Reading Passage 2

The Art of Pompeii’s Influence on Neoclassicism

Section A

Pompeii was an ancient Roman city that was famously destroyed and buried by the volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. According to researchers and historians, ash and pumice rained down on the city and residents of Pompeii for over six hours, blanketing city streets and homes with up to 25 meters of sediment. Temperatures in the city during the eruption reached 250 degrees Celsius (480 degrees Fahrenheit) and many residents died due to exposure to the extreme heat. With Pompeii effectively preserved under a literal mountain of volcanic ash, many everyday items were kept intact, including several of the city’s mural paintings. The rediscovery of these paintings in Pompeii provided audiences in Europe with a genuine glimpse into ancient Roman art. These artifacts were idealized and romanticized, prompting an 18th century artistic movement that would be known as Neoclassicism, an imitation of classic Roman art.

Section B

Art historians have categorized the discovered art of Pompeii into four distinct styles. The first style, which prevailed from 200 to 80 BCE, is characterized by the way large plaster walls were painted to look like colorful, elegant stones; it is known as the “structural” or “masonry” style. The second style, which dates from 100 BCE to the start of the Common Era, is characterized by “illusionist” imagery, with murals featuring three-dimensional images and landscapes, seen through painted windows that conveyed a sense of depth. The third style, popular from 20-10 BCE, is known as the “ornate” style, and is characterized by two-dimensional, fantastical perspectives, rather than the realistic, three-dimensional vista-like views associated with the illusionist style. Murals painted in the ornate style focused less on realism and instead were created to depict whimsical scenes in highly structured arrangements. The fourth Pompeian style, which dates from 60-79 CE, combined the strict structures and complexity of the ornate style with the illusionist methods of the second style and the stonework of the first style; the fourth style was essentially a hybrid of its predecessors.

Section C

The art of Pompeii was first excavated in 1748 when archaeologists began the painstaking work of identifying, removing, and collecting artistic artifacts from the ash and soil. As knowledge of the art of Pompeii spread across Europe in the 1760s, interest in Greco-Roman art increased and captured the imagination of a new generation of artists in countries like England, Germany, and France, prompting them to emulate a “classical” style. The art of Pompeii most notably influenced an artist in Paris named Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), who would become one of the most successful and dominant artists of his time. David worked through the lens of Pompeii’s illusionist style, with a sense of depth and realism generated in a number of his more famous works, echoing the three-dimensional landscape views typified by Pompeian art’s second style. A number of works put forth by other painters in England, Germany, and France would also contain elements of the four styles of the art of Pompeii.

Section D

The influence of Jacques-Louis David on his contemporaries and future artists only expanded the popularity of Roman art and the influence of Pompeii’s four artistic styles for most of the 1780s and 1790s. Neoclassical art proved to be wildly popular with art collectors and enthusiasts in Europe who commissioned more and more paintings from David and his contemporaries. David’s most famous piece, ​Oath of the Horatii​ (1784), contains elements from at least three of the four styles of Pompeian art. In this particular work, one can see the first style in the colored slabs of stone on the ground, the three dimensional perspective of the second style in the dimmed space behind the arches in the background, and the realistic yet fantastical look of the fourth style in the hero figure in the middle of the painting. David serves as just one example of the 18th century artists inspired by the classical Roman works exemplified in the four art styles of Pompeii; indeed, David would pass along his inspiration from Pompeian art to his students. English architect Robert Adam (1728-1792) would create stuccos with elements very similar to the first Pompeian style; he would become known as the leader of the revival of “classical” art in England.​ ​The extraction of the art of Pompeii took 32 years to complete, but once re-discovered and integrated into the work of artists of the 18​th​ century such as David, its impact proved to be quite significant and abiding.