The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection October 28, 2012

Pompeii and the other cities destroyed and paradoxically preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 are usually considered the places where we can best and most directly experience the daily lives of ancient Romans. Rather than presenting these sites as windows on the past, this exhibition explores them as a modern obsession. Over the three hundred years since their discovery in the early 1700s, the Vesuvian sites have functioned as shifting mirrors of the present, inspiring foremost artists--from Piranesi, Fragonard, Ingres, and Alma-Tadema to Duchamp, Dali, Rothko, and Warhol--to engage with contemporary concerns in diverse media.