A fiberglass cast of a young woman found in Oplontis, near Pompeii, who died in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD with a haunting grimace.
A fiberglass cast of a young woman found in Oplontis, near Pompeii, who died in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD with a haunting grimace. Below her are gold jewelry items found in Pompeii. "The first pompeian casts were realized by the famous archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli in 1863, who noticed how excavating in correspondence of organic objects (wood, perishable materials and human bodies), the perishable part disappeared leaving a void. Fiorelli poured plaster into the void and then, after its consolidation, proceeded to the excavation...The cast on display here was realized in 1984 and belongs to a young girl who tried to save herself in the Villa B in Oplontis. This cast was a new technique that was conceived by the restorer Amedeo Cicchitti. This techinque is similar to the one of the "lost wax", by substituting wax with epoxy resin. Thanks to this techinque the cast was semi-transparent and allowed to see the small objects that the victim could wear." Pe...