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Gallery Text

This captivating sculpture depicts the heroine of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s historical novel "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1834). Nydia is a blind, enslaved flower-seller liberated by a nobleman named Glaucus. During the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Nydia risks her life to save Glaucus and his fiancée. Rogers portrays Nydia navigating the city amid the ecological upheaval of the eruption. The dynamism of her tunic, the broken Corinthian capital at her feet, and her hunched form convey her forward momentum against the high winds, ash, stone, and debris she must traverse. The elegance of Nydia’s arm crossing her body to cup her hand at the ear lends balance to the asymmetrical form while alluding to Nydia’s acute sense of hearing.

In the 1850s, the abolitionist movement and the excavations at Herculaneum, Paestum, and Pompeii reinvigorated public interest in the novel. Rogers’s studio sold 167 copies of Nydia in two different sizes.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1922.136
People
Randolph Rogers, American (Waterloo, NY 1825 - 1892 Rome, Italy)
Title
Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii
Other Titles
Former Title: Nydia
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
modeled 1853-1854; carved 1859
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/231581

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2210, West Arcade
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Marble
Technique
Carved
Dimensions
91.4 x 61 x 48.3 cm (36 x 24 x 19 in.)
290 lb.
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: on basket: Randolph Rogers/Rome 1859

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Harry Sachs; his gift to Fogg Art Museum, 1922.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Harry Sachs
Accession Year
1922
Object Number
1922.136
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Last Days of Pompeii, Dodd, Mead and Co. (New York, NY, 1946), p.
  • Margaret Farrand Thorp, The Literary Sculptors, Duke University Press (Durham, NC, 1965), ill. p. 175, frontispiece
  • Wayne Craven, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Company (New York, NY, 1968), p. 314
  • H. Wade White, "Nineteenth Century American Sculpture at Harvard, a Glance at the Collection", Harvard Library Bulletin (Cambridge, MA, October 1970), vol. XVIII, no. 4, pp. 359-366
  • John K. Howat and John Wilmerding, 19th Century America: Paintings and Sculpture, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY, 1970), p. 114
  • Russell Lynes, The Art-Makers of Nineteenth-Century America, Atheneum (New York, NY, 1970), p. 147, ill. p. 148
  • Millard F. Rogers, Jr., Randolph Rogers: American Sculptor in Rome, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Amherst, MA, 1971), p.
  • Kenyon Castle Bolton, III, Peter G. Huenink, Earl A. Powell III, Harry Z. Rand, and Nanette C. Sexton, American Art at Harvard, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1972), cat. 68, ill.

Exhibition History

  • American Art at Harvard, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/19/1972 - 06/18/1972
  • Sublimations: Art and Sensuality in the 19th Century, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/13/1996 - 07/21/2002
  • 32Q: 2210 West Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/17/2023 - 01/01/2050

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu