Review: 'Pompeii & the Roman Villa' at LACMA

With the possible exception of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, everybody loves a good volcano story. The explosion! The lava flow! The ash cloud! Unspeakable death and destruction! The violent drama is exciting.

Even Andy Warhol painted Mt. Vesuvius as an imagined explosion of lime green, hot pink, searing orange, putrid purple and raging red colors. Fortunately, that trashy 1985 painting is not included in “Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples,” the absorbing exhibition of ancient art that opened Sunday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Warhol painted nothing that wasn't already famous (or infamous), and exhibitions of Pompeiian art can get buried beneath tons of celebrity volcanology. With a minor exception, this one doesn't.

“Pompeii and the Roman Villa” is a well-considered, beautifully installed examination of elite Roman taste roughly two millenniums ago, as manifest in the country houses of powerful nobles along the Neapolitan coastline. The one misstep comes in the final section, when we're asked to look at 18th and 19th century European art that responded to the discovery and excavation of Pompeii, buried beneath molten lava, gray ash and pumice stone in the summer of AD 79, swallowing up thousands of victims.

It isn't just that this Romantic era survey is incomplete — Christian Dahl's quintessential 1826 fantasia based on a contemporary eruption of Vesuvius is not here, for instance. Or that the truly awful stuff -- such as Lawrence Alma-Tadema's  grandiose 1874 ode to monumental Victorian trivia, “A Sculpture Gallery” -- is. It's that the subject of this final section is different from the earlier ones.

The closing room displays artists and craftsmen responding to the history, legends and contemporary science of a dramatic event. (Appropriately, it comes just before the museum gift shop.) The enlightening galleries that unfold before it, meanwhile, display Roman artists engaged in a fascinating aesthetic conversation with their forebears in ancient Greece.

 “Pompeii and the Roman Villa” is a large but not exhausting study of one culture absorbing and remaking the artistic legacy of another, to suit its own social purposes. Rome had vanquished Greece in the sack of Corinth in 146 BC, but the Romans didn't denigrate Greek art as something foreign and inferior. Instead, they regarded it as magnificent, something worth emulating and, if possible, enhancing — a sign of Rome's own much greater power and glory in having triumphed over a major civilization.

Something at once highly refined and crudely militaristic characterizes the Roman attitude. Take the heavy bronze gladiator's helmet decorated with complex reliefs that relate episodes in the fall of Troy. That's a founding story of Rome, established from the tangled tale of Trojan history. Whatever the far-flung military conquests of Greece and Rome, however, today we associate the leisure pursuits of one with competitive athletic games and the other with vicious gladiatorial combat. The helmet, probably a Pompeiian show-piece rather than something actually worn in the bloody ring, is a warrior's artifact elevated to the status of elaborate decorative sculpture.

The show covers a period roughly between the empire-builder Julius Caesar (102-44 BC), whose decision to erect a Neapolitan retreat far from Rome's civic intrigues made the region around Pompeii into the fashionable Palm Springs or Hamptons of his day, and the tyrannical emperor Nero (AD 37-68), who died not long before Vesuvius erupted. (Some have used Nero's decadence as an explanation for Pompeii's tragic fate, which is sort of like Pat Robertson blaming Florida hurricanes on Gay Day at Disney World.) Villa culture is the show's focus.

Romans approached art of ancient Greece and Periclean Athens in three ways. Some clumsy Roman works are content just to signify historical awareness. Others seek to match the skill and copy the beauty of what came before. And the rest transform it into something distinctly Roman.

A bronze bust of a young man or Apollo, his eyebrows and upper lip inset with copper that results in a vacant, mechanical stare, crudely recalls archaic Greek sculpture. (His corkscrew ringlets of hair look like latter-day fusilli pasta.) By contrast, a beautifully carved marble relief shows a classically inspired figure of Achilles using his dagger to scrape rust from his spear into the abdominal wound of the regal Telephos, whose left leg tenses, toes splayed, and whose mouth gently exhales in pain. Finally a bronze fisherman astride a fountainhead is a playful, marvelously observed figure from life whose role is simply to provide thematic adornment for a garden fishpond.

Kenneth Lapatin, associate curator of antiquities at the Getty Villa — itself based on a lavish country house excavated at Herculaneum, up the coast a bit from Pompeii — ably organized the traveling LACMA show. (Carol C. Mattusch did the honors for Washington's National Gallery of Art, where it originated.) He divided the Pompeiian galleries into four sections, which unfold in a wonderfully coherent and informative way.

First is a room of 10 portrait busts and statues, plus one fragment of wall-painting and some fancy jewelry, which comprise a Who's Who of villa owners or family members. Next is a gallery that articulates the fashion for Greek art and culture among the Roman aristocracy. The “who” and “what” of ancient Pompeii are established.

The “where” completes the quartet, dramatically upping the ante.

