XL. Fausto & Felice Niccolini. Houses and Monuments of Pompeii

Rising from the Ashes
The first color lithographs of the rediscovered Pompeii

When the excavations at Pompeii were first placed on a scholarly archaeological footing in the 19th century, brothers Fausto and Felice Niccolini were close at hand and ready to respond. Making use of the newly introduced technique of color lithography, they documented the buildings, frescos, statues, as well as the most ordinary everyday objects, of the city buried in just 24 hours by the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius and preserved for over 1,600 years under a mantle of volcanic ash.
The Niccolinis' goal was to illustrate all aspects of life in the antique city.