“MODERN” POMPEII MASTERPIECE DISCOVERED
There is more to Pompeii than the excavated city dug out of the disaster of the long ago eruption of Vesuvius. Pompeii is also a modern city, part of the “Metropolitan City of Naples” and with over 23,000 inhabitants. It is also a major religious destination drawing 4 million Roman Catholic pilgrims every year to the celebrated shrine of the Beata Vergine Maria del Santo Rosario di Pompei (the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii).
It now has an additional attraction for art lovers, with the recent surprise discovery of a long-lost Andrea Mantegna masterpiece of the “Deposition of Christ.” The painting, which was very badly damaged, was barely recognizable when it came to light stacked in an obscure corner of the church, where, for unknown reasons, it had been trasferred from the Basilica of San Domenico in Naples and forgotten.
The painting is now in the Vatican Museum, where it is being cleaned and restored by experts. It will be on public view for the next few months before it is returned to its “adopted” home in the Pompeii sanctuary, where it will be permantently exhibited in a special room along with 12 other paintings of the Neapolitan School of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Info: Tel. +39.081.8577371 www.santuario.it