Актуальные проблемы теории и истории искусства XI

The “crater delicatus” of the Bay of Naples was terminus of the Grand Tour in the eighteenth century, which drew aristocrats and artists from Dublin to St. Petersburg, and the ruins and art of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae had an immense influence on the art of Europe, as did the pathetic and wrenching tale of the eruption of AD 79, which seemed to preserve a moment in time.
These ruins, Pompeii in particular, continue to draw large volumes of world-wide tourists (2.5 million/year), who come away with a vivid and thrilling image of Roman antiquity, but rarely a very complex one.
In 2002 a new type of private non-profit foundation, the Restoring Ancient Stabiae Foundation, assumed the task of turning the almost forgotten site of Stabiae into a major archaeological park.
To do so, the Foundation and its leaders are in effect, and unavoidably, participating in the creation of a new image of the Roman past, one of which concentrates on the creation of the archeological park (Howe) and on development of numerous cultural activities (Gardelli).
The justification for the archaeological park has from the beginning been that the Stabiae site is radically different from the small port towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum: it is in fact not a legal Roman “town” (municipium) at all, but a cluster of enormous Roman seaside villas, the largest concentration
of well-preserved seaside villas in the entire Mediterranean. Recent scholarship, and the new name of the archaeological Superintendancy — the Soprintendenza di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia — recognize the different character of the site. This site gives archaeology the rare opportunity to recover the entire ambience of a very high level of Roman elite society, the senatorial and Campanian “municipal” elite, whose great houses in Rome and great villas at Baiae, Cumae and
Misenum were ambiences where great political power drove artistic innovation and which were the scenes of great political power.
How to create such a large project? The Foundation is seen as a long term to permanent foundation whose role is not only to excavate, but to conserve and help manage in a sustainable way.
For that, it coordinates many institutions, at least twenty from over a dozen countries, one of the most significant being the conservators and archaeologists of the State Hermitage Museum. The age of the single-institution archaeological project is over.
How to present this to a public through archaeology and cultural events? What is a true archaeological park? What justifies ne excavation in a zone where there is otherwise an agreed moratorium on new excavation?
First, the public whom the project is speaking to is more select: smaller number of visitors, spending more time in the area of the site and in neighboring institutions (e.g. the RAS Foundation’s Vesuvian Institute).
The Master Plan thus answers these questions:
1. A site with a coherent historical character. The main remains are almost exclusively of the great villas, built between ca. 60 BC and AD 79.
2. Well-preserved by the Vesuvian eruption.
3. Accessible. The site can be made accessible through urbanistic interventions
4. Achieve a concentration of activities on site, and at supporting institutions.
The archaeological aim of the Master Plan is to recover the spatial sequences of the two major villas, which is something that cannot be achieved at any other site.
The Master plan also proclaims that the spatial forms of the villas should dominate the experience of the site. Both tourists and historians would recover much of the original experience standing in the sea breezes of a frescoed dining room and enjoying the view of the Bay of Naples: that these elite villas, in the space of ca. 160 years, created in the atmosphere of intense political competition
among the Roman elite, developed a radially innovative type of architecture, which was as much political as personal luxury, and developed an innovative and intimate relationship to nature.
This is, admittedly, a “view”, a construct, hopefully grounded in a study of Antiquity, but leaving much room for interpretation as possible by visitors.