Today we spend the morning in the National Archaeological Museum and the afternoon at Pozzuoli to see one of the largest amphitheatres in the world.
Click on any of the pictures in the blog entry to see a larger version.
Naples has a fairly poor reputation as a tourist city, it is said to be very dirty because of continuing problems of rubbish disposal and also because of tourist muggings and robbery. The former is evident throughout the city and the latter is not a problem for us because we are aware of the risk and stay together. Getting there involves a longish drive because of the traffic and a quick dismount from the coach outside of the museum because of the traffic police. One of the problems when visiting the museum is that they have a reputation of closing galleries without warning so you are never sure what you are going to see. It does however contain some most amazing statues and frescoes because a lot of what was not looted or taken by the Bourbon Kings for their own palaces has landed up in the museum including numerous frescoes from Pompeii and elsewhere. Once you get into the museum (in itself a trial), there is no re-entry that day on your ticket and you cannot eat lunch there (no cafe) nor eat in the museum itself. However, by the end of the morning, we are all convinced that it is well worth the visit. Rarely have we come across such a brilliant collection of fine statues, frescoes and other works of art from the Roman period. Labelling of the exhibits is sometimes poor but that does not detract from the brilliance of the place.
Therefore there follows, numerous photos and little explanation but just enjoy the pictures.
her buttocks – hence the name!
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| Farnese Hercules at Rest 2-3C AD | and his Spare Legs! |
The Hercules was discovered without its legs so a student of Michelangelo made a new set. When the original legs were discovered, a decision was made to keep the new legs in place because they were felt to better. This was the case until the 18th C when sense prevailed!
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| Julia Agrippina |
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| Roasting of the Boar 1C BC |
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| Three different heads of Seneca |
Perhaps the best sculpture we saw in the museum was the Farnese Bull – we could have spent far longer looking at it and learning about how it was carved and later reconstructed. It represents the punishment of Dirce who was guilty of maltreating Antiope and her punishment was to be tied to a bull by Antiope’s sons Zetus and Amphion.
The young shepherd, animals and rural landscape relate to the woods on Mount Cithaeron sacred to the god Dionysus. The lyre represents Amphion who with his music and voice raised the walls of the city of Thebes.
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another beautiful sculpture is that of Flora Maggiore 2nd C AD. Again the detail is astonishing.
On the first floor is the Hall of the Sundial which, apart from its most amazing ceiling displays the Farnese Atlas. This is possibly the oldest existing depiction of Atlas from Greek mythology, and the oldest view of the Western constellations, possibly based upon the star catalogue of Hipparchus
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| Hall of the Sundial | Farnese Atlas |
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| Ceiling Detail | Star Globe |
The Apotheosis of Ferdinand IV and Maria Carolina from 1781 in an astonishing ceiling painting.
Frescoes
The museum also contains numerous frescoes from villas and houses around the area. Choosing which ones to include here is a difficult choice because there are so many fine examples on display. Amongst them (and our favourites) were:
Two frescoes, the top one coming from a Triclinium (an eating room with three seater couches ) being in the third style. The lower one comes from a dining room with a seated women (symbolizing Asia), the old man on the left is a traveller.
Prizes for an athletic competition
The Centaur Chiron (who was the inventor of medicine and surgery) standing between Apollo and Asclepius (Gods), to whom he is said to have taught medicine.
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| Jason and Pelias | Europa seated on a Bull |
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| Pan and his Pipes | Paris seated |
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| Medusa planning the murder of her children | a detail |
 | Perseus and Andromeda |
Two Lares (household guardian Deities) pour wine from a drinking horn and a bucket. In the centre is a sacrificial stone. Beneath are a pair of serpents who are symbolically bringers of prosperity and abundance and they have brought eggs to be placed on the altar. Houses would usually have a number of Larariums (a shrine) where offerings and prayers were made to symbols of the household gods. When people were fleeing Pompeii, many took their Lares with them.
The Girl with a Stylus (Sappho) is a favourite fresco of most visitors to the museum. It is thought that it is not a portrait of a real girl but a stylised image. It was made toward the end of the 1st C AD. She is thinking as she is about to write on a wax tablet
This status symbol fresco was found in a house in Pompeii that is believed to have belonged to the baker Terentius Proculus and his brother Terentius Neo, a magistrate. The portrait is of the wealthy and educated magistrate and his wife. He is dressed in a toga and displays a papyrus scroll with a red seal. His wife is wearing a tunic and mantle and has a hairstyle that was popular in the middle of the first century. Pressed to her chin is a stylus which she would use to make notes on the wax-coated double-leaved wooden tablet which she is holding in her left hand. He had this fresco positioned in his atrium so that all visitors would see it.
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| Flora as Primavera | Medea |
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| Leda and the Swan | Diana the Hunter |
These four frescoes come from the seaside Villa Arianna at Stabiae and were recovered from the ash when the villa was excavated.
Mosaics
Numerous mosaics were removed from villas and it has to be said that their long term preservation is more secure in the museum than in their original site.
Gabinetto Segreto
Also in the museum is the (in)famous Gabinetto Segreto (Secret Museum) which contains some of the most explicit finds from Pompeii. This contains those exhibits deemed obscene and unsuitable for the general public to see and therefore in 1819 they were locked away in a Secret Museum for the public good. The Gabinetto was then only accessible to "people of mature age and respected morals", which in practice meant only educated males. The doorway was bricked up in 1849. Re-opened, closed, re-opened again and then closed again for nearly a hundred years, the secret room was finally re-opened in 2000. Most of the exhibits are too explicit for a public blog
but here is an example of a fresco in the room
and also an example of graffiti taken from Pompeii. Some of the exhibits are truly astonishing.
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