Requiem stands apart from other bodies of work made at archaeological sites, including his own, for two reasons: it tells a story, and it gives back life and dignity to those who died in the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, unable to react before such sudden violence.

His stubborn determination in setting up the bodies of the fugitives — turned by the incandescent lava into eternal statues — in the various houses and in the open at Pompeii and Herculaneum truly seems to give those moments back their life.