“In popular culture”: Assyrians in the Shadow of Vesuvius

Gli Assiri all’ombra del Vesuvio / Assyrians in the Shadow of Vesuvius

An exhibition at Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples, July 3^rd – September 16^th 2019

By Simonetta Graziani, Exhibition Curator

From July 3^rd to September 16^th 2019, fifteen gypsum casts of Neo-Assyrian reliefs from Nineveh and Kalkhu (Nimrud), whose originals belong to the collections of the British Museum in London, will be on exhibition at Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples (MANN).

Austen Henry Layard*

Giuseppe Fiorelli*

The casts were gifted to the MANN more than a century ago, and they attest to the scholarly relations and friendship between Sir Austin Henry Layard (1817-1894) and Giuseppe Fiorelli (1823-1896), MANN director from 1863 to 1875.

On the wake of the great archaeological discoveries in the Assyrian capitals, the casts were kept on display in the MANN gallery for several years at the beginning of the past century, then they were moved to a storeroom.

The casts displayed at MANN in ca. 1930*

Following an inspection in July 2014, the casts were found in excellent condition and, thanks to the quality of their manufacture, showing all the details of Assyrian craftsmanship.

The gypsum casts are replicas of some reliefs of the palaces of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BCE) in Nimrud, and Ashurbanipal (668-630 BCE) in Nineveh, the most famous of which is the Garden scene. They were carefully chosen in order to constitute a paradigmatic sample of the representations of the Assyrian king and the exceptional level reached by Assyrian artists in the 1^st millennium BCE.

The cast of the Garden Scene*

In the framework of a collaboration between MANN and “L’Orientale” University of Naples, where the tradition of assyriological studies goes back 50 years, and with the support of ISMEO and its president Adriano V. Rossi, it has been decided to revive the casts moving them back to the gallery, in a room of their own. To emphasize this revival, an exhibition entitled Assyrians in the Shadow of Vesuvius will take place from July 3^rd to September 16^th. The exhibition will also mark an important anniversary, because it falls 180 years after Austen Henry Layard’s first trip to the East (1839) .

In order to provide context, some general topics and transversal themes have been singled out: the king performing rituals, the warrior king, the king and the royal court, the royal hunt, the discovery of Assyria, Layard and Fiorelli; and a number of Assyrian and Mesopotamian artefacts have been loaned by the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Italian museums displaying antiquities collections from ancient Mesopotamia (Musei Vaticani,Vatican City; Museo di Scultura Antica Giovanni Barracco, Rome; Musei Civici, Como; Musei Reali, Turin; Museo Orientale ‘Umberto Scerrato’, Naples). Curators and directors of all the involved institutions supported our initiative and generously loaned us their masterpieces.

The Naples exhibition aims at a twofold purpose:

1. providing a tangible testimony of Assyrian civilization at its most imperial splendour, addressed to the general public which has often limited familiarity with this topic. This aim has to be particularly pursued at a time when the urban and artistic expressions of Assyria are no longer visible due to the tragic events that led to the destruction of the ancient imperial capitals – Kalkhu, Dur-Sharrukin, Nineveh – which are an important part of the cultural heritage of Iraq and of the entire mankind;
2. emphasizing the role of Naples, which was projected in an international scientific and cultural horizon in the 19^th century and in the years following the Italian unification (1861). Giuseppe Fiorelli, after an effective reorganization of Pompeii excavations and tireless efforts in the publication of their results, was internationally acclaimed as an eminent archaeologist.

Since the beginning, the exhibition has been conceived as a multimedia experience trying to reproduce sounds, colours and smells of the Assyrian court and will rely on digital technologies.

An exhibition catalogue, written as a collaborative work by specialists from the various disciplines involved (archaeology, philology, art history, and history of the ancient Near East) and lavishly illustrated, has been printed by Electa.

Since its very beginning in August 2017, when the director of MANN, Paolo Giulierini, enthusiastically accepted my proposal of an exhibition of the casts, it appeared necessary to assemble a team to achieve such a goal. Four young colleagues generously accepted my invitation: Gian Pietro Basello, Noemi Borrelli, Francesca D’Alonzo, and Romolo Loreto. More recently, Marta Iommelli joined us. Without them, their enthusiasm and their invaluable work, together with the efforts of the personnel of MANN, the Assyrians in the Shadow of Vesuvius would have been a mission impossible!

Gli Assiri all’ombra del Vesuvio / Assyrians in the Shadow of Vesuvius: The team

*All images are courtesy of the MIBAC- Ministero per i Beni e le Attività culturali and of Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples