Pompeii on Tuesday reopened its
'Sistine Chapel', the House of the Vettii, after a 20-year
restoration of famed frescos including erotic art and twelve
mythological scenes plus a sumptuous garden.
Named after its owners, two successful freedmen, the Domus
houses the following immortal depictions of tales from Greek
myth: The Punishment of Ixion, Daedalus and Pasiphae, Dionysus
Discovering Ariadne, the Death of Pantheus, the Punishment of
Dirce, the Infant Herakles Strangling the Snakes, the Wrestling
Match between Pan and Eros, Cyparissus, Achilles on Skyros,
Herakles and Auge, Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus, and Hero and
Leander.
"It's a symbolic house, a Sistine Chapel for Pompeii," the
archaeological park's director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, told ANSA
at the inauguration with Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano.
With its mythological scenes, erotic pictures, blending of
nature and culture to enrapture the sense and the intellect, the
House of the Vettii offers a kaleidoscope of colours and images
which it is hard to keep your eyes off - as it was for its
former slave owners and their eminent guests before the 79s AD
eruption that destroyed the ancient Roman city and preserved it
for humanity.
The garden, crowded with statues, fountains, sweet-scented
bushes, and water features, is one of the highlights of any
visit.
Closed to the public for almost two decades, here it now is
again in all its refound splendour, one of Pompeii's best known
and celebrated jewels, fascinating in its history and the
refined nature of its various ambiences, with pictures that have
been studied all over the world.
Dozens of different professions ranging from archaeologists to
restorers to architects, from structural engineers to landscape
gardeners, have poured their talents into a restoration that
first began in 2002.
"It has been one of the most challenging and complex building
sites of the last few decades," says Zuchtriegel.
Sangiuliano enthused about the reopening of the glorious
treasure trove saying "Pompeii is an artistic and historical
'unicum', and its shows why Italy is such a cultural
superpower".
The minister paid what he called "my most lavish and fulsome
compliments" to Zuchtriegel and to the culture ministry's head
of museums, Massimo Osanna, who supervised much of the
restoration work.
The house is named for its owners, two successful freedmen:
Aulus Vettius Conviva, an Augustalis, and Aulus Vettius
Restitutus.
Its careful excavation has preserved almost all of the wall
frescos, which were completed following the earthquake of 62 AD,
in the manner art historians term the Pompeiian Fourth Style.
One of its other world-famous highlights is a portrayal of
Priapus with his over-sized penis, a symbol of good luck, placed
upon a pair of scales.
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