Admetos and Alkestis.
The most beautiful frescoes of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN) come from Herculaneum and Pompeii. The two towns were destroyed in 79 CE by an eruption of the Vesuvius, but the frescoes in the museum do not show any signs of this cataclysmic event that took place almost 2,000 years ago. They were no doubt cleaned and restored professionally, so that the colours are brilliant again and the stories moving. These stories are almost without exception taken from Greek mythology. Below, the reader will find some of the most gorgeous frescoes, accompanied by a brief explanation of the story they tell.
Herculaneum
The frescoes of Herculaneum come from the Augusteum of the town, which was the centre of the cult of the emperors in a Roman city. Excavations were carried out here between 1739 and 1741 and between 1759 and 1760. A number of splendid statues were discovered – see part 1 – but also several magnificent frescoes. 31 fragments in total were preserved, which of course all date from before the year 79. In this post you will first see the story of the Thessalian king Admetos. He is destined to die, but his wife Alkestis is willing to take his place.
Another splendid fresco is that of the centaur Cheiron who teaches young Achilles to play the lyre. And then we have the famous story of baby Hercules (or Heracles in Greek) who strangles the snakes that a vengeful Hera has sent to kill him. We meet Hercules again in a fresco in which the hero is depicted together with his young son Telephos (Telephos is the child that is suckled by a hind). My last favourite is the fresco of the Athenian hero Theseus as a liberator. It was Theseus who defeated the dreadful Minotaur. The monster lies slain at his feet.
Pompeii
A much larger number of frescoes comes from Pompeii. In the collection we find several famous images. A good example is the woman with the stylus and the wax writing tablet. In the past the fresco was sometimes identified as a portrait of the poet Sappho (ca. 630-570 BCE), but this interpretation seems to have been abandoned. Also very famous is the portrait of the baker Terentius Neo and his wife, which comes from the tablinum (reception room) of the couple’s own house. It is fascinating indeed how people who lived two millennia ago can give you such a realistic and pressing stare.
A personal favourite is the fresco of the Trojan hero Aeneas. He had been wounded in combat and is treated by his personal physician Iapyx. While the doctor tends to his wounded leg, Aeneas comforts his crying son Ascanius. On the left Aeneas’ mother has been depicted, the goddess Venus.
The Trojan War was a popular theme in Pompeii. Very touching is the fresco of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia. The Greek fleet is ready to sail from the port of Aulis, but it is waiting in vain for favourable winds. It then turns out that the lack of wind is the vengeance of the goddess Artemis, who is angry at the Greek general Agamemnon for killing one of her sacred deer. The seer Kalchas informs the Greeks that the goddess can only be appeased if Agamemnon agrees to sacrifice his daughter to her. The king is prepared to do what is necessary but – as the fresco shows us in the bottom left corner – with an extremely heavy heart. It is clear that Agamemnon does not want to see the act of the sacrifice. While Kalchas stands ready with the knife, Odysseus and Diomedes are holding the girl. In the sky the happy end is already visible: Artemis sends a hind to take Iphigeneia’s place. These traumatic events would ruin the marriage of Agamemnon and his wife Klytaimnestra for good, with ultimately fatal consequences for the former. The fresco comes from the garden of the House of the Tragic Poet. In the atrium of this house the fresco of Achilles and Briseis was found. She had been taken prisoner by the Greek hero but was claimed by Agamemnon. Achilles subsequently refused to fight for the Greeks at Troy any longer. Agamemnon clearly had a knack for making enemies.
In Herculaneum we had already met Hercules and Theseus, and the two heroes are depicted in the frescoes from Pompeii as well. Hercules has been painted together with Nessos, the centaur who offers to carry the hero’s wife across a river. In reality he has plans to abduct her, whereupon Hercules will kill the centaur. Nessos’ blood will then later cause Hercules’ own death. Deianeira has been depicted on the cart behind Hercules, and the hero has his son Hyllos on his arm. The fresco comes from the House of the Centaur. From the House of Marcus Gavius Rufus comes the fresco of Theseus, with on the left the slain Minotaur.
In many other frescoes we see gods and goddesses but there are also frescoes of naval battles and a fresco featuring the amphitheatre of Pompeii. This fresco refers to a historical event, i.e. the riots that broke out in the year 59 when during a gladiatorial show spectators from Pompeii and Nuceria began quarrelling.
Eroticism
When in the eighteenth and nineteenth century Naples was ruled by kings from the House of Bourbon, eroticism was seen in a rather different light than it is today. The erotic frescoes from Herculaneum and especially Pompeii were brought together in a secret room, the Gabinetto Segreto. In this way visitors to the museum could avoid unwanted confrontations with these images. The scenes sometimes came from private residences and sometimes from bars and brothels (lupanares).
In our eyes many of the scenes are probably considered quite harmless (much unlike the horrible practices in the brothels!). We are probably able to smile at an image of a huge phallus with the Latin text HIC HABITAT FELICITAS (“here lives happiness”). One would perhaps expect this text above the entrance to a brothel, but it was actually found above the entrance to a bakery.
Sources: website MANN Napoli|Museo Archeologico di Napoli, Capitol travel guide for Naples (2018 edition), p. 90-93 and a reader from my high school years!