After an administrative day, we took the Circumvesuviana to Naples and then the subway to Naples' National Museum of Archaeology. The Museum is where the major items from Herculaneum and Pompeii are kept and displayed. Frozen in time, Herculaneum and Pompeii are the clearest and closest pictures we have of our classical past. In addition to Herculaneum and Pompeii, the Museum also displays the Farnese sculptures, that is, the Roman sculptures discovered in quarrying Caracalla's Baths, in the 16th century, to build St. Peters. They constitute one of the greatest collections of classical sculpture, both Roman and Roman copies of Greek. Our past posts from this Museum are at
http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/03/naples-archaeological-museum-farnese.html, and
http://roadeveron.blogspot.it/2011/03/naples-archaeological-museum-pompei.html, If you care anything about the classical world, this is a special place.
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| The Farnese Hercules at Rest, 12-15 feet high |
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The Farnese Bull, one piece of marble, the
size of your living room |
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| Plate-sized, the largest cameo so far known |
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Detail from among the scores of Pompeii
frescoes |
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A dancer, one of the scores of bronzes at
Naples...that is, one of the scores of
bronzes to have come down to us from the classical world |
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