The National Gallery hits another one out of the park with it's swing at "Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples". From the get go you enter gallery spaces transformed to take you to Roman villas in Early August 79 CE. The gardens and dwellings with their statuary, mosiacs, bas-reliefs, miniture bronze deities, and jewlery lay before you a record of a people on the verge of annihilation in the midst of exuberant, extravigant, indulgent LIFE.
When an exhibit imparts knowledge and challenges one's thinking like a university survey course you know you've spent your $5 bucks for the audio commentary well. And I would add this observation -- the busts and images of the rulers were all judged against my BBC database of images from "I CLAVDIVS" A perspective that I completely forgave myself for when watching the video presentation that accompanies the exhibition which is narrated by Derek Jacobi!
For all admirers of Ancient Rome, this is a must see.
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