Guglielmo Bechi a Napoli, e la moda decorativa neopompeiana

Guglielmo Bechi, architect on the Toscana region, for contextual reasons carried out most of his research and professional career in Southern Italy. For over thirty years the archaeologist-architect has been committed to a constant research activity in Pompeii of which, in 1851, he took the chair as director. His close focus on antiques "ndings in the archaeological site profoundly inspired his professional production and, on the wave of suggestions aroused by his discoveries on Pompeii's mural paintings, he developed a personal decorative style, which he himself de"ned as "Pompeian". His production is resonant with the nineteenth century neo-Pompeiian increasing decorative wave, broadly spread throughout Europe. In the decorative projects he curated, his thorough knowledge of Pompeiian mural painting is clear both when he quotes it directly, and when he consciously diverts !om Vesuvian models inserting unprecedented stylistic elements; the turning point of his innovative design resides in the brilliant use of colour.