Love in full bloom - Exhibition of Fine Cultural Heritage from Pompeii, Italy

On the morning of May 30, organized by the Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film, Tourism and Sports of Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Nanshan Museum with the support of AEC, the Love in full bloom - Exhibition of Fine Cultural Heritage from Pompeii, Italy was reopened in Nanshan Museum, Shenzhen.

Pompeii, a city established in the early 6th century B.C., was conquered by the ancient Romans in 89 B.C. Influenced by ancient Greek and Roman civilization, Pompeii gradually developed into a city of a certain scale. Although not comparable to big cities like Rome and Athens, Pompeii and Herculaneum were already two fairly developed cities with rapid economic development, highly developed city construction where people lived in prosperity and artistic creation reached an extremely high level.

However, they were both buried within just a few hours after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. But also because of this, time is frozen in Pompeii. Everything about the city from 2,000 years ago is preserved there--from the architectural structures to numerous frescoes, from the jewelry used on a daily basis to the freshly baked bread.

The memory of this ancient city faded away in the Middle Ages and early modern times, until 1748, a farmer discovered some Roman objects after his plow plunged into the ground, memories of the ancient city came back. This led to the excavation and study of the area. With the excavations gradually advanced, an inscription containing the name of Pompeii was discovered in 1762.

The breadth of Pompeii’s excavations and the number of objects unearthed made it famous throughout Europe, and has since given rise to new trends in art schools such as neoclassicism.

The exhibition presents 128 objects/groups from the collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy, including sculptures, frescoes, bronze wares, pottery and glass wares. They are presented in five units, namely: “Back to the Hey day”, “The myth of love in the Ancient Greek and Roman”, “The Love of Life: The Ancient Romans’ Love for the Good Life”, “The Concept of Beauty in Ancient Art” and “Pompeii Revisited”. The exhibition presents the glamorous civilization of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Lives in Pompeii came to an abrupt end, leaving an extraordinary archaeological discovery for future generations, and condensing a prosperous world into an eternal dream.With multimedia display measures, the exhibition recreates ancient city Pompeii in a vivid manner, inviting the audience to enter the era when love and beauty were considered the ideal, and to feel the love, beauty and infinite vitality of the citizens in Pompeii.

The exhibition will be on display at the No. 1 Special Exhibition Hall on the first floor of Shenzhen Nanshan Museum until September 3.