Randolph Rogers
American, 1825 ‑ 1892
Nydia, the Blind Flower Girl of Pompeii, after 1854
Marble
53 7/8 × 27 × 36 1/4 in. (136.8 × 68.6 × 92.1 cm.)
Given in memory of John W. Barr III, by the Barr Family  2000.12

Greek Tragedy
Rogers’s Nydia was the single most popular full-length American sculpture of the nineteenth century. As the heroine of Sir Edward Bulwer- Lytton’s epic 1834 novel, The Last Days of Pompeii, Nydia falls in love with the noble-born Glaucus, although he loves the beautiful Ione. When Mount Vesuvius erupts, Nydia, though blind, is able to “hear” her way to the docks and valiantly leads the couple through the darkness to safety on a boat in the harbor. Rogers captures the terror of the moment in her anguished expression and forward rush, as well as in her gown, whipped by volcanic winds. The next morning, Nydia, realizing the hopelessness of her love for Glaucus, throws herself overboard into the sea.