Souvenir of Naples

From our new collection of works, 'Souvenir of Naples', are these jewel-like renderings of the frescoes at Pompeii by a local early 19th-century artist. Interest in Pompeii reached new heights in the Victorian era: miniature faux-Pompeiis began to spring up all around Europe and North America, and in London, you could stroll through a reproduction of a Pompeiian house in the Crystal Palace. Along with the awe-inspiring sight of Vesuvius itself, it offered a unique draw for the Romantic imagination and travellers seeking an authentic emotional experience. Pompeii, through being more disturbingly 'dead' in some sense made the past, paradoxically, feel more vividly alive.

Handling these tourist 'souvenirs' nearly 200 years on, there is certainly something moving to be felt in the layers of rememberance they represent—and the connection between memory and material objects that perhaps pervades all collecting.