We have the pleasure to present to you some thoughts on what CLIMATE CHANGE could mean for the TRADING and CONSERVATION of LUXURY ARTS, LUXURY ANTIQUES, as well as AUCTIONS and PRIVATE SALES in the FINE ARTS, among others.
And for that we will do it in several parts, this is the fourth.
.IV.
POMPEII, HERCULANEUM and a few other small towns, were completely destroyed by the Vesuvius stratovolcano, just located near Naples in southern Italy in 79 AD ( Anno Domini ).
( confer here : ALEXANDRIA IS BURNING AGAIN n° 1, ALEXANDRIA IS BURNING AGAIN n° 2 and ALEXANDRIA IS BURNING AGAIN n° 3 )
Very beautiful bronze statues and beautiful bronze busts were discovered in the " Villa of the Papyri " at HERCULANEUM, in an exceptional conservation due to the fact that, paradoxically, those statues and those busts were protected by the extraordinarily thick gangue that had encased HERCULANEUM, POMPEII and some other small towns nearby at the end of the huge explosion of the stratovolcano Vesuvius.
The discovery of the " Villa of the Papyri " in HERCULANEUM was initially accidental on the occasion of work to dig a well in 1750.
Excavations were then started, but stopped in 1761, due to the danger of the density of carbon dioxide of volcanic origin accumulated and contained in the different parts of the excavation sites of HERCULANEUM and POMPEII.
Finally, the excavations in HERCULANEUM started again later, because the beauty of this unique ancient villa and its exceptional conservation created a general mobilization for a new era of life of the splendours that the excavations promised to discover. All the professions involved in those new archaeological research were amazed.
This " Villa of the Papyri " in HERCULANEUM would have belonged to Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, father-in-law of Julius Caesar, as a secondary residence. Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus had acquired a reputation as a scholar and protector of poets, philosophers according to the testimonies left by Cicero.
However, some uncertainties remain today about this designation of the property of the " Villa of the Papyri ".
Countless were the wonders discovered, both on HERCULANEUM and on POMPEII, of which bronze statues and bronze busts of all splendor beautifully preserved.
From the " Villa of the Papyri " of HERCULANEUM, we received the exceptional statue of « Sitting Hermes », inspired by the school of Lysippe or made directly by Lysippe according to certain theses.
As well as a whole series of female and male characters, in bronze, integrating different aspects of the Greek and Roman mythologies and various busts of great beauty, including, very likely, that of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, next to that of Artemis, Democrit, Ptolemy Apion, among others.
All this magnificence of bronze statues, bronze busts, all their extraordinary beauty, testifies to the magnificent mastery of the bronze sculptors of that time, demonstrating the high artistic level that HERCULANEUM and POMPEII had already reached at the time of the Vesuvius stratovolcano eruption.
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© ISABELLE CLAUDINE FRANCOISE LARGENTON