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Arthur Ross Gallery Presents “Antiquity Recovered: Pompeii and Herculaneum in Philadelphia Collections”
September 20, 2002
PHILADELPHIA – The Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania will present "Antiquity Recovered: Pompeii and Herculaneum in Philadelphia Collections" Sept. 21-Dec. 1. The gallery is located at 220 S. 34th St., Philadelphia and on the web at http://www.upenn.edu/ARG.
The exhibition will include archaeological objects along with more recent paintings and sculpture, books and prints, metalwork, ceramics, and a period dress from a dozen museums, libraries and historic houses in the Philadelphia area. Admission is free. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday-Friday, and noon-5 p.m., weekends.
BACKGROUND
The uncovering of the ruins of Herculaneum in 1738 and of Pompeii in 1748 revealed a preserved record of antique culture. These discoveries initially became the touchstone for Neoclassicism, which was adopted with particular vigor by the emerging United States as many of its cities, particularly Philadelphia, were reaching a level of urban maturity.
The excavations brought to light everyday domestic objects in Herculaneum and Pompeii; these, as well as figures from classical mythology, informed contemporary taste. In the 19th and 20th centuries, however, interest shifted to a fascination with the disaster itself.
The exhibition divides into two sections. Antiquarianism focuses on the excavation and public dissemination of archaeological material during the lifetime of Penn's Founder, Benjamin Franklin and of Penn Medical School Founder, John Morgan who both contributed in some way to the current exhibition. The City of the Dead explores the response to the human tragedy of the eruption in art and literature.
CURATORS
Victoria C. Gardner Coates holds a Ph.D. in the history of art from Penn, where she is a lecturer. Her research interests include the transmission of literary and artistic models from antiquity to the Early Modern era. She has been a graduate and guest lecturer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and curated "Sacred and Profane: Humanism in the Arts 1450-1550" at the Clark Art Institute in 1992.
Jon L. Seydl is a Ph.D. candidate in the history of art at Penn and assistant curator of paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. His research encompasses Italian art of the 17th through 19th centuries, and he is completing a dissertation on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
SYMPOSIUM
"Antiquity Recovered: The Legacy of Pompeii and Herculaneum," an international and interdisciplinary symposium , will be held at Penn Oct. 4-5. The symposium will coincide with the exhibition "Antiquity Recovered: Pompeii and Herculaneum in Philadelphia Collections" on view at Penn's Arthur Ross Gallery. The symposium, open to the public, will expand the premise of the exhibition to explore how the Bay of Naples archaeological excavations influenced responses to the classical tradition from the 18th century through the modern era in both Europe and America. Additional information for the symposium is available at www.mceas.org/october2002.