From Pompeii
Subtitle: the afterlife of a Roman town
By: Ingrid D. Rowland
Publisher: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 340
ISBN-13: 9780674047938
Subjects: Social life and customs; Civilization; Tourism; History
Description: "From Pompeii: The Afterlife of a Roman Town explores the fascinating variety of these different experiences, as described by the artists, writers, actors, and others who have toured the excavated site. The city’s houses, temples, gardens—and traces of Vesuvius’s human victims—have elicited responses ranging from awe to embarrassment, with shifting cultural tastes playing an important role. The erotic frescoes that appalled eighteenth-century viewers inspired Renoir to change the way he painted. For Freud, visiting Pompeii was as therapeutic as a session of psychoanalysis. Crown Prince Hirohito, arriving in the Bay of Naples by battleship, found Pompeii interesting, but Vesuvius, to his eyes, was just an ugly version of Mount Fuji. Rowland treats readers to the distinctive, often quirky responses of visitors ranging from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain to Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman. Interwoven throughout a narrative lush with detail and insight is the thread of Rowland’s own impressions of Pompeii, where she has returned many times since first visiting in 1962."--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages [295]-330) and index.
Table of contents: title: Naples, 1962; title: Pompeii, May 2013; title: The blood of San Gennaro and the eruption of Vesuvius; title: Before Pompeii : Kircher and Holste; title: Mr. Freeman goes to Herculaneum; title: The rediscovery of Pompeii; title: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; title: Further excavations; title: Karl Bryullov; title: Railway tourism; title: Charles Dickens and Mark Twain; title: Giuseppe Fiorelli, the "pope" of Pompeii; title: Bartolo Longo; title: The social role of tourist cameos; title: Pierre-Auguste Renoir; title: The legacy of August Mau; title: Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan; title: Don Amedeo Maiuri; title: Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman; title: Autobus gran turismo; title: Atomic Pizza.