At the National Gallery, treasures from the ashes

For those of you who’ve not read Richard Harris’s brilliant historical novel “Pompeii,” allow me to spoil the ending: In 79 A.D., Mt. Vesuvius erupts, burying the titular resort town, along with its sister city, Herculaneum, in pumice and ash for 1,600 years.

You already knew that, of course. But as always in art, it’s the telling, not the tale, that matters. And like Harris’s book, an exhibit on view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art until next spring recounts these ancient events with force and vivacity, bringing them firmly into the here and now.