Musical afternoon in Pompeii 1893

Enrico Nardi made this oil on canvas painting, entitled ‘Musical afternoon in Pompeii’, in the late 19th or early 20th century. It depicts a scene of leisure among affluent Romans, set in a lavishly decorated villa. Nardi was Italian, and paintings like this emerged within the social context of European fascination with classical antiquity. As the continent’s museums filled with newly unearthed treasures, artists and writers mined the past for images of beauty, drama, and romance. Note the careful attention to costume and setting. The architecture, the clothing, and the musical instrument all evoke a distant past. But the painting also tells us about its own time. Who was consuming these images of a bygone era? What fantasies did they fulfill? Understanding an artwork means asking these questions and more. Consulting historical documents like exhibition reviews, artists’ correspondence, and collectors’ inventories can illuminate the social and institutional forces at play.