Pompeii Dining exhibit in San Francisco

[guy]

 

Nice pictures:

Quote

”Now, the Legion of Honor, part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, presents the first museum exhibition about the daily life of Pompeii’s citizens, as viewed through the lens of their kitchens and dining rooms.  “Last Supper in Pompeii” travels to the Bay Area from the Ashmolean Museum Oxford and features some 150 mosaics, frescoes, sculptures, household objects, and other artifacts excavated from the ancient city, all speaking to the importance of food and drink in the Roman Empire.“

A dormouse jar (right) and other vessels in “Last Supper in Pompeii: From the Table to the Grave” at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. Photo by Gary Sexton, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

A carbonized loaf of bread in “Last Supper in Pompeii: From the Table to the Grave” at the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. Photo by Gary Sexton, courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

 

Fresco showing a man handing out bread, perhaps as a bribe for voters (AD 50–79). Photo courtesy of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.

This scene represents either a bribe to voters or a distribution by a patron to residents or visitors. 
Professor Tuck (from his excellent course “Pompeii: Daily Life in an Ancient Roman City” on Great CoursePlus) discussed this fresco. He notes that there is no money being exchanged and the man doling out the bread is wearing a toga, a sign of an upperclass elite Roman. Professor Tuck feels that this scene represents a distribution by a patron and not the usual commercial transaction at a bakery. 

 

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/legion-of-honor-pompeii-show-1986994/amp-page

 

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by guy

[Crispina]

Oh how interesting.  I wonder if the exhibit will tour beyond San Francisco, like the Cleveland Museum in Cleveland Ohio perhaps?? Wishful thinking.

Thanks for sharing. I've never seen the passing out of bread fresco online anywhere before.