In A.D. 79, Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy suddenly erupted, burying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum with volcanic ash and rock. Approximately 1,500 years later, the cities were rediscovered with excavations beginning in the early 1700s.
Archeologists would soon uncover the remains of homes, businesses and public buildings, many adorned with extensive and richly colored paintings on their walls called frescoes. Some of these same frescoes will travel across the Atlantic to North America for the first time this summer as part of the exhibition, “The Painters of Pompeii: Roman Frescoes from the National Archeological Museum, Naples.”
This collection of more than 80 artifacts and artworks, including 67 fresco paintings from Pompeii, Herculaneum and other surrounding cities that were buried during the Vesuvius eruption, will be at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art from June 26 through Oct. 17.
The collection, organized by the National Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy, highlights the art of painting in ancient Rome and will be presented exclusively at the OKC Museum of Art before heading back to Europe.
“The exhibition is really a story about the artist, and particularly the painter in ancient Rome,” said Rosie May, the museum’s director of curatorial affairs and audience engagement. “Visitors are going to learn who the artists were, where they worked and how they worked.”
Sculptures and architecture had a higher value in ancient Rome than paintings, May said, and as a result, the people who were painters were typically slaves, former slaves and women.
“According to the curator at the National Archeological Museum in Naples, there were lots of women painters but very few paintings of women painters,” May said, noting that this exhibition will include a fresco of a woman painter.
Visitors attending the exhibition will learn about the process and materials used in creating the frescoes. Some of those materials will be on display, including 2,000-year-old pigment. Since most frescoes came from inside homes, the museum will reassemble a fully frescoed wall from a room in a house using the original frescoes.
“Roman painting is rare. It just doesn’t survive,” May said. “It only survived because of this horrific event – the eruption of Mount Vesuvius – which encased all these frescoes so we could find them and learn more about Roman painting.”
In addition to being able to see many pieces of ancient Roman art, visitors can also attend a series of lectures held in the Noble Theater and hear several of the most renowned scholars in the field of ancient Roman art and history.
There is no cost for Museum members to attend this high-demand exhibition. Tickets to the general public are on sale now, with limited capacity and timed entries to ensure the safety of visitors and staff. Children 17 and under will receive free admission.
Exhibition hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
To learn more about this event, please visit the OKC Museum of Art website or phone 405-236-3100.
On a side note, Café Pompeii by Patrono opens June 22 and will share museum hours through Oct. 17. The pop-up restaurant will be fast casual, specializing in lunch, light bites, coffee, wine, beer and cocktails with open seating, including the dining room and patio.
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