Works from the Correale Museum at the “Alma Tadema a Pompei.
Nostalgia for the exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum, Naples

The exhibition “Alma-Tadema in Pompeii. Nostalgia for the past” has been extended to 28  April 2008 at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. The Correale Museum is present at the exhibition with works by Teodoro Duclére: “Pompei”, “Il foro di Pompei”(The Forum of Pompeii), and works by Giacinto Gigante: “Cena notturna nella casa di Sallustio a Pompei” (Evening dinner at Sallustio’s house in Pompeii), “La casa di Cornelio Rufo a Pompei” (Cornelius Rufus’ house in Pompeii). Pompeii, Herculaneum and the interpretation of classical style in 19th century art characterise the exhibition. The interesting archaeological findings from extensive digs in Pompeii and  he Vesuvius areas in the 19th century, have had a strong influence on the metaphor of painters and writers of that century, giving a vivid and extraordinaryimage of the ancient  world, with its social, political and everyday reality. The painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912, Dutch by birth but English by adoption, represents the most famous and illustrious interpreters of the neo-Pompeian genre. Through his profound knowledge of classic archaeology and literature, in a delicately aesthetic way, Alma-Tadema manages to bring back a lost world where everyday scenes become nearlegend.  His art (and that of his followers) were for the upper middle class, who like to recognise themselves, nobilitating their vices and virtues, in the rites and customs of a society now remote but extremely vivid in its intimate, everyday facets,  hanks to the excavations of Pompeii and other sites. The exhibition at Naples National Archaeological Museum aims to rebuild a complete iconographic picture of the perception of classical antiquity in the latter half of the 19th century: starting from the grand maestro Alma-Tadema, through the rich Italian movement, without neglecting the works of the international school in illustrating significant steps towards affirmation of the genre. The argument is dealt with in various interpretative aspects, thereby giving room also to historic art, inspired by documentary and archaeological evidence from the classical world, but also to real paintings  nd findings from the most important archaeological sites, by artists, architects and professional layout artists, without neglecting basic literary sources, such as guidebooks and novels set in the buried towns. The exhibition is subdivided   to sections corresponding to different themes: one dedicated to the example of Lawrence  lma-Tadema, with important  nd known works; one dedicated to the antiquarian taste for citing classic architectural and  sculptural, social and religious elements; one dedicated to the paintings of indoor family scenes  and similar, in which typical situations of middle class 19th century society are placed in a classical context; one reserved for paintings of key episodes of Greek and Roman history, the evolution of a genre already expressed between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th; one dedicated to representing  he excavations and including both ‘live’ paintings (Palizzi, Gigante, Duclére, etc.) and the works of archaeological layout artists; and one concentrated  on the iconographic and literary wealth of Pompeii and Vesuvius area excavations, illustrated through documents of various kinds: books, prints, postcards, old photos, old archaeological guides, theatre, opera and films.