MINI-BREAK: pompeii and herculaneum

i moved to rome in september. other than a spa day trip to the thermal springs in the nearby town of viterbo, i have found it difficult to motivate myself to get outside of the city walls. it is sometimes hard for me to imagine that there is anywhere else quite as gob-smackingly impressive as rome but you never know unless you try i guess? so with my weekend landing itself on a tuesday and wednesday at this time of year, i thought i would bite the bullet and book myself a 'mini-break'. without a second's thought, i knew my first stop in italy: pompeii and herculaneum. if you're looking for pure, un-polluted, i'll-pop-in-for-a-cup-of-tea-with-a-roman type history you would be stupid not to hop in that time traveller (which unfortunately happens to be a rather dingey train ride from napoli) and pitch camp near one of these two historic towns. i had been to both excavation sites in 2008 but having spent a large part of my final year at university studying pompeii i couldn't wait to put a name to a face...or in this instance, a page of notes to a building. it was to be a two day trip i had decided, and after booking a hostel in pompeii for the night, and asking my culture vulture of a friend will to join me, i packed my bag and got into bed with that same excitable feeling i get on christmas eve (don't judge?). before i know it, it is  tuesday and our train has steamed into the dirtiest, scariest, most un-roman(tic) place on earth: naples. this was only the 2nd time i had ever been to naples. admittedly the first time i spend 90% of my time in museums, and this time i spent 100% of my time in a pizza restaurant (fyi: a pizza restaurant which has been around for 150 years serving only margherita and marinara pizzas and which features in the eat part of eat, pray, love with julia roberts...) but from what i know, i strongly dislike the city. there is something about it that makes me check the zip on my bag so regularly that i seem to always arrive at my destination with one or more broken nails. in a nutshell, it threatens me. hence the reason that as soon as we arrived, we headed into the staring throng of napolitans for an 11 o' clock thick crust thin base circle of heaven; and then we swiftly left again.

giants? an outsized block of
lego found behind the temple
of jupiter, pompeii.

so we spent our first day in herculaneum: the smaller, wealthier version of pompeii which, along with pompeii, oplontis and stabiae, was also buried under several metres of ash and pumice after the eruption of vesuvius on 24th august 79AD. i had remembered liking herculaneum more than
pompeii: there were fewer people, only 3 main streets intersected by two others, and the ruins and their content appeared equally impressive. all of these factors did indeed ring true during my second visit, in particular the first. we only saw a few other tourists during our visit, all having trouble heaving themselves up onto the pavements from the much lower road level, all tripping over the bfg-style cobbles (perhaps these towns were inhabited by giants? the size of their lego seems to imply that this was the case...), and all having problems rewinding their audioguides after being distracted by some other nugget of wondrousness. to some extent, the same can be said of pompeii at this time of year. summer in pompeii is more memorable for the coachloads of tourists sweating buckets and licking gelati than the ancient town itself, but visiting these ruins in january brought with it an added sense of eeriness and i felt as though i had been let into the site after closing hours (apart from the MASSIVE groups of japanese tourists i occasionally crossed paths with). oh what a lovely affair this was. having said that, two negatives of a mid-week january visit do spring immediately to mind. the first: wrap up warm. winter sun in naples can be bitterly deceiving especially when both hands are out of pockets holding cameras and whatnot. the second: many of the major houses (and indeed the smaller ones) are closed for restoration  during the winter months and so you do spend a lot of time peering over ropes and through metal grates as though you are spying on your neighbour.

the content of the two towns are equally impressive, but one can see how pompeii has become the mecca for tourism that it is. it is the sheer scale of the town that blows your mind. to this day, they have only uncovered 45 of the 66 hectares that made up pompeii, and only 12 of these are open to tourists (and even this is impossible to see in one day without your legs falling off). perhaps they should invent an underground...i may pitch that to the authorities what with all the damage done by those cretins wandering along the streets by foot. i was pretty shocked at the lengths some stupid imbeciles go to to tell the world that they 'heart liam' or 'woz ere 1995' by scratching it into a 1st century fresco. it makes my blood boil. i witnessed the elements playing havock too with some original stucco falling off a wall in one of the smaller houses:
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JHS 98: obviously a necessary
message engraved into a 4th style
fresco in herculaneum


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crumbly heap: stucco that has
succumbed to the elements and
fallen from situ

having said this, not much seems to have changed, with graffiti very much seeming to be 'the thing' at the time of the eruption. both in pompeii and in herculaneum street graffiti seemed to be in abundance (far more elegantly executed than the three-year-old-let-loose-with-a-spray can look of the modern day). not only did these scribbles take place in public areas stating various laws and election campaigns, but in the wealthy villa of the mysteries at pompeii, a caricature of someone named 'rufus' has been engraved into a red wall panel in the atrium (this may have been a reference to marcus holconius rufus, a well-known public figure in 1st century BC pompeii). it looks as though it could have been drawn yesterday:

rufus: graffiti of a caricature in the atrium
of the villa of the mysteries, pompeii

