Inlaid glass eyes, when they survive, have a way of enlivening ancient sculpture – set into a portrait, these ones have weathered in such a way to give this man a peculiarly jaundiced aspect. Patently unfair and if you can look past the artificial intimations of cirrhosis, the portrait itself is a marvelous survival, and
Nero’s portraits are awfully fun if you (like me) allow yourself to indulge in his (maybe mostly apocryphal) biography and bask in all the really nasty things that were written about him… Much of what we think we know about the emperor comes from takedowns written by viper-tongued detractors (Suetonius I’m looking at you). Nero
Elegant in shape and all too delicate in construction, this perfume bottle (unguentarium) shows boudoir scenes executed in cameo glass – the exceptionally fancy technique thought to date to the Augustan period. Here the festoons, bedding, and two amorous pairs of different flavours (the homoerotic one is shown here) are crisply carved into a milky
A lot is written about the interplay between Hellenistic ruler portraits (with their over the top heroic dynamism and supple youth) and those of hollow-cheeked Roman aristocrats during the second and first centuries B.C. It’s a fun thing to think about…how to select a mode of self-representation and how to make it resonate within a
This little Aphrodite was found as part of salvage excavations in 1960 around the ancient site of Baalbek in Lebanon. It is Roman in date (1st-2nd cent. A.D.) and very much part of the hugely popular Late Classical tradition showing the goddess emerging from the sea, wringing the water from her long tresses. And she
I’ve long admired this statue – a feat of large scale lost-wax casting giving a sense of the scale possible (infinite!), but also the surface subtleties achievable. Now headless, this standing gentleman has the distinct comportment and garments of an orator or magistrate – a statue mode used in the post-Classical period for honorifics set
Victory wings in here, her peplos pressed against her body with skirts fluttering in the wind. She is only 7.3 centimeters tall, but the amount of detail rendered in that hard, shiny chalcedony is staggering – a Roman inheritance in miniature of earlier monumental Nikai in Olympia, Samothrace and beyond. Chalcedony (and other hard, shiny
I’d wager you haven’t seen this wild-man in nature…it’s the disembodied half-life-sized (14.5 cm) head of a centaur, identifiable by his profusion of curls and two rows of visible teeth, here inlaid in silver (exposed teeth were markers of heroes, hybrid beasts, and the odd god – centaurs in particular had a penchant for biting).
This portrait at Boston’s MFA is one of the finest and most challenging I’ve come across, and I somewhat doubt that a pithy caption will do it justice… It is a most handsome face, with high cheekbones cheekbones, squared jaw, and pouty chin. The full lips are very slightly parted as if in mid-exhale, and
Some things get better with age, and if you enjoy the surface of this delectable little (3.7 x 3.3 cm) gem in Cleveland perhaps you’d agree Roman glass is one of them. Vessels and gems made in the cameo glass technique were in vogue only for about half a century beginning in Augustus’ reign. More
This portrait has all the best things: basanite (the hard dark stone is perhaps my favorite), a dab hand at defacement (of the zealous Late Antique kind), and the (fabricated?) features of the Gens Julii shining through the shined up face of its adoptive son Germanicus. Promising young Germanicus might have been Augustus’ top pick
Dancing with what is sometimes referred to as ‘orgiastic’ abandon (I do so love when dour early 20th century German scholars sprinkle their descriptions with such unexpected gems) this ecstatic marble maenad in Dresden (acquired by the Albertinum in 1901), has attracted a great deal of attention for centuries if not millennia. She is usually
Unusual in many respects, this bronze bust represents Ptolemy of Mauretania, last of his name and the very last Hellenistic ruler who could track his lineage back to Alexander the Great’s general. This lineage was through his maternal grandmother, Kleopatra VII of Egypt. It is tempting to read the boy’s concerned, rather pinched expression as
Plopped among the stringy necks of Republican worthies, Julio-Claudian chiseled cheekbones, and Vespasian’s cultivated crag, this portrait in Copenhagen is a big fat outlier. The fleshy marble giant is usually thought to represent Vitellius, famous for his diminutive reign and outsized appetites, with its unusual corpulence a nod to the emperor’s physical reality. If ancient
