Poet discussing his poem

Pompeian style painting „Poet discussing his work” This painting, from the former collection of the Lubomirscy family, commissioned by duchess Lubomirska (listed in the castle inventory of 1802) is a copy of a painting discovered in Herculaneum. It depicts a young man in a gown and laurel wreath on his head, sitting and looking at a tragic mask (the head of Medusa?) held by a person that is not depicted on the painting (save for their hand). A large fragment on the left side is missing (as in the original), including a fracture (of plaster – on the original) above the poet’s head. The work is a copy of a painting discovered at a house overflown with lava and buried in volcanic ash, from Herculaneum. The explosion of Vesuvius took place in the year 79 AD, and both covered cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum, were discovered in the 1780s; since then, painting referred to as being in Pompeian style, became very popular among fashionable aristocracy. Four styles of Pompeian painting were distinguished between. Naturally, ”apart from these styles” so to speak, painting did develop that depicted still life to decorate dining rooms, made up of birds, fruit, fish or vessels of water. Beside these, one sees portraits of house inhabitants painted directly on the walls. The painting from Łańcut, ordered by duchess Lubomirska, is a decoration of the Chinese Apartment in the first floor of the castle, or actually the Pompeian Room at this apartment.