Luigi Bazzani (1836-1927), Italian
Pompeiian Interior, 1875
OIL ON PANEL, 17 ⅜ x 12 ½ inches
Gift of Horace Fairbanks

Luigi Bazzani enjoyed a long career painting re-creations of life in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii before its sudden burial in Vesu­vius' eruption of 79 c.e. Excavations in the city throughout the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries fueled a steady fascina­tion with the ancient civilization. Bazzani's attention to historic detail was recognized in his time, as he contributed a series of four­teen illustrations to a publication by Pom­peii's leading archaeologist Amedeo Maiuri. This portrayal of a house's central court­yard incorporates the delicate, brightly painted walls and decorations of a Roman villa with a sense of the utter lack of aware­ness that preceded the city's destruction. Cut flowers, cast aside on the white marble in the painting's foreground, are the only overt por­tents of the young woman's fate.