Herculaneum, the ancient Roman town buried by volcanic lava during the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, was discovered between the modern towns of Resina and Portici in 1709. Despite being identified before Pompeii, the archaeological exploration proceeded at a much slower pace and eighteenth-century activity was limited to underground tunnelling and the removal of objects by mine shafts which were frequently filled in again. Open-air excavations did not commence until 1828. When Turner visited the site in 1819, therefore, there was very little to see apart from a few passages below ground which tourists could only see in the company of a guide. Henry Coxe, for example, described the experience in A Picture of Italy, first published in 1815:
As all the openings to these subterranean ruins, one excepted, have been closed some time; it may be necessary the traveller should know that the officious
Cicerone, who stands at this entrance should not be regarded: the money paid here might as well be thrown into the street; his curiosity will only be wearied with a perpetual sameness: he will be dragged up and down through damp, cold passages, without light or fresh air ... In fact there is little or nothing worth seeing, as the most magnificent works of art that have been brought to the light, are deposited in the Museum at Portici. The Theatre is the only object deserving of any notice.
1By the early nineteenth century, one of the few public buildings of note to have been discovered was the theatre which lies to the north of the main town.
2 Buried under approximately ninety feet of volcanic matter, it had been partially excavated by digging channels into the rock and although its overall structure remained hidden, these openings offered snapshots of the semi-circular design, the tiered seating area, the stage and the orchestra. Turner would have visited these underground chambers by candlelight, and a similar tour was outlined by Sarah Atkins in her book,
Relics of Antiquity, exhibited in the Ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, first published 1825:
Nicola Moorby
November 2010
