Archeology, Art History, Uncategorized
Tweet Last week my sister, visiting from London, and I made a brief foray southwards. We hadn’t been to Pompeii in years, and – shamefully, inexplicably – neither of us had ever visited Herculaneum. There was also a desire to lend solidity to all of...
Archeology, Architecture, Art History, Egypt, Empire, Out of Town, Palestrina, Roman Art
Tweet Last week a visiting friend and I braved the torrential rain to run an errand in Zagarolo. Our mission accomplished, we stopped for a spot of lunch before meandering to Palestrina. Snaking our way through the medieval streets, in a car as wide as the roads, we...
Archeology, Art History, Esquiline, Greek Sculpture, National Roman Museum, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Quirinal, Rome
Tweet Right by Rome’s Termini central station is one of my favourite museums of ancient Roman art, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (home to these spectacular Roman frescoes). Palazzo Massimo is part of the National Roman Museum which has four locations (can a museum have...
Aeneas, Aeneid, Archeology, Architecture, Art History, Augustus, Empire, Legend, Origins, Palatine Hill, Roman Art, Roman Painting, Rome, Virgil
Tweet This year is a big anniversary for all things Augustus; the two thousandth anniversary of the death of the first Emperor of Rome. The exploitation of art, religion, legend, history, poetry, dodgy family trees, you name it, in the relentlessly sophisticated...
Art History, Centro Storico, Churches, Early Renaissance, Fresco, Relics, Rome
Tweet This week my parents were in town and on Tuesday I was wandering around churches with my pa and Anthony Blunt’s book on Roman Baroque churches. (We did 16 that day, that’s where I get it from…). The last of the day was Santa Maria sopra...
Art History, Caelian, Churches, Counter Reformation, Empire, Fresco, High Renaissance, Late Medieval, Late Medieval Art, Medieval Art, Vatican
Tweet In the mid 8th century, a beleaguered Pope named Stephen “found” a document of inestimable value. Purporting to have been written over three centuries earlier, in it the Emperor Constantine handed over complete power of the city of Rome, amongst...
Recent Comments