The Art of Pompeii

The burial of Pompeii under a protective cover of volcanic ash affords a unique vista into the Roman home from the fourth century B.C.E. to 79 C.E., the year Vesuvius erupted. As De Luca's beautiful photos document, the homes of aristocrats and the emerging elite were modeled after the homes of Roman aristocrats , including wall paintings that imitated the architecture of great Hellenistic buildings and aroused a feeling of sumptuous luxury. Pompeii homeowners also transferred the beauty and calmness of gardens onto the walls of their homes, like the large frescoes in the House of the Golden Bracelet. Frescoes also help reconstruct daily life in Pompeii and the emergence of a middle class of artisans, merchants, and entrepreneurs after an earthquake in 62 C.E.: a female artist is portrayed with palette and brush; merchants sell fabric, pots, and pans; a baker turned politician donates bread in a public ceremony. De Luca's striking color photographs summon the tastes and priorities of well-off homeowners from the distant Roman Empire, but are undermined by the stilted text by Magagnini, curator at Rome's Capitoline Museums, the book's unwieldy trim size, and the use throughout of shiny black paper that retains the marks of readers' fingerprints. (June)