When the excavations of the sunken Pompeii took on a scientific character in the 19th century, the brothers Fausto and Felice Niccolini were also on the scene: Using the newly emerging color lithography, they documented the ruins of Pompeii in over 400 plates, including buildings, frescoes, and statues, as well as ordinary everyday objects that had been buried in just 24 hours by the catastrophic eruption of Vesuvius and preserved under a layer of ash for more than 1,600 years.

Fausto and Felice Niccolini aimed to comprehensively document all aspects of life in this ancient city through images for the first time. This resulted in Le case ed i monumenti di Pompei, published in Naples between 1854 and 1896 with over 400 color lithographs. Detailed descriptions give the viewer a comprehensive impression of Pompeii: In their modern approach, the Niccolini brothers focused not only on views and plans of the city and public buildings but especially on residential buildings, which were of holistic interest: their decoration and the artworks and everyday objects found there are presented in their context for the first time. Additionally, there are “animated” depictions of ancient daily life in taverns, workshops, and shops, as well as in public squares, temples, theaters, and baths.

Two introductory essays present the historical background and the protagonists of the excavation history. The impact that Pompeian art and the unforgettable plaster casts of human remains had on works of fine art is shown in works by Robert Adam, Anton Raphael Mengs, Angelika Kaufmann, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, and even Duane Hanson and George Segal.

The plates show well over 1,000 finds, which are comprehensively named and localized here for the first time, making this edition a reference work for Pompeii research.