'Pompeii's Dead Reimagined'

An article in Archaeology Magazine (Sept/Oct 2011, Vol 64, No 5) highlights the commissioning and creation of four models of original casts of victims of the AD 79 eruption.

Pompeii's Dead Reimagined

Volume 64 Number 5, September/October 2011

by Jarrett A. Lobell

An artist interprets the ancient city’s most evocative artifacts

Almost 150 years after Fiorelli made his first cast, artist Gary Staab was commissioned to make models of four original Pompeian casts for a special exhibition on Pompeii in New York (“Vesuvius Strikes Again,” May/June, 2011). In doing so, Staab created a new type of evidence. His models record not only these individuals’ deaths, but also the context in which the original casts were fashioned by Fiorelli and later archaeologists. Staab’s models are not precise replicas of these earlier casts, but rather interpretations of them. They are a product of technologies and materials not previously available and also of Staab’s own input as an artist.

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