The discoveries at Pompei and other sites buried by the Vesuvian eruption had a profound influence on Europe taste. News of the excavations kindled a wave of enthusiasm for antiquity that spread throughout Europe.

The laudatory pronouncements of the eminent German classicist and archeologist J.J. Winckelmann did much to popularize the excavations. These sites became important stops on the European Grand Tour made by English visitors.

Artists, architects, potters and even furniture makers drew much inspiration from Pompei.

Contemporary painted interiors were inspired by the frescoed walls found in the excavations. The stucco work popularized in England used the same motifs. In France the Louis XVI style incorporated Pompeian motifs and the apartment of Louis’s queen, Marie Antoniette, at Fontainbleau was decorated in this style, which became popular throughout Europe, especially in the neoclassic style inaugurated during the Napoleonic period.