In the early 1930s, archaeologists in Pompeii made a remarkable discovery: the skeleton of a man who died during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Unearthed in the Casa del Fabbro, or House of the Blacksmith, the skeleton was found encased in pumice and reclining on what had been a wooden couch, arms folded under his head and legs stretched out on the floor.
The figure in its repose recalls the Casanova character played by Marcello Mastroianni in the 1961 film “Divorce Italian Style.” As embodied by Mastroianni, the ideal 20th-century Italian man, the “sciupafemmine” had a resigned air, touched by melancholy that suggested indolence and a lifetime of romantic disaster. The Italian actress and writer Marta Mondelli has described him as “a solitary, charming, not necessarily beautiful, but seducing man who loves being alone almost as much as he loves women and their company.”
