The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection

Tags for: The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection
  • Special Exhibition
Sunday, February 24–Sunday, July 7, 2013
Location: The Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall

Third Eruption of the Volcano of 1789 (Troisième éruption du volcan de 1789), 1833. Auguste Desperret (French, 1804–1865). Lithograph, hand-colored with watercolor; 34 x 24.5 cm. Image courtesy University of Pittsburgh Libraries

About The Exhibition

Pompeii and the other ancient cities destroyed and paradoxically preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in ad79 are usually considered the places where one can best and most directly experience the daily lives of ancient Romans. Rather than presenting these sites as windows to the past, this exhibition explores them as a modern obsession. Over the 300 years since their discovery in the early 1700s, the Vesuvian sites have functioned as mirrors of the present, inspiring artists—from Piranesi, Ingres, and Alma-Tadema to Duchamp, Rothko, and Warhol—to engage with contemporary concerns in diverse media. This international loan exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

For more information, follow @LastDaysPompeii on Twitter.

Ticketed Exhibition 
Adults: $15; college students (with valid student ID) and seniors (65+): $13; children (6–17 yrs.): $7; children 5 and under: free; members: free.

The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection is organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

    Presenting Sponsor:

    Image