Classical period, called ‘Sciarra', the original of which is attributed either to the sculptor Kresilas or to Polyclitus. [Image from Birmingham Museum of Art exhibit website.]
Pompeii: Tales of an Eruption
October 14, 2007 - January 27, 2008

"The largest collection of artifacts from the ancient Italian city of Pompeii ever to leave Italy ... nearly 500 stunning works of art and artifacts ... The stories of how they lived and died unfold in what they carried and what they left behind. Clutching precious objects including exquisitely designed jewelry, ancient coins and the tools of their trade, father, mother, children and pets are preserved for all time in casts of bodies found huddled as the volcano’s pryoclastic surges engulfed streets and buildings...'Art and architecture, archaeology and geology, city planning and history, food and medicine — it all comes together in this exhibit to tell the stories of their lives,' says Birmingham Museum of Art Director Gail Trechsel."

[Quoted from Birmingham Museum of Art e-news.]