Ancient Rome

Lucas Cranach The Elder, The Suicide of Lucretia, 1525-30, Staatliche Museen, Kassel, Germany. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Ancient Rome

A Woman with A Knife: The Story of Lucretia

If you see a woman with a knife in a painting – think of Lucretia. She was an ancient Roman heroine whose fate played a vital role in the...

Zuzanna Stańska 15 March 2023

Erotica

Erotic Art in Pompeii and Herculaneum (NSFW!)

Erotic art in Pompeii and Herculaneum is a phenomenon often omitted from textbooks about ancient history. These famous Roman cities destroyed by the...

Zuzanna Stańska 15 March 2023

Ancient Rome

Ancient Bikini Girls from the Roman Mosaics

If you have ever wondered when the history of the bikini began, it started at the same time and place in history as philosophy, mathematics, and art:...

Magda Michalska 15 March 2023

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire, Destruction, 1836, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Ancient Rome

Painting the Fall of the Roman Empire

After many centuries, we are still wondering why the Roman Empire disappeared. Many theories try to explain it: wars, ideological problems, a chaotic...

Celia Leiva Otto 15 March 2023

Ancient Rome

How to Identify a Roman Emperor by His Beard

How many times have you walked into a museum full of statues or busts and not been able to tell one ancient sculpture from another? It can be...

Lauren Dorsey 15 March 2023

Zenobia:Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, Zenobia in Chains, ca. 1859. Ancient Rome

The Ancient Queen and the Modern Sculptress: Zenobia by Harriet Hosmer

Harriet Hosmer, the 19th-century American sculptor from Watertown, Massachusetts was the exceptional talent behind the towering sculpture of Zenobia.

Maya M. Tola 6 March 2023

Fashion

Medusa Jewelry That Had the Power to Petrify

Since ancient times jewelry hasn’t only been a fashion detail or simple ornament, but a status symbol with a variety of meanings. On it, among...

Ana Djoric 9 February 2023

Ancient Rome

Born of Fire: Ancient Roman Glass

Ancient roman glass objects were functional and decorative beauties. Roman glass artisans experimented with glass-making techniques and applied...

Marga Patterson 5 January 2023

Sculpture

The Lansdowne Heracles at the Getty Villa

Heracles (or Hercules) is perhaps the most frequently depicted hero in Greek and Roman art. This sculpture from approximately 125 CE, known as the...

Maya M. Tola 29 December 2022

Ancient Rome

Roman Floor Mosaics: Stories in Stone and Glass

Floor mosaics are one of the most well-preserved and widespread objects of Roman art. They were found throughout the Roman Empire from Britain to...

Anuradha Sroha 5 December 2022

Ancient Rome

The Portrait of Rome’s Decline: Bust of Decius

The turmoil of Rome’s decline in the 3rd century enclosed the 21-month reign of Decius. His tenure as emperor was not exceptionally short for the...

Guest Profile 20 August 2022

Ancient Rome

Masterpiece Story: Mithras Slaying the Bull

Mithras Slaying the Bull is a compilation of the entire religious and symbolic images of Mithraism. It reflects promised immortality and personal...

James W Singer 20 August 2022