The show hits a peak in the third section, devoted to an almost uniformly exquisite compilation of sculptures, reliefs, wall paintings and a mosaic that adorned villa gardens in the temperate seaside region. The Roman fashion for these pastoral settings may have evolved from Plato's Academy just outside Athens, the contemplative retreat centered on a sacred grove of olive trees dedicated to Athena, goddess of (among other things) wisdom. Judging from the art, though, Pompeii's gardens were as much about sensual pleasure as learning.

A nearly 6-by-12-foot fresco shows a sumptuous garden, its luxurious flora filled with birds and studded with sculpture. The remarkable painting came from a villa living room that once faced a garden, merging cultivated exterior and interior spaces. Nature's fluctuations are set against culture's permanent bloom, both equally ravishing and revered.

The fourth section focuses on villa interiors, including sculptures transformed into oil lamps, fresco still lifes, ancient glass (most loaned from the Getty's excellent collection) and so on. Three bright red walls of a dining room are adorned with paintings of Apollo and his muses in a trompe l'oeil architectural setting — a place for lively feasts. The social gatherings are given at least a gloss of literary and artistic rumination, provided by the inspirational figures painted on surrounding walls.

What the villa garden and interior galleries remind us is that almost all the Roman art in this exhibition was made for ornamental purposes. Modern traditions tend to equate decoration with trivia, and the mind recoils at being considered insufficiently intellectual. That's our loss, if “Pompeii and the Roman Villa” is any guide.

-- Christopher Knight

Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture around the Bay of Naples, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5908 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. Noon-8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon-9 p.m. Fridays; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.  Ends Oct. 4. $25. (323) 857-6000.  

Comments

[Donald Frazell]

Gee, what could this be? Murals of nature, the gods presence shown, the Romans identity suported and distinguished, could this be? Art?
Finally, CK, you write about something that isnt academic games and master thesis ilustrations. Thank you. Perhaps you will remember this the next time you view some childrens self expressive, therapeutic doodling and academic dogma illustrations at a gallery.
Perhaps, constructive criticism, would be in line? I know its aradical idea. Perhaps even, Modern?.
Try it, you might like it.

art collegia delenda est

[Reader]

Millenniums? Are you kidding? And you're setting yourself up as someone in position to criticize?

[John Dingler]

Thank Goddess that this show does not seem to be a curatorial show put together to impress exhibits curators, except for Part II: The Comparison, but I can live with that.

It was a fairly excellent exhibition, nicely mounted and not overly-described. I have seen, and been a part of, too many curatorial shows that stretch credulity beginning with a show's pretentiously overly-academic title to the explanatory panels full of languid language that could have come out of the mouths of attendees at Victorian tea parties, or from the pages of Art Forum, that mostly black-clothed, pinky-in-the-airs demand and pretend to embrace.

If the school has enough funds left, I may ask my dean for field trip money so that I can take my first quarter art history students to this fabulous art appreciation show.

[reader]

I recently visited this exhibit and wanted to put in a good word for the audio guide. The exhibit might be fine without it, but the audio guide makes it SO MUCH better. More information, very nice music - the complete experience. If you go watch the show, shell out the extra four bucks to make the Pompeii show complete - get the audio!!

[Denise]

I may need to go see it again.
The only word to describe this exhibition is MEDIOCRE.
Great job on the music and the descriptions with the ear-pieces.
I totally wasn't impressed. The only piece that will stick with me is the sculpture of Homer, I'm not sure if it's the sculpture itself or if it's what Homer represents or means to me.
I do have an affinity for old people, for wisdom and for writers and I guess that sculpture embodies all three.
A bronze statue of Alexander the Great stood out for me and a painting of Plato and his students I believe, otherwise it wasn't a life changing experience and I love museums.
I'm going to see it again because I can't believe how mediocre the experience was for me in every sense, completely unsatisfying.
I have to go see it again just to be sure that it wasn't something else.
I shall report yet again.

[Peter]

I don't go to art exhibitions or read art reviews and am not familiar with people who comment on them. I got here by mistake and stuck around to read the review and reader comments. The thought struck me, what a dissension-prone, contentious bunch you are, each of you entirely convinced your own judgment is correct, including the woman who wrote that she "may need to go see it again.". The lot of you are incapable of agreeing on anything, aren't you? Actually, I suspect you wouldn't want to agree on anything even if you could. I guess art appreciation, like art,imitates life. Thanks for the experience; I enjoyed it.

By the way, Reader, while, I prefer "millennia," most modern dictionaries say that "millenniums" is acceptable as the plural form of "millennium," as you will discover if you Google "millennium plural." Only the most rigid compulsives would bother to submit a post stating a critic's use of "millenniums" in a popular newspaper puts in question him "setting [him]self up as someone in position to criticize." Try to focus on substance instead of form; you'll find life more satisfying if you do.

