"Julius Caesar, Caligula, Claudius and Nero all built seaside villas in Baiae; the emperor Augustus holidayed in Surrentum, Capreae and Pausilypon, and Tiberius retired to Capreae. The richly decorated imperial villas set high artistic standards in the region, and the sculptors and painters whom the emperors employed found clients among the urban and suburban elite in Pompeii and Herculaneum, Stabiae and Oplontis." "The magnificent contents of these sumptuously appointed villas and town houses are the subject of Pompeii and the Roman Villa, and with them the breadth and richness of cultural and artistic life that thrived around the Bay of Naples before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Two related themes are interwoven through the essays: the influence of classical Greece on Roman art and culture around the bay, and the much later resurgence of this 'taste for the antique' in the modern world. An international team of experts, led by Carol C. Mattusch, examines this exquisite corpus of ancient Roman art, which is complemented by more than 350 lavish illustrations of paintings, sculpture, mosaics, frescoes, jewelry, glass and more."--Jacket.