Computer reconstructions of Vesuvius's various eruptions are one of the star turns in a new show in Rome about the world's most famous volcano.
The show, which opened Friday for a month-long run at Rome's central Vittoriano Museum, features a wide range of Vesuvius-themed offerings including local votive offerings to the slumbering giant, cartoons taking the sting out of its threat, and even Andy Warhol's famous Pop Art take on the mountain that buried Pompeii.
Warhol's is not the only depiction of the volcano.
Others include paintings by Max Ernst, Mimmo Paladino, Jannis Kounellis and 'Transavanguardia' artist Enzo Cucchi - as well as vintage postcards and a series of photos taken by the eminent 19th-century seismologist Giuseppe Mercalli.
Curators were keen to highlight that the show also illustrates the latest evacuation plans for the thousands of people living on Vesuvius's slopes.
"Anyone who sees them (the plans) will be reassured about our ability to get residents off there in time," said Giuseppe Rolandi of the Vesuvius seismic observatory.
The exhibition comes in the wake of another Vesuvius show, Stories From An Eruption, that has enjoyed sell-out runs across Europe, North America and Japan.
It also explores the human tragedy of the volcano's most famous eruption in 79 AD.
The show features a sensational multimedia reconstruction of the eruption, which brings to life the terror that reigned as Vesuvius filled the sky with molten lava and lethal gases.
But it is the bodies of the victims, 'frozen' in their last desperate gestures - screaming, writhing in pain or struggling to escape - that most vividly depict the horror of that day.
In many cases the bodies are shown along with personal possessions found nearby and explanations reconstructing their life - and death - stories.
