Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed

Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed is an original etching from the end of the 18th century realized by Vincenzo Campana.

Signed on plate on the lower left. The etching belongs to the print-series "Antiquities of Herculaneum Exposed" (original title: Le Antichità di Ercolano Esposte), eight volumes showing through engravings the finds from the excavation of the archeological site of Herculaneum in the Kingdom of Naples (today Campania, Italy). It was published between 1757 and 1792 by the Regia Stamperia and later these copies were delivered to selected recipients throughout Europe.

Good conditions with signs of aging.

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Despite the title, the Antiquity of Herculaneum shows objects from all the excavations undertaken by the Bourbons in the Gulf of Naples. These include Pompeii, Stabia, and two sites in Herculaneum: Resina and Portici. The Bourbon king Charles commissioned fifteen scholars to create a new “Herculaneum Academy” to study the finds and publish the results of the archaeological excavations of the sites.

The engravings are of high quality and the accompanying text shows a large scholarship. They were made by 25 leading artists involved by the King to prepare drawings and engravings on the finds, among which we find Giovanni Elia Morghen, Carlo Nolli, Luigi Vanvitelli and Giovanni Battista Casanova. 

The "Antiquity" was designed more to amaze readers with the quality of the objects in the collection of the King of Naples than to be used in research, following and increasing interest in classical culture and art among eighteenth-century society. Through the exaltation of the classical concept of proportion and harmony, the book inspired the neoclassical movement in Europe, giving artists and decorators access to a vast workshop of Hellenistic motifs.

References: 

National Gallery (Washington), Mark J. Millard Architectural, IV (2000), n. 1.

L. Garcia y Garcia, Nova bibliotheca Pompeiana (2 v., 1998).

Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Library ... First Printed Books, 1 (1994), no. 112.

U. Pannuti, Engravers and designers of the Royal Printing House of Naples in the 18th century: the publication of the Antiquities of Herculaneum, in Xenia antiqua, 9 (2000), p. 151-178.

V. Trombetta, The edition of The Antiquities of Herculaneum exhibited in Rendiconti of the Academy of Archeology, Letters and Fine Arts of Naples, 59 (1984), p.151-172.