Catastrophe

Pompeii and the Roman Villa at the National Gallery of Art was especially meaningful since we visited that part of Italy earlier this year. We were in Herculaneum and Oplontis, places that provided artifacts to this exhibit.

My friend KC and I went through the Museum of Antiquities in Naples, which houses undoubtedly the greatest collection of the relics from this era. But I was pleasantly surprised at how well curated the current exhibit at the NGA is. The movie gives everything a touch of reality that sometimes didn’t come across in the museum in Naples. Instead of being overwhelming, the current exhibit dwells on the villa itself, the home of the wealthy at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

The wealthy were a very privileged society who had the time to collect and care about fine art and jewelry. The nature of the disaster preserved much of that era completely as it was on that fateful day when it seemed that all hell had broken loose. Only centuries later would the modern world unearth the remains of such beauty.

I couldn’t help but compare our current society to those living in the first century. We certainly have our collectors of fine art who live in lavish houses in McLean, Old Town, Kenwood, and other prestigious neighborhoods in the metropolitan area.

I couldn’t help but think of the prediction just a few days ago that we would likely be subjected to a biological disaster before 2013. If such a thing actually occurred, I wondered how well the mansions of the wealthy and their inhabitants would be preserved for future generations to study.

I couldn’t help but wonder who might take the place of Pliny the ancient historian to record the disaster as it claimed its victims and made time stop for those in its wake.

The remains of 50 people wearing their finest clothing and jewels who were found in the front room of the villa at Oplontis reminds us that we could find ourselves in a situation where there is no escape and our material goods are of absolutely no use.