Antichità da immaginare, antichità da documentare. Il ruolo dell'archeologia nell'attività professionale di Luigi Bazzani

Luigi Bazzani (1836-1927), made his reputation in the Post-Unitarian Rome as a vedutista and scenographer; here he joined the large group of artists that in the second half of the 19th century found a major source of inspiration in classical antiquities. Unlike his colleagues working in the same tradition, however, Bazzani developed a more complex and aware relationship to archaeology and the antiquities: although his early repertoire included daily scenes set in ancient Rome or Pompeii, through his work he soon affirmed his dedication to a detailed, scientific depiction of antiquity; he accomplished archaeological views that stand out for their extraordinary accuracy and reveal his strong, ever increasing commitment to meticulous archaeological research. His Pompeian watercolors executed with artful draftsmanship and technical mastery are invaluable documentation describing with the most precise accuracy the Pompeian buildings and wall paintings that since then have been irreparably damaged or destroyed. In these works, as well as in his paintings of the ancient Rome's monuments, Bazzani has been able to blend powerful suggestions of the past with a profoundly researched accuracy, adopting a methodology that reflects the state of archaeology in the last decades of the nineteenth century.