The Niccolini Brothers in Pompeii

Fausto and Felice Niccolini published Le Case ed i Monumenti di Pompei: disegnati e descritti between 1854 and 1896 in Naples, Italy. The last two of the series' existing volumes were actually published posthumously by members of the Niccolini family intent on carrying on the two brothers' project. Before engaging in this editorial venture, Fausto worked under his father, the well-known architect Antonio Niccolini, while Felice worked in the Museo Nazionale di Napoli, where he eventually became the museum's director. Both brothers had a profound interest in Campanian antiquities and closely collaborated with the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli to produce their publications. Filled with lithographs and chromolithographs of buildings, frescoes, statues, and objects of daily use, Le Case ed i Monumenti di Pompei aimed to illustrate all aspects of life in the ancient city. Great effort was made to represent the objects' context, often grouping them according to their original location or find spot. Viewers were thus offered more accurate depictions of how buildings and monuments interacted with their surroundings. In their approach to the study and representation of Pompeii's ruins, the Niccolini brothers were greatly influenced by Fiorelli's revolutionary archaeological methods. Fiorelli, for instance, was the first to divide Pompeii into 9 regions (regiones), subdivided into building blocks (insulae)--an organizational system that allowed for new discoveries to be more precisely recorded. He also adopted the technique of uncovering buildings layer by layer, working from the top down, so as to maintain the integrity of each site. Finally, Fiorelli was famous for creating plaster casts of human remains that are prominently displayed at Pompeii to this day.