Using multimedia tools, the visitor is embraced by a poetic world of sound, projection and music by Luca D’Alberto. In two rooms,The Green Room and The Black Room, Saskia Boddeke leads you into a story, based on historical facts about the Julio- Claudian dynasty and in particular on Marcus Agrippa (a loyal friend of the Emperor Augustus) and his narrated desire to die in a room especially created for that purpose, The Black Room in his villa in Boscotrecase.

In the days of the Roman empire, the region around the bay of Naples was said to be a wonderful place to retire and to happily await the end of this life. The eruption of Volcano Vesuvius rudely disturbed this carefree existence In the period previous to the eruption, the Roman world was dominated by the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Through Pliny the Elder you are persuaded into a story about some eighteen members of this dynasty, who were all carefully connected by blood ties. Pliny contemplates a happy death when he is alarmed by disturbing signs from the earth.

Pliny the Elder (performed by Peter Greenaway) was a great story-teller who had written a ‘Natural History’ – (Naturalis Historia) – the world’s first exhibitionist encyclopedia about everything.

Pliny, satisfying his personal curiosity and to add a new chapter to his Natural History and take up his responsibilities as a serious historian of the Imperial Julio-Claudian Dynasty, takes a boat to investigate the trembling land of the Bay of Naples where the volcano Vesuvius threatens to erupt.

MAV Museo Archeologico Virtuale – Ercolano (Napoli)
Opening: 20-12-2019