this image really sums up what is so fantastic about these places. unlike the public monuments meant for all to see that we get in rome, pompeii and herculaneum allow us, as i said, to be a part of roman daily life and feel connected to the people of the 1st century AD. much like the letters and sketchings i talked about in the last post, these mundane and more casual records of history is what draws the 2,500,000 tourists to the city of pompeii each year. the endless graffiti, the gold bracelet given to the slave girl by her master and the loaf of bread found in the oven at herculaneum aren't dissimilar to the ticking wrist watch in the debris of the world trade centre after 9/11, or the locks of hair and piles of shoes left over from the holocaust in the imperial war museum in london. in all of these cases we are faced with a feeling of two polarities: we feel distance from the subjects in a chronological sense, but simulataneously there is a proximity between us and them in the way that any one human can understand and connect with another. as well as this, it is human nature's extraordinary morbid curiosity that brings so many tourists to these sites. despite the villa of the mysteries holding some of the best-preserved roman frescoes in the world, it is fiorelli's plastercasts that seem to be the honeypot in this house. the same applies to the house with the beautiful courtyard in herculaneum; despite the incredible floor mosaics that carpet pretty much the entirety of the groud floor, it is three skeletons clutching on to one another inside a glass cabinet that seem to draw most people's attention. and i don't blame them. above everything else remaining from these ancient towns, to me, it is the skeletons and casts that make the biggest impression. with the latter also preserving the bones inside of the plaster, fiorelli's invention has allowed us not only to see the bodily positions of those who were killed that day, but also their facial expressions. these casts give you a lump in your throat and even a tear in your eye as you realise that these towns were inhabited by real people, and they suffered the most horrific of deaths on that day in 79AD.

this state of preservation is of course what makes these cities so unique. as well as the stone structures which are bafflingly still standing(roofless due to the pressure of the volcanic debris), other materials such as metal and wood can also be seen at the sites. there are some pretty impressive (yet wonky) metal doors and window shutters remaining at the villa of the mysteries in pompeii; and at herculaneum, there is a preserved wooden staircase, wooden door frames and shutters, and even roof beams still existing in situ. wood, a substance usually prone to decomposition, has managed to survive 2 milleniums. g.o.b.s.m.a.c.k.i.n.g.

a wooden staircase preserved in a
glass cabinet, herculaneum

wooden shutters, herculaneum

another thing that strikes the tourist as he/she galavants around the streets of these towns is quite how similar the romans were to us. i know we don't wear togas and seek the thrill of watching criminals being torn to pieces by wild animals, but in an engineering sense, little seems to have changed. more than once in herculaneum did will and i turn to one another questioning whether a pipe was ancient or modern, or whether a wall was original or reconstructed (fyi: overtly reconstructed buildings, ie. the brothel in pompeii, are something i detest). one thing did strike me as i was looking at a fresco in the house of the seat of the augustali in herculaneum, and that was the roman's use of perspective in painting. the fourth style architectural fresco with a scene featuring hercules at its centre shows clear examples of an advanced use of perspective. as well as this, the almost life size figures in the frieze of the mysteries which gives the villa its name in pompeii not only give an impression of three dimensionality, but also emotion. if we look at the altar piece of the last judgement by nicolaus and johannes dating from the 12th century (the oldest painting in the vatican museums) and compare it to the artwork in pompeii, there appears to be a regression in the development of perspective. the following pictures will help to explain what i mean:

the last judgement by nicolaus and johannes
(12th century) shows very little sense of perpsective
 or emotion

4th style fresco using perspective in the house of the seat of
the augustali, herculaneum

the art, the underfloor heating systems and the distribution of water around the city do make us wonder what other incredible things existed that we do not yet know about. next thing we know, we'll be unearthing ipods. i do feel that we seem to have come full circle since roman times and that perhaps until the 19th century, humanity was continuously struggling to reach that point of civilisation that the romans had once thrust upon the known world.

so after a day in herculaneum, during which i spent most of my time chatting and laughing and taking photos of will pretending to be a dwarf proprieter of a thermopolium (see right), and following that a day riding solo in pompeii, where the only thing i said was 'margherita' when ordering my slice of pizza for lunch and the only person who spoke to me was the rather annoying man on the the audioguide who talked at the rate of stephen hawking, i felt satisfied. i was not impressed by the surrounding area (although there is a fairly impressive church in modern day pompeii. see below) and especially not happy about being mistaken for a prositiute at 'pompei scavi' station at 6 o' clock in the evening. so having spent a day at each site and what felt like a day on the train home (the cattle train takes three hours...only ten euros but you pay in patience), as we pulled into roma termini, i was grinning like the cheshire cat and practically running back to the safety and warmth of rome's cobbled streets and my little old flat. thank you pompeii and herculaneum; it was a blast (no pun intended). but as always, i couldnt be happier to be home sweet rome...
for more information on the excavation sites at pompeii and herculaneum and the surrounding area, visit: Pompeii Sites

here are a few more holiday snaps:

oven in a bakery, herculaneum



will doing some graffiti translation, herculaneum

a view of vesuvius from the temple of apollo, pompeii

a preserved rope and wooden winch, herculaneum

metal grill windows coated in volcanic debris, herculaneum

basilica of our lady of the most holy rosary, new pompeii

street view, pompeii

inscription in the amphitheatre, pompeii

inscription beneath a niche in the amphitheatre, pompeii

porta nocera, pompeii

pompeiian street with vesuvius looming in the background

inlaid bronze of a basin in the caldarium of the forum baths, pompeii

public water fountain, pompeii

tomb on the via delle tombe leading out of pompeii

EXHIBITION: the renaissance in rome. a token to michelangelo and raphael.

