HOUSTON – "The worst disaster of the ancient world preserved such amazing art."

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Nero as Apollo in a detail from Triclinium from the first century

So says Frances Marzio, strolling among remains from one of history's most famous volcanic eruptions. Spaciously laid out at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, elegant statuary, jewelry and frescoes from first-century A.D. Pompeii and nearby towns betoken the extraordinary artistic sophistication of the early Roman Empire.

Ms. Marzio, a curator at the MFAH, supervised the Houston installation of "Pompeii: Tales From an Eruption," the last stop in a five-year, multi-country tour. Relics from Pompeii have traveled widely for more than a century, but this show, of some 479 objects, emphasizes discoveries from the last 15 years of ongoing excavations.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Golden Bracelet from the first century

The A.D. 79 explosion of Mount Vesuvius has captured the imaginations of writers, artists and filmmakers ever since the eyewitness account of Pliny the Younger. Not far from Naples, the area around the volcano was prosperous with agriculture, fertilized by the mineral-rich volcanic soil, and seafaring commerce. Well-to-do Romans kept second homes here. "Herculaneum was like the Newport of the Roman Empire," Ms. Marzio says.

On Aug. 24 and 25, successive eruptions of ash, molten rock and scorching gas devastated a wide swath of land around and southeast of the volcano. "A fearful black cloud was rent by forked and quivering bursts of flame," Pliny wrote, "and parted to reveal great tongues of fire. You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants, and the shouting of men."

Buried under layers of volcanic detritus, Pompeii and neighboring towns lay largely forgotten until 1599, when efforts to reroute the river Sarno uncovered some slabs of marble and frescoed walls. But not until the middle of the 19th century did serious excavations get under way. Although today visitors to Pompeii can see whole streetscapes remarkably intact – nearly life-size photographs in the Houston show re-create some of the scenes – fully one-third of the area still remains to be explored.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Cast of a crouching victim from Large Palaestra

While other remains of the Roman Empire were vandalized and worn down by weather and pollution, Pompeii, Herculaneum and nearby towns were effectively frozen in time. Sealed off from oxidation, both artifacts and human remains were preserved in the volcanic ash.

Before you enter the Houston show, in the curtained upper gallery of the Caroline Wiess Law Building, brace yourself for an unsettling scene. The first tableau is a jumble of skeletons, mouths frozen in silent screams.

These aren't actual skeletons, but silicon elastomer castings from cavities left by actual skeletons of people who raced to the Herculaneum seashore in vain hope of escape. Other castings, in plaster and epoxy resin, are ghosts of adults, children and even a dog, whose bodies left relatively intact molds in the airtight layers of debris.

Unsettling as they are, these castings lend a human dimension to what otherwise would be merely impressive art and archaeology. So, in a way, does a vitrine of small surgical tools probably grabbed on the way out by a doctor anticipating work he'd never live to do. Ditto the tools betraying a soldier's sideline in carpentry.

As in any disaster, the panicked citizens of Pompeii, Herculaneum and other villages grabbed their most valuable and portable items as they fled for their lives. That's why you'll see so many finely incised rings, bracelets and necklaces, many likely imported from Egypt, as well as coins, some still encrusted in volcanic rock.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Gorgon Mosaic from the late first century B.C. to early first century A.D.

Among housewares is a particularly elegant kantharos, or drinking cup, with olives and leaves realized in exquisite 3-D. Less portable household artifacts left behind include a massive iron-plated strongbox and a bronze-framed dining bed. A setting for the latter is provided by three frescoed walls, prominently tinted with the distinctive "Pompeii red." In the middle, the emperor Nero is portrayed as an innocent-looking Apollo stroking a lyre.

What's surprising here, as in much of the exhibition, is how modern, or at least 19th-century, the aesthetic seems. But later Victorian design and decors were influenced by newly discovered artifacts from Pompeii.

Gladiator's helmet from the first century

You can see first-century sculpture at its finest in a statue of the goddess Hera swathed in exquisitely detailed drapery. This represents the Greek tradition of idealized statuary, still valued by the Romans. But nearby you can also see an older man's carved bust, its wrinkles and sags representing a new realism in Roman sculpture.

You won't see any of the prodigiously endowed statues of the fertility god Priapus that adorned gardens in the Pompeii area. But there's a playful side to the statuary, including a round-faced, smiling Apollo, his head wreathed in curls, his flank attended by an alert griffin. A bronze statue of a satyr with a wineskin leans off in an almost mannerist pose. There's also a striking mosaic of a serpent-haired gorgon, an image often used to ward off evil.

If only that gorgon had warded off those flaming stones and choking ashes two millennia ago. But then we wouldn't have these beauties to savor from a world long gone.

Plan your life

"Pompeii: Tales From an Eruption" continues through June 22 at the Caroline Wiess Law Building of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1001 Bissonnet St., Houston. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 12:15 to 7 p.m. Sundays. $25; timed-entry tickets $17; discounts for children, students, seniors and MFAH members. 713-639-7771, www.mfah.org.