Fragility of the Eternal. From Pompeii to the Grand Tour and beyond

28 Nov 2025 – 29 Mar 2026

Fragility of the Eternal. From Pompeii to the Grand Tour and Beyond, hosted at the National
Museum of Art of Timișoara, examines the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 as a
symbolic trauma within the Western imagination. Through the virtual voice of the Roman
soldier Lucio Valerio Sacer—survivor of the eruption who later reached Dacia—the
exhibition guides visitors on a journey from the apparent stability of Roman urban life to its
sudden dissolution.
More than one hundred works from major Italian museums—from the National
Archaeological Museum of Naples to the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art
in Rome—bring together Pompeian frescoes, Grand Tour paintings and drawings, and iconic
pieces by Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri and Anselm Kiefer.
Curated by Massimo Osanna and Filip Petcu, this international exhibition marks the opening
of the Romania–Italy Cultural Year 2026, exploring how civilizations confront their own
impermanence through the memory of catastrophe.

La mostra

The National Museum of Art of Timișoara presents Fragility of the Eternal. From Pompeii to
the Grand Tour and Beyond, an exhibition that reinterprets the ancient Vesuvian tragedy as a
key to understanding the contemporary condition.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 is presented not as an isolated event, but as an
archetype of collapse embedded in the Western consciousness. This primordial catastrophe
becomes the guiding thread of a journey across centuries of artistic creation, revealing how
cultures repeatedly return to moments of destruction to question their own identity and
transience.
An original narrative accompanies visitors throughout the exhibition: the voice of Lucius
Valerius Sacer, a Roman soldier whose name appears in an inscription on a commemorative
altar found in Dacia, documenting the presence of a survivor of the Vesuvian apocalypse. His
testimony transports us from the illusion of Roman eternity to the instant in which nature
disrupts every certainty.

Leggi tutto

The exhibition brings together over one hundred exceptional works from some of the most
prestigious Italian museums: the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Museum
and Royal Park of Capodimonte, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in
Rome, the Pantheon and Castel Sant’Angelo – Directorate of National Museums of the City
of Rome, and the National Museums of Vomero. Sculptures, frescoes and everyday objects
from Pompeii resonate with engravings, paintings and refined nineteenth-century porcelains,
culminating in contemporary works by Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri and Anselm Kiefer.
Curated by Professor Massimo Osanna, Director General of Museums at the Italian Ministry
of Culture, and by Filip Petcu, Director of the National Museum of Art of Timișoara, the
exhibition is promoted by the Culture Committee of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and
produced by Civita Mostre e Musei. It serves as the inaugural event of the Romania–Italy
Cultural Year 2026, which will officially open on 1 December in Rome, marking a new
chapter in the cultural dialogue between the two nations.

INFO

28 Nov 2025 – 29 Mar 2026 Museo Nazionale d’Arte, Timișoara
ORARI

Wednesday – Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00