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In St Petersburg the Russian painter Bryullov was among the many Romantics who turned anew to the ruins of Pompeii - originally discovered in 1748 but now the subject of fresh study and excavation - for the quintessential subject of a civilization at the point of destruction. His huge Last Day of Pompeii was finished in 1833, a year before Lord Lytton published his famous novel on the same theme. That Pompeii was obliterated by a natural catastrophe, suggestive of divine retribution, only added to its significance.
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