Ancient Art

Quiz

QUIZ: What Do You Know About Ancient Mosaics?

Alexandra Kiely 6 June 2026

Cats

The Sacred Cats of Ancient Egypt

The Ancient Egyptians revered cats of all kinds and honored them in their art. From servals to the mighty lion, cats were seen as powerful forces for...

Sarah Mills 4 June 2026

Painting

A Tale of Revenge and Justice: The Oresteia in Paintings

Marcus Aurelius, the last of the five good Roman emperors, once wrote: “The best way to avenge yourself is not to become as they are”...

Erol Degirmenci 20 May 2026

Joseph Benoît Suvée, Invention of the Art of Drawing, 1791, Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium. Ancient Greece

Was Painting Invented by a Woman? The Story of Dibutades

Long ago in the city of Corinth in Ancient Greece, a young maid traced the contour of her lover’s face on the wall. The man was leaving on a long...

Jimena Escoto 20 May 2026

Dioskourides, Gemma Augustea, 9-12 CE, sardonyx and gold, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Gemma Augustea by Dioskourides

The Gemma Augustea is the second largest cameo surviving from antiquity, and one of the most artistically valuable pieces of ancient Roman art. It is...

James W Singer 17 May 2026

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 17 May 2026

Erotica

The Secret Rooms of Pompeii That Tourists Weren’t Supposed to See

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

Zuzanna Stańska 14 May 2026

Ancient Egypt

The Pharaoh Who Looks Like a Woman—The Mystery of Akhenaten’s Body

If you thought that ancient Egypt had always been only about a large pantheon of gods, solid and emotionless sculptures, and masculine pharaohs, have...

Magda Michalska 13 May 2026

Ancient Egypt

Akhenaten: Artistic Development in the Amarna Period

Amenhotep IV, widely recognized as the notorious Akhenaten, was the enigmatic “heretic” pharaoh who ruled during the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Maya M. Tola 13 May 2026

Broad collar of Senebtisi, ca. 1850–1775 BCE, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Ancient Egypt

All That Glitters: Gold Jewelry in Ancient Egypt

Personal ornaments were favored by ancient Egyptians from the Predynastic to the late Roman periods, and most of them wore some type of jewelry. The...

Maya M. Tola 13 May 2026

Animals

Blue Faience Hippopotamuses: The Cutest Animals of Ancient Egypt

Blue faience hippopotamus was a popular statuette in ancient Egyptian art. It was considered to have positive traits associated with fertility and...

Zuzanna Stańska 13 May 2026

Ancient Egypt

The Bust of Nefertiti: Ancient Masterpiece or Genius Hoax?

On December 6, 1912, a team of excavators led by Ludwig Borchardt, unearthed a wonderful work of art in Egypt. They found the bust of the Egyptian...

Montaine Dumont 13 May 2026