by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is now a part of U.S. history. The museum is one of nine museums in the U.S. to have the privilege of showcasing Roman art and artifacts from the time of ancient Pompeii.
The Cummer Museum is the last stop for the “Art from the Ashes: In Stabiano, Exploring the Ancient Seaside Villas of the Roman Elite” exhibit. The exhibition is organized by the Archaeological Superintendency of Pompeii and the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation and will be at the museum through Feb. 3.
“This high quality exhibit shows that the Cummer Museum is at the same level art museums in cities like San Diego and Dallas are at,” said Museum Director Maarten van de Guchte. “This is what we do. We share the art and culture of great cities around the world.”
Last year, the Cummer Museum brought in the exhibit “Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from The British Museum.” The museum broke its attendance record with 51,000 people visiting the museum to see the exhibit. Van de Guchte said there is a possibility this current exhibit could break that record.
“That may be difficult,” van de Guchte said about breaking the record. “We may break it or we certainly will be very close (to breaking it).”
The exhibit opened in the Raymond K. and Minerva Mason Gallery last Wednesday night and Friday, Dr. Thomas Noble Howe, coordinator general of The Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation, gave local media a private tour.
Howe put the exhibit into perspective.
“This is historic,” he said. “This is the first time a four-year, long term loan of artifacts from this site has been to the U.S.”
Over the past four years, the exhibit has also been to cities such as Little Rock, Ark., San Diego, Atlanta and Dallas. The exhibit includes 73 pieces from five ancient Roman villas.
“This exhibit gives us a glimpse of the life of the privileged Roman elite,” said van de Guchte.
The city of Castellamare di Stabia overlooking the Bay of Naples, located just three miles southeast of Pompeii, was a summer resort for the richest and most powerful Romans — similar to how the Malibu area is viewed by modern Californians. The large villas with their innovative designs and decorations were the center of political power, culture and wealth. Those who lived there included Caesar, his father-in-law Cicero and Augustus. But on Aug. 24, 79 A.D. Stabia was buried in ash by the eruption of Vesuvius, the same eruption that destroyed Pompeii.
“The consequences were disastrous,” said van de Guchte.
That happened nearly 2,000 years ago and these villas would have never been discovered if it wasn’t for a school principal from Castellamare di Stabia who accidentally discovered the site in the 1950s.
Excavations didn’t initially begin until 50 years later and the partnership between Italian experts and U.S. archaeologists formed, which is now the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation.
Archaeologists are currently working on two enormous excavations. Howe said there is about three-and-a-half meters of volcanic rock on top of the villa’s roof tops. While many of the roofs have collapsed, many of the walls are still standing.
“When the school principal stumbled upon the site he first found a fragment of a fresco. He began digging and hit the top of one of the villa’s atriums,” said Howe.
Even though it is amazing to find the frescoes, household furnishings and architecture still intact, archaeologists are finding pieces of walls that were not yet completed and were possibly being worked on when the city was demolished. Howe said the Garden of Arianna was found with holes and roots of plants that had been there.
“It is still as pristine as it was on that day in August,” he said.
Howe said the frescoes are still as bright as they were 2,000 years ago and the villas are still intact because the ashes sealed Stabia and kept it stable underground.
“The major purpose of this exhibit and why it is here in the U.S. is to let people know that the site is there,” said Howe. “It is very rare to have something like this here because Roman frescoes do not travel often.
“But to get this close to something that is 2,000 years old is amazing.”