Getty exhibition: The Last Days of Pompeii

I'm posting on behalf of Kenneth Lapin of the J. Paul Getty Museum. He's sent some interesting links that offer more information on the forthcoming exhibition at the Getty Villa called "The Last Days of Pompeii". The exhibition is exploring how Pompeii has been a source of inspiration to the modern world, also allowing exploration of modern themes. More content will be added to this website once the exhibition starts on 12 September, so make sure you return to it next month.

There is also an entry on the Getty's blog on Bulwer-Lytton that might be of interest, and you can read it here.

Forthcoming exhibition: The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection

From AIA event listings:
The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, Resurrection
Getty Villa - September 12, 2012–January 7, 2013

Pompeii and the other ancient cities destroyed and paradoxically preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 are usually considered the places where one can best and most directly experience the daily lives of ancient Romans. Rather than presenting these sites as windows to the past, this exhibition explores them as a modern obsession.
More here or there.

Event: Restoring Ancient Bronzes in the Nineteenth Century

Thanks to David Saunders for sending news of an upcoming event at the Getty Villa:

 Restoring Ancient Bronzes in the Nineteenth Century

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze on view through September 12, 2011 at the Getty Villa, this one-day program considers the wider context of bronze restorations in the nineteenth century, utilizing both archival research and technical analysis. With the Apollo Saettante as a starting point, restoration work in Naples will be of primary interest, but speakers will also consider comparable activities throughout Italy and elsewhere in Europe.

Key themes include methods and materials used; approaches to ancient surfaces and re-patination; the development of technical knowledge; the role of modern bronze foundries and industrial production; and individual restorers and their working relationships.

Confirmed speakers:

• Sophie Descamps, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
• Lucia Fucito, Fonderia Chiurazzi, Naples, Italy
• Seán Hemingway, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
• Henry Lie, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Carol C. Mattusch, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia
• Luigia Melillo, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, Italy
• Erik Risser, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
• David Saunders, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
• Salvatore Siano, Istituto di Fisica Applicata Nello Carrara, Florence, Italy

Date: Friday, May 6, 2011
Time: 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. with reception to follow
Location: Getty Villa, North Campus Meeting Rooms
Registration: Free; preregistration is required and seating is limited. Please e-mail villaprograms@getty.edu by Monday, May 2. 

See here for the schedule and additional information.

Apollo’s Drapery: An Unfolding Puzzle

My thanks to David Saunders of the Getty Villa for pointing out that there is now a discussion of the Apollo Saettante and the techniques used in its conservation on the Getty Villa blog:

Apollo’s Drapery: An Unfolding Puzzle
A new exhibition opening at the Getty Villa, Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze, marks the completion of an 18-month conservation project that developed in collaboration with the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples.

The exhibition presents the different aspects of a Roman bronze statue of Apollo as an archer—its discovery in Pompeii in 1817 and 1818; how it was made in antiquity; and how it was reassembled after it had been discovered—but also highlights the variety of approaches that were employed, both in the laboratory and the library, to examine these issues.

A conservator’s primary goal is to address any factors that are or could potentially be damaging to an object, and even before beginning work on the Apollo, we understood that the drapery hanging from its arms needed attention. It was clearly placing a significant strain on the figure, and we later discovered that its weight is around 80 pounds—almost as much as the rest of the statue. As the project developed and we studied these drapery ends in detail, we gleaned valuable insights about the restoration of the ancient statue after it had been unearthed.

Continue reading here.

This is just one of the great photos that accompany a really interesting post.

Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze

As previously reported, starting next week the Apollo Saettante will go on display at the Getty Villa, the second major bronze from Pompeii to be conserved and displayed here (the first was the ephebe from the House of the Ephebe). For more details about the loan of these bronzes to the US, see here:

Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze
March 2–September 12, 2011
Buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, the Apollo Saettante (Apollo as an Archer) was unearthed in pieces between 1817 and 1818. Depicting the god in the act of shooting an arrow, the statue was one of the first major bronzes to be found at Pompeii. As part of the J. Paul Getty Museum's collaboration with the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, the sculpture was brought to the Getty Villa for study and conservation treatment in 2009. This exhibition offers a behind-the-scenes look at that project, revealing how the statue was manufactured in antiquity as well as the methods and materials used to restore it in nineteenth-century Naples.