[Donald Frazell]

If the reviews on this blog focused on substance instead of form at all, there wouldnt be such a lack of satisfaction in both reviews and childrish "art" works.

art collegia delenda est

[John Dingler]

Hi Peter,
The subject of the article is the "Pompeii & the Roman Villa" exhibit, not us, yet you chose to talk about us and, in the process, reveal something of your personal self. Here is what your comments have revealed about yourself and what we have learned about your mistaken cameo appearance here.

You read the article.
You don't go to art exhibitions.
You are not familiar with responders.
You got here by mistake.
You stuck around anyway.
You criticize commentators' responses.
You imply that all participants who commented on the art show are dissenters and contentious.
You try to make clear that you are opinionated, judgmental, indiscriminating, disagreeable, sarcastic, petty, vindictive, condescending, and finally, preachy.

In short, your criticism is an ad hominem attack, hence illogical because it's not commenting on the substance of the article. Because you refused to make a comment on the article, your reaction to opinions is irrational.

[Ramona]

I saw the new LACMA exhibit in relative calm, on a Member's invitation day. Though uneven -- what exhibit isn't ! -- I found it generally worthwhile. Only two things bothered me. The first -- always a dagger through a word-lover's heart -- was "principle" for "principal" on one of the explanatory plaques. The other, far more serious, was the use of "AD" and "BC". In scholarly circles, and increasingly in the wider world -- the correct usage is "CE" and "BCE". Years ago, the LACMA gift shop carried only Christmas, not Hanukah cards. Things have changed, thank goodness. So why did the curator choose to use Christian terms to address an audience of mixed -- or no -- beliefs?

[Peter]

"You try to make clear that you are opinionated, judgmental, indiscriminating, disagreeable, sarcastic, petty, vindictive, condescending, and finally, preachy."

Yes, that was indeed my purpose. Had I read it rather than writtern it, I wouldn't have bothered wasting any time responding to it. I may need to reread the review and all the comments.

[Carol, Los Angeles]

I attended the exhibition last week and CK's review is a good reflection of the exhibit. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the artistry remarkable and the Roman obsession with the Greeks fascinating. They certainly new how to live! I actually found the final exhibit humorous, especially Lawrence Alma-Tadema's painting. It was the modern equivalent of photoshopping yourself into a photo. I actually thought it was hysterical! All in all, I think it is well worth the visit.

[Jeremiah]

I have a potentially incendiary comment to make about this comment by Ramona:
"The other, far more serious, was the use of 'AD' and 'BC'. In scholarly circles, and increasingly in the wider world -- the correct usage is 'CE' and 'BCE' "

You state that the correct usage is CE and BCE? By that same logic should we rename anything in Western culture with Christian associations? How about we rename Christmas to "Winter Day", St. Patrick's Day to "Shamrock Day", St. Valentine's day to "Heart Day", Easter to "Bunny Day". Maybe we shouldn't say "Oh my God" anymore, instead "Oh my deity." Oh wait, that has Christian references too, how about "Oh my imagined higher life form?" We should get biologists to rename the "Jesus lizard" to "Water-walking lizard", and get lawyers to rename "acts of God" to be called "really bad luck." What about the planets? Those names are explicit references to Roman deities. Should they be renamed to something more generic?

What is really being accomplished by renaming AD & BC to CE & BCE? It's just tradition that these terms are used, I don't see the harm in them. Is it tradition that is bothering people, or is it Christianity itself?

[Steven Stein]

Isn't it amazing how 2000 years ago the people of Rome had created such beautiful work without modern tools or electricity, The fact that this exhibit is from a simpler time long ago is what makes the art great. Thanks to all those who made this exhibit possible so I could see its beauty. Now to those of you who need to complain about this show and especially those who need to complain about the other posters here - stop acting like uncivil children.

[Donald Frazell]

The Romans were great engineers, and the new tools they used, and machines they developed, are being rediscovered all the time. Of course, having millions of slaves didnt hurt either. Or getting a head start in art by "borrowing" from the Hellenes. And any other peoples skills they could use. But then, that is the mark of intelligence, finding all you can and then putting it to use.

They were by turns, extremely practical, and extraordinarily ruthless. The Coliseum was built with Jewish labor and the gold the Romans took from the second Temple when they burnt it. There were millions of slaves, in an Empire of up to 100 million people at its greatest extent. These fat cats were far from the typical Roman, even of those who were citizens. Fascist comes from their symbol of power, one we still see on the wall in congress when you watch joint sessions. sticks bundled around an axe to deputize and beat down the rabble. They liked their order, and did whateer was necessary to have it, for themselves.

[Dean]

This article is very poorly written..not what i would expect from somone is remotely familiar with the antiquities..I was back in Italy again for the 8th time last year and can never get enough. Americans (which I am not) are like so uncultered and ignorant of the REAL appreciation of the arts and especially anitquities...they are more into modern, freeways, their cars and stuff..the most consumer oriented society in the world...how God awful is that!

[D.L.]

There are too many great things about these comments.

[Dissertation Titles]

Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!