The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureArt

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum | Exhibition review
27 March 2013
Emily Spicer
Avatar
Emily Spicer
27 March 2013

Most people will have heard of Pompeii, fewer perhaps of Pompeii’s little sister, Herculaneum. Late in 79 AD, over the course of a day and a night, both of these Roman cities were wiped out by a massive volcanic eruption issuing from Mount Vesuvius. Ash and pumice rained down on Pompeii, crushing houses under the weight, while in the night a devastating pyroclastic surge instantly destroyed Herculaneum. Soon after, Pompeii also suffered the same fate, killing anyone who had not already fled. It was a truly dramatic and tragic end to two lively, cosmopolitan cities. But what the volcano buried from sight nearly 2000 years ago it also preserved, in incredible detail, for future generations.

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum celebrates the vibrant lives of the inhabitants of these cities in what is an intimate and moving exhibition. For the most part the exhibition is set out like the plan of a house. Visitors enter through the atrium and then on into the garden and the adjoining bedroom and kitchen. Each room contains something wonderful and touchingly intimate. A carbonised wooden chest still contains the charred remains of clothes, make-up pots still contain pigments and the various frescoes on display are as fresh and vivid as if they had been painted yesterday. The most stunning example is surely a garden fresco teeming with palms and oleanders and an array of delicately painted birds. It really is breath-taking. 

While so much of the exhibition concentrates on the lust for life and the everyday domestic goings on of the inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum, one is reminded that the lives of many of these people ended so suddenly and so violently. Casts taken from the voids left in the hardened volcanic ash by the now decomposed bodies, show us the last seconds of some of those who could not escape in time. Most moving is a family group, mother and father thrown back by the white hot blast and two tiny children, one on his mother’s knee, clearly clawing at the walls in panic. It is hard not to be affected by the scene.

This is a stunning exhibition, rich in treasures detailing the humour, the sex lives, the broken hearts and aspirations of the inhabitants of these two tragic cities. It really is not to be missed and promises to be the British Museum’s blockbuster exhibition of 2013.

★★★★★

Emily Spicer

Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum is on at the British Museum until 29th September 2013. For further information or to book visit the museum’s website here. 

Related Itemsreview

More in Art

Ten artistic depictions of the Christmas story through the ages

James White
Read More

Five gifts for art lovers this Christmas

Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Five alternative art exhibitions for Christmas 2020

Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Sensing the Unseen: Step into Gossaert’s Adoration at the National Gallery

★★★★★
Anna Souter
Read More

Ben Uri Gallery and Museum: The evolution of a force for good

James White
Read More

Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul at the Royal Academy

★★★★★
Anna Souter
Read More

Magnetic North: Voices from the Indigenous Arctic at the British Museum

★★★★★
Samuel Nicholls
Read More

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly in League with the Night at Tate Britain

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Rob and Nick Carter on Connaught Village’s public neon installations: “Accessibility of art is crucial during a pandemic”

Lilly Subbotin
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • You Me at Six – Suckapunch
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Persian Lessons
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre: Centre stage for diversity
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • RSC Next Generation: Young Bloods proves Shakespeare is timeless
    Theatre
  • The White Tiger
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • Persian Lessons: Exclusive new clip
    Cinema
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
  • Mayor
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Harry Hill: Sausage Time | Comedy review
Quasimodo at the King’s Head Theatre | Theatre review