Pompeii

Caponi was inspired to create Pompeii by his experience growing up in Italy and hearing stories of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that buried the city in ash. Like an archeological dig, the hill is an essential part of the sculpture and one can imagine that only part of the sculpture is visible and the rest is still buried in the hill.

While digging in Pompeii archeologists found holes in the ash and filled the openings with plaster. The dog and face-down woman are based on the two most famous plaster casts. At the time the sculpture was being made, archeologists were excavating Herculaneum, a town near Pompeii that was covered by lava, where they found skeletons of people huddled together as Caponi had imagined. The last panels are based on photos from this dig.

Pompeii was made on site, by modeling the figures out of a mixture of clay, local dirt and cement. Latex and plaster mother molds were made and taken to Caponi’s studio at Macalester College where they were cast in metal. The finished pieces were then installed within the stone frames.