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| A lovely mosaic of a guard dog, excavated in Pompeii. What is assumed to be the body of this very dog was found in the doorway of his house. |
I’ve been offline for quite a few days, so I have a
bit of making up to do – so you shall see some blogs in quick succession. Don’t worry – all shorter than my Tiger
Temple missive. Probably.
So our second Play Day on this buying trip didn’t
involve any buying as such. Oh well, the
actual work bit will start soon enough.
This day involved visiting the British Museum in London to view the
exhibition Life & Death in Pompeii
& Herculaneum. Wow, that was
good. It wasn’t very well organised,
with no clear direction for the very large crowd to move in so people tended to
just scatter in all directions and sometimes it took a while to see different
exhibits, but in the end we got to see everything. If you are able to walk about the streets of
Pompeii and Herculaneum – both of which are still being excavated – then they
are now on my List of Places to Visit.
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| This is the guard dog, as he died. There were some very moving exhibits, and this was certainly one. |
My favourite pieces were a couple of really lovely
mosaics. Early in the exhibit you see
the plaster cast of a dog that died guarding the doorway of his house, poor
chook, and when that house was excavated the guard dog mosaic was uncovered in
the hallway. It’s a very simple but
striking piece of art. Later on you see an
incredibly fine and detailed mosaic depicting sealife, which is probably the
most detailed and intricate and beautiful mosaic I’ve ever seen. Such a detailed image, all from eensy-weensy,
teeny-tiny tiles of glass. And it turns
out that the Romans were really very fond of the God Bacchus, so there were frescos
and mosaics of him and the … shall we say “energetic” … goings on of his
followers all over both towns. Bacchus
favoured the panther as his animal companion, so there were also lots of
figures and pictures of panthers, which were quite striking.
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| This mosaic was one of the finest I've ever seen. The artist was able to produce an almost 3D effect, such was their skill. |
A very large number of bronze pots and figures have
been excavated, and it was amazing to see the seriously fine detail that was
achieved, so long ago. And by now the
patination on some of them – really thick blue and green verdigris – is
gorgeous. I can also tell my customers
who have bought Roman glass and medical implements from me in the past that
they were every bit as good as those exhibited at the British Museum. Yay for great suppliers! I was very chuffed that the pieces I offered
for sale in the shop would have totally held their own in this major
exhibition.
All in all, the exhibition was surprisingly
comprehensive and gave a good insight into the lives of the people in both
towns, displaying everything from the frescos in peoples’ homes to calcified
loaves of bread and other food, from beautiful and intricate gold jewellery to
things found in the drains.
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| We did look at other things while visiting the British Museum. This is the Holy Thorn Reliquary, considered to be one of the most important exhibits in the entire Museum. |
These days it’s deemed acceptable to put on public
display some pretty raunchy statues and figures, which until recently were kept
in secret vaults and shown only in the most rare circumstances. Scholars have now decided that the Romans’
attitude to sex and their sometimes confronting depictions of it, was entirely
different to our modern sensibilities. So
nowadays, showing these statues isn’t deemed to be displaying pornography, it’s
displaying Roman humour. We, for
example, tend to frown on things like sex with goats and don’t find it one bit
hilarious. But if you were a Roman you’d
have been told to Lighten up, Augustus,
because the statue was just a bit of a laugh.
On a more serious level, although many people escaped
Vesuvius’ eruption so many more did not, and they were just people living their
lives until a horrible disaster suddenly descended upon them. The casts of the people and animals who had
died there were really very moving.
Sometimes you could see the expression of terror on peoples’ faces,
while others were huddled with their hands over their faces, desperately trying
to breathe. And all figures were bent
into what is called the pugilist pose, like they’re about to begin boxing,
because that is how the tendons in the human body contort in extreme heat. Truly terrible, and yet fascinating to see
what is still emerging from both towns as they are still under excavation. It might be interesting to volunteer some
time to one of the archaeological digs in progress – not as much fun as the
Tiger Temple, but every bit as dirty and probably a little safer.
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| One of the helmets from the Sutton Hoo Hoard, the most famous early medieval treasure ever excavated. |
Lots more has been happening - including shopping! - so more blogs coming
in quick succession real soon.
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