Detail of a winged child playing the flute, before and after cleaning.
Photograph: Courtesy of the Courtauld Institute
Photograph: Courtesy of the Courtauld Institute
"Spectacular 2,000-year-old Hellenistic-style wall paintings have been revealed at the world heritage site of Petra through the expertise of British conservation specialists. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been obscured by centuries of black soot, smoke and greasy substances, as well as graffiti.
Experts from the Courtauld Institute in London have now removed the black grime, uncovering paintings whose 'exceptional' artistic quality and sheer beauty are said to be superior even to some of the better Roman paintings at Herculaneum that were inspired by Hellenistic art."
Wow. Based on this sample, better than Herculeaneum indeed.
The NABATEANS are responsible for the site, Petra the onetime capital of their mercantile empire. How illuminating; I have never heard of them. While the little history lesson the Observer has provided is useful, it is this tidbit that delights me:
"The Greek historian Strabo conveyed a sense of their wealth when he wrote: "The Nabataeans are a sensible people, and are so much inclined to acquire possessions that they publicly fine anyone who has diminished his possessions."
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