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Classical Treasures, Bathed in a New Light

The lobby frescoes, from luxurious ancient villas on the Bay of Naples, have been cleaned and moved.

From The New York Times -- Interior Design, 4/24/2007 12:00:00 AM

The other day, apropos of the Metropolitan Museum's fine, new light-washed galleries for Greek and Roman art, a friend e-mailed to me a passage by Virgil. In it Aeneas, fleeing the Trojan War, arrives in Carthage and finds a temple for Juno under construction. He pushes open the temple's big bronze doors ("which made the hinges groan," Virgil reports) and "for the first time he dared to hope for life." He's astounded by the skill of the craftsmen and by the nobility and precision of a painting of the war. He starts to cry.

"It was only a picture, but, sighing deeply, he let his thoughts feed on it, and his face was wet with a stream of tears," Virgil writes.

The power of ancient art has to do with its ability, as my friend put it, "to embody great acts and communicate their human dimension." Rome became the model for Western culture from the Renaissance through the Enlightenment.

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