Whilst in Italy visiting the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, I was inspired to photograph many of the exhibits. These help record the daily lives of the inhabitants of the surrounding area right back to Roman times. Many of the exhibits were taken from Herculanium and Pompei, Roman cities of great sophistication, and show how people lived, how they decorated their homes and the items they used and treasured.
Since one theme of my assignment covers architecture, I thought I would include these since architectural decoration and detail is covered by this. In addition I feel that architecture influences the way people live and inhabit a space, therefore this translates into the items they use in daily life and treasure for decoration.
This is a detail from a sarcophagus carved in the 4th centure AD, of Roman origin and shows very find detail.
This detail is taken from the so called 'blue vase'. It is a wine amphora depicting a Dionysiac themed grape harvest, made by adding a layer of white paste to a blue glass background. Locally made in the Augustan period, 1st Century AD.
This must be where Wedgewood got his inspiration for his Jasperware, paste cameos on blue unglazed pottery.
This shot was difficult to get since the vase was in a square glass case with four tungsten lights inside attached to the top, shining directly down onto the vase. Great illumination for viewing but not for photographs.
This is a wall painting taken from a villa in Pompei of Terentius Neo (a baker) and his wife. It was found on the rear wall so that anyone entering the house had an immediate view of it from the atrium.
Below are further wall paintings taken from Pompei and Herculanium and show how wealthy Roman families decorated their homes.
These animal head spouts were taken from a fountain and must have looked very impressive when in use.
Since they were lined up on a plain wall I liked the idea of giving an impression of the spouts but concentrating focus on one, I therefore used a wide aperture on autofocus and then recomposed the shot.
This is a silver drinking vessel decorated with olives and branches from the House of Menander where a silver hoard was found. There were 118 pieces packed in wooden cases in the basement of the house and were placed there during restoration of the villa, after damage during the earthquake of AD62. They had been wrapped in cloth and wool for protection.
The figures of athletes below were most impressive since they were in running position and not the usual erect pose draped in robes and holding spears, shields etc.
They were recovered from the Villa of the Papyri, with another 65 works in bronze and 28 in marble and more than 1000 rolls of papyrus. They decorated the gymnasium at the centre of which was a swimming pool.
These were difficult to photograph since I wanted to depict the running action but with the striking face in focus. The large windows behind let in bright sunlight and there were constantly people milling about. I got as close to the runner as I could and used a shallow depth of field to try and cut out some of the distractions.
The final shot is part of the museum building itself, the building was originally a palace, constructed in the Renaissance period and renovated and restructured by Ferdinand IV of Bourbon around 1780.
This is the Great Hall of the Sundial and was begun in 1612/1615 and was intended to house the 'Studi' and the public library, so called because of a sundial built into the floor, lit by a shaft of light which enters the room at midday, through a hole from the south-west corner of the room.
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