Ancient Rome

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 11 June 2023

Ancient Greece

Three Unique Portrayals of Europa’s Abduction Myth

The mesmerizing realm of Greek mythology is one of the greatest sources for artists to exhibit their technical brilliance and unique interpretations.

Erol Degirmenci 9 May 2023

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 14 April 2023

St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican, Photograph by Alvesgaspar Architecture

St. Peter’s Basilica—Layers of History

St. Peter’s Basilica is one of the most iconic buildings in Western culture. But, the facade we see today is the culmination of centuries of...

Ledys Chemin 10 April 2023

Bizarre

The Curious Lure and Strange Beauty of Ancient Anatomical Votives

Eerie, mysterious, and fascinating, ancient anatomical votives represent literal parts of people’s past. When most people think of a votive object,...

Marga Patterson 3 April 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 16 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

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

Khaled al-Asaad — The Hero of Palmyra

Five years ago on August 18, 2015, the world-renowned Palmyran expert Khaled al-Asaad was brutally murdered by the Islamic State (ISIS) after weeks...

Maya M. Tola 18 August 2020

Surrealism

Gradiva: What Did Freud and the Surrealists See in Her?

A woman who walks. That’s what Gradiva (the name of an anonymous woman from an antique bas-relief) means, as given by a fictional character...

Magda Michalska 27 April 2020

Art Travels

Roman Holidays: Italian Landscapes Through the Eyes of Russian Artists

It is well known that Italy is a motherland of world masterpieces. Renaissance paintings, baroque architecture and Italian opera are the children of...

Guest Profile 23 April 2020

Renaissance

Titian’s The Death of Actaeon (Metamorphoses VIII)

A whistle-stop tour of each of the seven Poesies, which the Renaissance master delivered Philip II of Spain in the 1550s and early 1560s, finally...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 13 January 2020