Event

The only complete cycle of paintings depicting Apollo and the nine Muses as yet found in Pompeii were discovered in 1755 adorning a small cubiculum near the southeast corner of the Praedia Iuliae Felicis.  The cycle is notable for portraying each Muse with her appropriate attributes and identifying each in Greek.  The paintings were cut down from the walls and formed part of the royal collection for half a century before the Bourbon king Ferdinand IV presented them as a gift to Napoleon.  In 1825 they were acquired by the Louvre where they remained on display until a program of clearing, restoration and study was undertaken in 2007.  The resulting proposal for arranging the figures on the walls failed to take sufficient account of the full circumstances of their discovery.  This presentation surveys the history of these paintings and the methodologies applied in reconstructing their original architectural and archaeological contexts.