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
Is there any profile more lovely than that of Antinöos, that beautiful rustic beloved by Hadrian? I think not, and of the all the surviving portraits of him, this one in slightly translucent black chalcedony is by far my favorite. Born in Bithynia (the northern Black Sea coastline of Asia Minor), the comely youth caught
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
Diabolically difficult to quarry and carve and imported at great expense from Egypt’s Eastern desert, by the 2nd century A.D. porphyry was inextricably linked with imperial grandeur with that purplish color becoming synonymous with royalty. So much so that when Septimius Severus died on campaign in Britain his cremated remains were allegedly brought home in
This exuberant glass pavement (approximately 30 x 30 square centimeters) is a psychedelic hodgepodge of glass inlays in a variety of techniques. It’s a rare survival of the ‘opus sectile‘ (coming from Latin ‘to cut’) method entirely of glass. Set within a greenish glass-paste matrix, a number of inquisitive birds perch and nibble, their vibrant
Plaited, twined, and knotted to pool over her brow, this young woman’s hairstyle is one of the most elaborate of the increasingly far-fetched hairy confections of the Roman Empire. Her identity is not known and that prim expression gives little away, but the quality of the carving sees to indicate she was from an aristocratic
This portrait came as something as a shock to me – I’m used to seeing shined up Severan portraits with stylised somnolent eyes, alarming hairdos, and an all together more graphic, surface-oriented approach to the carving (if that convoluted thought makes any kind of sense). Here, the heavy-lidded third century aspect is there, not exaggerated
Unusually large for surviving glass works (just over 30 cm tall), and in the most luxurious mode possible, this pointed amphora in cameo glass is a wonder to behold (and best beheld with a strong light to illuminate its dark blue body). The lavish decoration is appropriate for a vessel shape intended to store wine:
This ivory statuette is both far out of my comfort zone (Classical art) and very much part of the Mediterranean story. She is a Buddhist yakshini (previously erroneously identified as Lakshmi), measuring just under twenty-five centimeters, certainly Indian in origin but found in Pompeii, evidently reaching that fabled city before its destruction in 79 A.D.
Livia is one of those characters I just can’t bring myself to like for reasons difficult to pin down, perhaps owing to her portrayal as meddlesome kingmaker in ancient literature and modern television series, and partly because of a personal aversion to the hairstyle she popularised (the odious ‘nodus’). But those are my issues (mea
With a smattering of exceptions, the names of ancient artists are largely lost to us and likely most toiled in relative obscurity in their own times. Particularly so, the producers of ‘minor’ arts…which brings me to this lovely blue cup. Because the cup bears an inscription, “Ennion made me”, within a prominently placed tabula ansata
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 penchant for voyeurism flourished in the artistic climate of the Hellenistic period, and not surprisingly Aphrodite was front and center. (In mythological terms, the idea had been around for far longer: think Akteon and Artemis, Peleus and Thetis, Gyges and Nyssia, satyrs and maenads, etc.) The real innovation in the 4th century B.C. was
Well, I was hankering for a zany, special sort of glass object, and this one in Torino fits the bill beautifully. A small glass medallion (under 5 cm diameter), it encases the haunting portrait of a young woman in gold leaf. There are very few portraits of this kind known (under a dozen authentic ones),
I love this stripped down face. Without the voluminous surround of her coiffure (usually plaited, looped upon itself, perhaps netted, perhaps a true wig) Julia Mammea looks so very much like her son Alexander, the young emperor who was assassinated in her arms. It was the early 3rd century A.D. (a time of impending crises
I’ve been thinking about tritons lately, those marine hybrid creatures that so delightfully combine manly torsos with elaborate fishy tails. The essential flexibility of these imaginary bodies is their best selling point and their popularity flourished in the late Hellenistic period – bounded not by corporeal limits, only artistic flair. Their dramatic inclusion in sculptural
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.