...or for a more efficient google search: il rinascimento a roma. nel segno di michelangelo e raffaello. this fantabulous exhibition is only running until the 12th february and is certainly a MUST if you are visiting rome in the next few weeks. the entrance to the exhibition is located just off the bustling via del corso in a lovely and cosy labyrinth-esque gallery space which allows you to escape from the world, his wife and all of their children who tend to spend the majority of their days shopping on this busy street. to be welcomed by a lovely looking italian cloakroom attendant also makes the escape all the more enjoyable... the central focus of the exhibition is the influence antiquity had on the artists of the 15th and 16th centuries. raphael encapsulates this connection in a single letter which he writes to pope leo X de' medici which includes a survey of rome's ancient monuments and subsequently describes the classical style to be applied to designs for the future. showing this relationship between the classical world and the renaissance period is something rome manages to do pretty effortlessly. whether it is the pantheon (pagan temple-come-church) or the baroque domes which form the backdrop to trajan's column, modern day rome synthesises all of these past eras as well as adding a few crazy italian drivers from our own day to fill in the gaps.

a hop step and a jump from corso are the famous vatican museums in which michelangelo's last judgement can be seen at one end of the sistine chapel (although there is a rather fantastic copy of this masterpiece by marcello venusti in the renaissance exhibition itself). it is through this monumental work of art, that one is able to recognise an explicit connection between the classical world and the renaissance, and the effect antiquity was having on 16th century art. it is the figures of jesus christ and the virgin mary that i want to zoom in on here.

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jesus christ and the madonna
in michelangelo's last
judgement, sistine chapel

the lely crouching venus,
a roman copy of a greek original
dating from the hellenistic period

the laocoon

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the head of the apollo belvedere

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the belvedere torso

the positioning of the lely crouching venus is almost identically imitated in michelangelo's depiction of the madonna here. similarly, his depiction of jesus has quite clearly been modelled on three of the most famous ancient greek sculptures in the world: jesus' torso can be compared to the belvedere torso, likewise the fair complexion and beardless face is comparable to the apollo belvedere, and finally the positioning of the arms are not far from those of laocoon's. in other words, michelangelo appears to be a bit of a fraud.

nevertheless, the man certainly knew how to draw. it was not the painted self-portrait that took my breath away in this exhibition, but it was the sketch below that really got my excitement cogs whirring.

there is something about pen on paper from years gone by that i find truly fascinating. whether it is a letter (such as raphael's letter to leo X) or a drawing, it is the simpler, more relatable pieces that allow me to feel a connection on a personal level with the artist. in the top half of this sketch by michelangelo, we can see an upside down male torso which, as usual, has been rendered with defined musculature. but it is the doodle in the lower right hand corner that i loved. here we see michelangelo sketching plans for the scaffolding he intended to erect in the sistine chapel. despite irving stone's insistence that the artist painted the ceiling of the chapel lying on his back (read/see the agony and the ecstacy), he actually created a structure which enabled him to paint from a standing position. craning his neck for four years meant that he developed a muscular bulge at the base of his neck over this period of time which subsequently took a year and a half to go down.

but how does michelangelo compare to raphael? in general terms we know they were very different; raphael being well educated and socially apt, in contrast to the working class background of the tempestuous hermit that was michelangelo. in artistic terms however, they tend to be bracketed together. but having seen the work of both artists side by side, i began to notice a major difference in their artwork. it is the unbelievably smooth skin that raphael endows onto the faces of his figures that contrasts greatly with the undulating musculature of michelangelo's subjects. although michelangelo is much more my cup of lapsang, i do find it extraordinary how raphael manages to create an almost digital blend of colours to create a 'rosy cheek' effect. this technique certainly gives even his male figures an effeminate streak, whereas michelangelo's fascination with the male physique tends to give both his men and women a masculine appearance. the images below may make my observation clearer:

madonna of the pinks, raphael

st.catherine (green dress) in the
last judgement, michelangelo



or perhaps it is easier to make a modern analogy:

        

so this exhibition is SLAP BANG in the centre of town. via del corso is sandwiched between the pantheon and the trevi fountain and apart from the 'no photo' rule (don't tell?) and the unfortunately over-attentive museum guards, there is absolutely no reason not to visit this exhibition. for more details, visit : Fondazione Roma Museo: Il Rinascimento a Roma