Houses and monuments of pompeii - the work of fausto and felice niccolini (Getty Trust Publications)

The discovery of and excavation at Pompeii in the second half of the 18th century not only provided historians with a trove of information about ancient Roman civilization but also fired artists' imaginations and inaugurated the vogue for "Pompeian style" that so influenced the West in the 19th century. This title reproduces, along with commentary, "Le Case i Monu Menti di Pompeii" (1854) of Fausto and Felice Niccolini, the first work to present completely and systematically all the public and private buildings so far excavated in Pompeii. It features the watercolours the Niccolinis created to document Pompeii and should be a useful tool in understanding the excavated remains themselves and how modern archaeologists perceived and recorded the ancient world. Accompanying texts explain the documents żeby the Niccolinis as well as the evolution of the Pompeian style in Europe, the pictorial representation of Pompeii in the 19th century from engravings to photographs and the evolving styles of archeological documentation.