’Tis the time for feasting (and hunkering) in much of the Northern hemisphere. As it was for Herakles in his later career, when he had more time to carouse. And this stage of the hero’s life – athletic action man gone to seed – was explored artistically with great relish beginning in the later 4th
This miniature, full-length rendition of Demosthenes – that great Athenian statesman and orator – is a frequently overlooked masterpiece. His chiton reveals sloped shoulders and the distinctly unathletic body that famously prevented him from gymnastic pursuits as a child and pushed him into a career as an orator. As part of that precocious training, he
I count this as one of the most glorious (and innovative?) of all Roman imperial portraits: Caracalla, with his fierce glower in the years just before he became sole-ruler (more on that later…). He arguably inherited an empire already on a downward slide. Born in Gaul, even his parentage spoke to a vast territory, Septimius
This is a deeply weird object in every way possible. And as mysterious as it may be, the two core lessons are: don’t antagonise Dionysos and don’t forget the power of light. In a previous post, I discussed the Trivulzio cup, a gorgeous, more straightforward cage cup with translucent and blue glass with an inscribed
Staggering in terms of preservation and beauty, undeniably masterful bronze working (and those unsettling eyes!), this head of Augustus is in every survey book on Roman art and portraiture worth its salt. It shows Augustus, the freshly minted princeps of Rome, as a young man, which he was at the time of this portrait’s manufacture
I admit it: I don’t overly like Livia, the wife of Augustus, and a true political operator. I dislike her fashionable nodus hairstyle even more vehemently (I’ll save these gripes for another post…). That’s all besides the point here. This is a masterpiece in miniature (approximately 3 x 3 cm) and frankly a sort of
Many are familiar with Alexander the Great and his distinctive portraiture. And indeed the young genius was idolized from the time of his death to Napoleon and beyond! Shown here is Pompey the Great (Pompey Magnus), who built his military reputation young and forcefully. Before he formally added Magnus to his name (deliberately echoing Alexander
Commodus was not necessarily a deranged, power-hungry sadist, but this lazy-eyed, buffed up portrait of the emperor wearing the attributes of Hercules certainly does beg the question… It’s a terrific spectacle, found in the city of Rome on the Esquiline and now in the Musei Capitolini. The emperor’s lush cap of curls is covered by
Anchoring one side of the Met’s luminous sculpture court is an enormous sarcophagus with a quintessentially Roman take on eternal love. Flanked by two imposing lion heads and surrounded by a bucolic retinue, the main scene is mythological, with Selene (moon goddess) being pulled across the sky in a chariot, gazing down on her beloved
Glass in antiquity is a funny thing. Unlike imported semi-precious stones, the material had no intrinsic value; instead, it was wholly based on the difficulty of technique used to work it and thus fluctuated based on technology from a luxury good to humdrum table-ware. Shown here is one of the most fabulous and luxurious examples
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
Imperious is the first word that this extraordinary terracotta bust of Juno brings to mind. Now displayed at the Villa Giulia in Rome, she was found in a Falsiscan sanctuary at Celle, and dates to ca. 380 B.C. Sumptuously robed and crowned, the queen of the Olympian pantheon gazes somewhat down her aquiline nose at
Full of swagger and pre-Caracallan glower, this is one of my favourite portraits of all time, showing a young Roman military man (identity unknown) likely from the mid-2nd century A.D. There is so much to love here: the cultivated, designer stubble, feathery eyebrows, assertive turn of the head, and those barely parted, full lips. He
Spring is in the air and the waterfowl are getting frisky, which brings to mind a spicy Greek myth that struck has struck a chord with artists for the past 2500 years: Zeus’ seduction Leda. The famously philandering Olympian god transformed himself into a variety of exciting things to court and abduct young beauties. And
Striking, isn’t it, that a princess with the most tragic life and death (beware of lecherous uncles…dirty Domitian, I’m looking at you!) has one of the sweetest, most appealing portraits of the period?When the ladies of the imperial court presented themselves with fancy (sometimes freaky) fashion hairdos piled high over their aged brows, her restrained
When of the highest quality, mosaics are truly painting with stone – an appealing notion. The height of this art (opus vermiculatum) occurred during the Hellenistic period, specifically in Pergamon, where the mosaicist Sosus (the only one named from antiquity) carried out commissions for the royal palaces. One of his masterpieces was the “unswept room”
She is shiny, she is pretty, and she is a star of the Capitoline Museums! Excavated during the Lanciani’s late 19th century excavations of the Horti Lamiani (the decadent pleasure garden of the Republican period subsumed under imperial control in the 1st century A.D.), the so-called “Esquiline Venus” is one of many important sculptures found
I’ve got a bee in my bonnet lately about coloured marbles – an obsession reactivated by a recent visit to the small (but divine) exhibition at the Capitoline Museums devoted to the subject. My very favourite and historically fascinating type is the so-called Lucullan marble (more commonly known now as ‘africano’) and sourced from Teos,
What happens when you transform the face of a pudgy young potentate into that of a dour old military leader? A peculiar portrait, indeed! The head is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, acquired in the 1920’s when it was attached erroneously to a toga-draped body. The peculiarities alluded to are the weird tilt