The Light of Ancient Romans Civilization

“The Light of Ancient Romans Civilization” is not only a grand display of the Roman Empire from almost 2,000 years ago. The exhibition demonstrates pure beauty conceptually through the rich and precious historical-artistic collection from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. This world-class museum houses numerous antiquities from Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia, as well as a series of works from the Farnese Collection. All the works, including sculptures, mosaics, frescos, bronzes, and glasswares were made during the ancient Roman period and have a history of about two thousand years, reflecting the splendor of the Roman civilization in various ways. “The Light of Ancient Romans Civilization” is a kaleidoscope of dreams from the past, and shows the modern patron how beauty is an enduring experience that evades definition.

The circular vision of the exhibition plans to bring the visitor into the social world that characterizes the Roman Empire, the other largest empire in history together with the Chinese one. The widening of the territorial boundaries of Rome's power entails a gradual process of contact over time between different peoples in every socio-cultural form. With the birth of the empire of Rome, the need also arose for the Urbe itself to carry out a change in the language of images to be understood and accepted by as many people as possible. This occurs in two ways, which will be explained with the help of the pieces on display. The first is linked to the reuse of the intercultural language already created with Alexander the Great throughout the Middle East. With the victory of Rome over Greece and over the last descendant of Alexander, we begin to have the arrival of great works of art in the city (Venus Callipige for example) created by great masters such as Lysippos and Praxiteles, that shows a new way of representing themselves. This leads to the second way of communicating on the part of the new course of the Empire, especially with the Julio-Claudian dynasty and with the figure of Augustus. Augusto creates a new form of universal language made of images with a strong iconographic and iconological value, but above all understandable by everyone. A new language of power through the image pervades the whole Mediterranean.