Exhibition “Under an Ancient Sky. Pompeii and Piranesi between Past and Present”

In the exhibition itinerary, the history of Pompeii is evoked thanks to a selection of frescoes preserved at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. They come from the House of the Tragic Poet, which was discovered in 1824 and which counts as one of the most elegant of the Vesuvian city. 

In parallel, a selection of nine engravings by Francesco Piranesi, taken from the drawings of his father Giovanni Battista and preserved at the Central Institute for Graphics in Rome, recall the myth of the rediscovery and the tragic end of the city.

Pompeii, an essential stop on the Grand Tour of artists at the end of the 18th century, is an integral part of world history that has made meditation on the ancient the centre of gravity of modern thought, the undisputed protagonist of great European culture. The exhibition evokes this also in the portrait of Goethe made by Wilhelm Tischbein (Certosa and Museum of San Martino, Regional Directorate of National Museums of Campania).

Even today, the ancient city offers new ideas, as evidenced by the photographs taken by Luigi Spina, from Castel Sant’Angelo (Pantheon and Castel Sant’Angelo, Directorate of National Museums of the City of Rome), which portray it immersed in an evocative desert atmosphere during the Covid-19 pandemic period.