{"id":2609,"date":"2017-12-01T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/?p=2609"},"modified":"2018-09-13T14:33:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T18:33:49","slug":"benson-leisure-and-luxury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/2017\/12\/01\/benson-leisure-and-luxury\/","title":{"rendered":"Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis Near Pompeii"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
Exhibition view of the objects from Oplontis A. Photography by Stephen Petegorsky for Smith College Museum of Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA<\/b>
\n<\/b>February 3 \u2013 August 13, 2017<\/b><\/p>\n

The Smith College Museum of Art serves as the third and final venue for the exhibition <\/span>Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis Near Pompeii<\/span><\/i>.[1]<\/span><\/a> <\/span>Housed in a single, large gallery on the museum\u2019s ground floor, the exhibition hosts a rich collection of over two hundred objects, many of which have never been displayed outside of Italy. The display effectively exhibits the opulent lifestyle of the wealthiest Roman citizens through a collection of rich jewelry, sumptuous marble sculptures, and reconstructions of lavish domestic wall painting.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The objects that comprise the exhibition come from two complexes at Oplontis near Pompeii that were buried during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Oplontis A was once an elite Roman residence, likely belonging to the Empress Poppaea Sabina, while Oplontis B functioned as a neighboring commercial complex. When read together, the material from these two archaeological sites demonstrates how the Roman elite built, maintained, and displayed their wealth, political power, and social prestige.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most visually impressive aspects of Oplontis A is the villa\u2019s <\/span>trompe l\u2019oeil<\/span><\/i> wall paintings. Fragments of painted plaster and molded stucco hang on digitally engineered backdrops that reconstruct some of the villa\u2019s walls and spaces. Paired with the reconstructions, the fragments of painted fresco reveal a rich iconographic program. Arguably the most striking frescoes on display come from the villa\u2019s atrium and one of the interior garden rooms, which the exhibition has reconstructed to allow visitors to experience how the frescoes were originally displayed within the villa proper. A touch-screen console situated in front of the space further heightens the experience for visitors by allowing them to digitally explore a 3-D reconstruction of the space.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Reconstruction<\/a>
Reconstruction of a cubiculum at Oplontis A. The installation included an audio track of trickling water and voices speaking Latin. Photography by Stephen Petegorsky for Smith College Museum of Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the display of jewelry and coinage, visitors encounter a rich assembly. As volcanic debris rained down around them, the occupants of Oplontis B sought shelter within one of the complex\u2019s storerooms. When the bodies were discovered centuries later, the excavators also found among their remains portable containers holding coins and jewelry. In a touching display, the exhibition provides a map detailing the locations of the fifty-four skeletons and matches the exhibited coins and jewelry to the bodies where they were discovered. One of the dead was that of a young, pregnant woman who was carrying over three hundred coins at the time of her death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jewelry<\/a>
Jewelry and plan of the skeletal remains found in a storage room at Oplontis B. Photography by Stephen Petegorsky for Smith College Museum of Art.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero<\/span><\/i> provides remarkable examples of the ostentatious wealth of the Roman elite. While the luxurious wall paintings overwhelm visitors with their overt projections of wealth and opulence, the pairings of individual pieces of jewelry and coinage with the bodies that once held them personalizes the exhibition. The display effectively demonstrates the highly stratified nature of ancient Roman society and the great disparities of wealth, social class, and consumption of its inhabitants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bailey Benson<\/h3>\n

Download Article<\/a><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The exhibition was organized and circulated by the\u00a0University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in cooperation with the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attivit\u00e0 Culturali e del Turismo and the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA February 3 \u2013 August 13, 2017 The Smith College Museum of Art serves as the third and final venue for the exhibition Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis Near Pompeii.[1] Housed in a single, large gallery on the museum\u2019s ground floor, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12490,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2609"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2863,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2609\/revisions\/2863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}