Ash Figures of Pompeii
When Mt. Vesuvius erupted on August 24, 79 CE, it released a pyroclastic flow of searing hot gas that vaporized the citizens of Pompeii and buried the city in a thick layer of ash. When the city was finally rediscovered in 1748, voids were found in the ash and filled with plaster. These slides come from the University of California Santa Cruz Library. More plaster casts from Pompeii can be found here and here.
* Previously in the Proceedings: Library of Death Masks
[Acknowledgments to Neatorama]
June 1st, 2007 at 4:46 am
[...] As I was putting this post together, the Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society called my attention to another remarkable instance of the body as negative space: the plaster casts of Pompeii. In 79 AD, Pompeii and its twenty thousand inhabitants were buried by toxic gases and ash from the eruption of nearby Vesuvius. The hot ash hardened, and as the corpses of its victims decayed, they left body-shaped hollow cavities in the ash. [...]
June 3rd, 2007 at 5:30 am
[...] ( text/images via kirchersociety ) [...]