In the heart of the Museum's Pompeian collections is the exhibition of Elio Mazzella, a Neapolitan artist who has approached cement since the 1970s, exploiting its plastic potential, and defining, during his career, "his original technique of painting sculpture, or the relief made with cement mixed with color, which evokes the classical antiquities of Pompeii and the greatness of a territory destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius” (Camilla Mazzella).

Speaking of his work, the artist says that it is a “research inspired by the love for a material, stone, born when I was a young man living as a war victim in the Phlegrean area. Not being able to manipulate stone at the time and intervene on its material aspect, I tried to imitate its characteristics with concrete, a material of our time, which has become the object of research with interesting and original results" .

Mazzella's paintings, in fact, are engraved and painted concrete surfaces. A total of 60 works are exhibited, 15 larger ones in room 95 and 45 smaller ones in the cases of room 96 (Pompeii Model). Furthermore, one of the showcases bears witness to the author's artistic career through the catalogs of previous exhibitions. The works selected for the exhibition at the MANN are those that had already aroused the interest and approval of authoritative critics and art historians, such as Giulio Carlo Argan, Palma Bucarelli, Franco Solmi, Pierre Restany. Palma Bucarelli played a fundamental role in defining the artistic career of Elio Mazzella, who clearly recalls his invitation: "Wherever you see even the smallest trace of ancient Rome, stop and meditate, because the great Greco-Roman civilization passed through there" .

Regarding Pompeii, the author recalls that “it is an ancient fascination, which dates back to when I returned from the Phlegrean area to my city, Naples, and I had the good fortune to live in a place with a panorama dominated by Vesuvius. A beautiful and intense dialogue has opened up between me and the Volcano. It was Vesuvius that led me to Pompeii, to the buried Pompeii and to the recovered Pompeii” . In the wake of Palma Bucarelli's warning "I intended to represent the greatness of Roman civilization and Pompeii through traces and fragments that are proposed as real "jewels".