Theseus, Athens’ favorite son, had his nastier moments and this fresco from Pompeii shows him in the midst of his least noble exploit…. His adolescence was a glorious whirlwind: after a triumphant return to Athens (his birthright), the prodigal son volunteered himself on a suicide mission to Crete to face down the Minotaur who had
Well it’s the season of ‘la battue’ in the forests behind my house in Eastern France, with weekends full of hopeful orange roly-poly men harassing the local dwindling population of puny wild boar. And impinging upon my meditative walks. Not a fan. But I am intrigued by this late 4th century B.C. sarcophagus from the
Normally indolent pranksters, ever-rascally erotes have been pressed into service here, miniature figures shown gamely toiling within a black band running around the ruby red walls of a Pompeian dining room. They work in a wine storeroom surrounded by imposing transport amphorae, sell sundries, work gold, and count the proceeds of a lively trade There’s
Chances are you have glimpsed a ‘Fayoum portrait’ in one of the world’s great museums or reproduced online. They tend to leave an impression, so effectively capturing fleeting Roman likenesses for the ages. At the risk of being too grandiose (guilty, usually), I would venture to proclaim them one of the best remaining glimmers of
The Minoan aesthetic was so wildly different from other Mediterranean cultures in the second millennium B.C. (safe to say it hasn’t been matched since). The vibrant, whimsical wallpaintings they left behind continue to delight and amaze, even if they present a challenge in interpretation. These details are from a particularly famous landscape scene (the third
While she frolicked in the fields of Nysa and picked flowers with her girlish friends, the earth opened up before Persephone – a gaping chasm from which Hades lunged in his chariot to abduct her as his bride. So begins the archaic ‘Hymn to Demeter’, a primordial tale of divine infighting and maternal rage that
A little frenzied homicide with dinner? This is one of my favorite of the Pompeian wall paintings, showing dramatic and violent demise of the Theban king Pentheus at the hands of incensed maenads. The wall paintings of Pompeii might not have been the most refined or the highest possible quality in the 1st century A.D.
Aristocratic Romans need not swelter on hot days, despite the humid funk of the Tiber in the summer. They had a variety of decadent solutions for living large during heat waves, and this one was the epitome of indoor-outdoor living… It is a fantastic wrap around, trompe l’oeil fresco from a massive underground dining room