Basin with support in the form of Scylla
Pompeii
1st century BC–1st century AD and 19th century
marble
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

This sculpture combines an ancient basin from Pompeii with a base composed in the early nineteenth century. Incorporating ancient fragments, the base takes the form of the sea-monster Scylla, known from Homer's Odyssey to have guarded a treacherous strait, perhaps the strait of Messina separating Sicily from the Italian mainland. The sculpture is made of red marble imported from Greece, but Alma-Tadema has rendered it in a deep brownish-black.

Young Hercules Strangling the Serpents
c. 1560
bronze
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples
Photograph Alma-Tadema Collection, held at Special Collections, Library Services, University of Birmingham

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912) assembled more than 5,000 photographs of antiquities and later works of art, which he used as source material for his paintings. His photograph of Guglielmo della Porta's Young Hercules Strangling the Serpents, viewed from the back, inspired its representation in Alma-Tadema's A Sculpture Gallery. In Greek mythology, Hercules was the child of Zeus and a princess of Thebes. His birth provoked the jealous rage of Zeus' wife, the goddess Hera, who sent two snakes to kill him. The infant Hercules strangled them both, the first of his legendary feats of strength.

Lampstand
Pompeii, House of Pansa
1st half of 1st century AD
bronze with copper and silver or tin inlay
Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli

Found in 1812 in the House of Pansa, Pompeii, this lampstand is perhaps the most elaborate to survive from antiquity. The four suspended oil lamps are decorated with the heads of lions, eagles, bulls, or elephants. A statuette of a baby Dionysos astride a leopard and a small altar with a flame atop a tiny stack of logs adorn the pedestal.

Chiurazzi Fonderie-Ceramica-Marmeria, Naples
Reproduction of table from the House of Gaius Cornelius Rufus, early 20th century
marble
Lent by the Toledo Museum of Art; Gift of Florence Scott Libbey

This marble table decorated with lion-headed griffons is a copy of one found in the House of Gaius Cornelius Rufus at Pompeii. The original was reproduced widely in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the firm Chiurazzi Fonderie-Ceramica-Marmeria in Naples.

Joseph S. Wyon and Alfred B. Wyon, after Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Serpent Bracelet, 19th century
gold
Private Collection on long-term loan to the Hood Museum of Art

Alma-Tadema designed this golden bracelet in an antique style and with his wife's name inscribed in Greek letters.

Sacred to the Egyptian goddess Isis, snakes were associated with good luck and renewal in part because they shed their skins annually. Spiral bracelets in the form of snakes were popular throughout the Mediterranean world in antiquity.

Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik
Geislingen, Germany
Bowl with Minerva and Owl, 1914 reproduction of c. 1st-century BC original
electroplated metal
The Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The gilded-silver bowl on the table reproduces one found at Hildesheim in Germany in 1868, part of a huge hoard of silverware that was buried in the first century AD. Alma-Tadema owned a replica of this bowl made soon after its discovery.

A Sculpture Gallery ,1874
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
oil on canvas
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Gift of Arthur M. Loew, Class of 1921

Bracelet with Olympic Gods, 1850
lava and gold
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

Discovery of the Temple of Isis at Pompeii, from William Hamilton,
Campi Phlegraei, vol. 2 (Naples, 1776), pl. 41, photograph Library of Congress

Young Hercules Strangling the Serpents
c. 1560
Guglielmo della Portabronze
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Rediscovery

The volcanic deposits of Mount Vesuvius slowly turned into fertile soil, and any visible masonry from Pompeii was taken for reuse as building materials elsewhere. The site disappeared under olive groves and vineyards, but it lived on in folk memory, and the location was still called "La Cività," or "the city."

Systematic excavations began at Herculaneum in 1738, spurred on by chance finds, and at Pompeii a decade later. News of the discovery of the ancient cities spread throughout Europe. A visit to Naples and the open-air excavations at Pompeii became the southernmost stop on the Grand Tour, an extended journey through Europe undertaken by intellectually curious tourists. They were also attracted by bursts of activity from Vesuvius, which erupted several times in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, though on a small scale. Jewelry carved from lava was a popular souvenir, as were paintings of the eruptions and romantic views of the ruins. Illustrated publications documenting the finds spawned a rage for antique styles, and reproductions of antiquities became a major industry that continued throughout the nineteenth century.

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Alma-Tadema’s painting exemplifies the vogue for antiquities that peaked in the nineteenth century. The artist and his family are portrayed as ancient Romans being shown works of art for purchase. Sir Lawrence sits at left and gestures toward his wife, Laura, who stands next to their daughters. Laura’s sister and brother are seated at far left.

Jewelry made of lava (or a limestone substitute) was a favorite souvenir of tourists in Naples. This bracelet depicts the Olympian gods of the planets in the order of the seven days of the week. From left to right are Diana, the moon, for Monday; Mars for Tuesday, Mercury for Wednesday, Jupiter for Thursday, Venus for Friday, Saturn for Saturday, and Apollo for Sunday.