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
This perfect little ivory foot at the Met is only 14.3 centimetres long, and exquisitely detailed both anatomically and iconographically. It is carved in exacting detail, replete with cuticles, toe-nails, ankle-bones, and knuckle-creases and on the whole invitingly tactile as far as feet go. The Greek-style sandal too, shows extreme sensitivity – the delicate krepides
Hellenistic in origin and striking a chord with an appreciative Roman audience, this statue group has all the things! (and not one of them politically correct…) Shown is an amorous (to be polite) satyr grasping at the voluptuous body of a resisting hermaphrodite (in the classical world, the mythical offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite with
Royal sibling rivalry? Why, yes please, just the 3rd century A.D. edition of ‘the heir and the spare’… This delectable painted roundel (tempera on a panel) now in Berlin shows the Severan Royal family in happier days around 200 A.D. Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna are shown in the background, and the two
One doesn’t see ancient life-sized terracotta sculptures every day, and this is perhaps the most remarkable to have survived. This remarkable bust was found between Pozzuoli and Cumae in the 19th century and was likely produced locally during the mid-first century B.C. Art history survey courses understandably harp on about Roman ‘verism’ and the ‘warts
Discovered in 1928, the silver hoard from Marengo (Piemonte) is spectacular and worth a trip to Torino. And this is its star: a silver bust of the emperor Lucius Verus, instantly recognisable by his luxuriant curls, simian hairline, slightly forked beard, and narrow jaw. The thin and brittle silver walls were a bit squashed, giving
He’s gorgeous, he’s purple, and he is Alexander’s least favorite orator! But he’s my favorite: Demosthenes you ornery bastard! Roman culturally, and Greek by design, this enormous (1.9 cm) gem shows the glowering visage of Demosthenes. After strengthening his voice and polishing his diction by training with a mouthful of pebbles (have to try this),
Herakles/Hercules was special in the Greek and Roman worlds. He was as famous for his excessive vices as he was for his heroics, and he applied himself with equal dedication to both: a glutton, an incorrigible womanizer, and frequently a drunkard. The life of the party, even though he could have some serious explaining (and
You might not have heard of Juba II or Volubilis, but this over life-sized bronze portrait somehow sums up the man’s impossible life – a mix of early tragedy, power, and making things work in a tight spot. Juba was born as the prince of Numidia and was only a toddler when his father committed
This marble portrait head (the big bust it’s perched on is post-antique, so I’ve ruthlessly cropped it) found near Otricoli and later entering the famed Torlonia collection is the very finest of its kind. Republican portraits of its ilk are usually described as ‘veristic’, and their popularity seems to have drawn on their ability to
Ever heard of Aphrodisias’ “Blue Horse”? If not, you’ve been missing out! It’s an insane sculpture (sculptural group, really) in every way, originally erected in the city’s Civil Basilica, where the lower course of the L-shaped base remains, inscribed “The people set up the Troilos, and the horse, and the Achilles” – terrifically helpful because
With a silver sheen to that hauntingly immobile face and empty slitted apertures for eyes, this helmet instantly projects an uncanny, otherworldly effect. And presumably that was exactly the point. Roman helmets of a similar typology have been found all over Europe, and this especially powerful one in Holland was found by chance in 1915
Damaged but delectable, this famous glass vessel – known as the Portland vase – is a truly a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…” (and I am sure Churchill would agree). The thick pearlescent layer overlaying the dark cobalt blue body is painstakingly carved down as if it were a multilayered sardonyx or
With powerful, bunched musculature (like a pillowcase packed full of bars of soap!) this impressive red torso at the Met is among my favorites, in subject matter and material. He is one of a number of Imperial Roman copies of centaurs from a (presumably) Hellenistic prototype, with the most famous in the Musei Capitolini: a
Hairstyles in Roman society ‘trickled down’, with subjects across the empire adopting fashions ‘set’ by the imperial family, diffused far and wide by a carefully constructed imperial image in a variety of media. And for this particular catastrophe I blame Livia!
Caligula has been the subject of press hatchet jobs from the 1st century A.D. through the 21st century, branded one of the “bad” Roman emperors: tyrannical, cruel, perverted, insane, and convinced of his own divinity. This surviving portrait in Copenhagen is often hailed as evidence of his madness, on account of the partially preserved pigment
The “Unswept Room” (‘asarotos oikos’ in Greek), was the brainchild of Sosos, the best known mosaicist from the ancient world. It’s a weird and wonderful idea: the intricate tessellated mosaic showed the detritus that might be left behind after a raucous aristocratic dinner party: crustacean shells, olives, chicken bones, fruits, leaves, nut shells, and even