Stabiae.
"On Mount Vesuvius broad sheets of fire and leaping flames blazed at several points. . . My uncle tried to allay the fears of his companions by repeatedly declaring that these were nothing but bonfires left by the peasants in their terror, or else empty houses on fire in the districts they had abandoned." Nephew of Pliny the Elder.
Stabiae was an ancient Roman town situated about 4 km from Pompeii; consequently it was destroyed by volcanic ash in 79 A.D. Stabiae has not had a happy existence since before the volcano, it had already been destroyed by the Roman general Sulla during the Social War of 89 B.C. when many of Rome’s satellites revolted against the capital. Pliny the Elder said that Stabiae was rebuilt and became a holiday spot for wealthy Romans who built luxurious villas. According to sources Pliny the Elder observed the eruption from across the bay at Misenum where he tried to assist victims; but on his return to Stabiae he perished because of aftershocks of the eruption. The archaeological remains of Stabiae were originally discovered in 1749 by Cavaliere Rocco de Alcubierre, an engineer working for king Charles VII of Naples; but the ruins were forgotten until they were re-excavated by a school teacher in 1950. One of the largest villas ever discovered was the Villa San Marco, measuring more than 11,000 square metres, complete with atrium, a courtyard containing a pool, a triclinium with views of the bay, and a colonnaded courtyard. This villa is considered of great importance since it has yielded up frescoes, sculptures, mosaics and architecture, which show styles and themes comparable to those found in Pompeii and Herculaneum. Amongst its treasures are the so-called “Primavera” di Stabiae (above), a beautiful miniature which shows a nymph scattering flowers, possibly the Roman goddess Flora or one of the Hours. It may be one of the first images of Roman art that the post-war art reading public saw as it was reproduced in Gombrich’s best-selling Story of Art.[1]
[1] E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art (Phaidon, 1950, repub 1984), fig. 69.
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