Manager: Stefania Pafumi

Keywords: Herculaneum Bronze sculpture

Abstract

The research project has as its object the bronze Quadriga of Herculaneum, whose fragments existing in the deposits of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and in the deposits of Herculaneum, were found as a result of excavations conducted from the eighteenth century to the present day. The aim of the project is to obtain as complete a knowledge as possible of this monument in order to propose a virtual reconstruction that can serve as a guide for the restoration in view of a new exhibition in the new rooms of the Archaeological Museum of Naples, which is scheduled to open in July 2022.

Objectives

The project proposes first of all the recognition and study of fragments attributable to the so-called Quadriga bronze of Herculaneum found at different times as a result of excavations conducted in the public area of Herculaneum from the eighteenth century to the present. At the end of the census and of the cataloguing of the fragments found in the museum’s deposits, we will proceed with the reading of the typological – figurative, celebratory and chronological context of the monument, on the basis of the comparison with the coeval iconographic documentation that has come down to us. It will then proceed to the development of a reconstructive proposal, on a digital basis, aimed at the definition of a new exhibition project at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, in the rooms dedicated to archaeological monuments from the Vesuvian city. The project also includes the development of a communicative project that illustrates the process of recomposition (from the deposit to the exhibition) and the creation of video clips that document the methodological path used by interweaving the research to the disclosure.