The School of Athens: Averroes and Pythagoras on the Pope’s wall.

Art History, Fresco, High Renaissance, popes, Renaissance, Rome, Vatican

Tweet Negotiating the labyrinth of the Vatican Museums one runs the risk of running out of steam on the way to the Sistine Chapel. But do keep some energy in reserve for the Raphael rooms. In 1508, Raphael, then 26 years old, was called in by Julius II to decorate his...

The Carafa Chapel, St Thomas Aquinas, and an earnestness of young monks

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...

The Donation of Constantine

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...

Paradise regained: the painted garden of Livia at Palazzo Massimo

Archeology, Art History, Augustus, Empire, Esquiline, Fresco, National Roman Museum, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Roman Art, Roman Painting, Rome

Tweet In a city filled with extraordinary works of ancient art, perhaps one of the most breathtaking is one of the least visited and one of my favourites. After visiting the “Monsters” exhibition (excellent, go) at Palazzo Massimo today I went to the top...

Shaking off the Middle Ages: the Castiglione Chapel at San Clemente

Art History, Caelian, Churches, Early Renaissance, Fresco, Late Medieval, Late Medieval Art, Medieval Art, Rome

Tweet On Monday morning I was exploring underground sites on the Caelian Hill with a charming couple from California. We started off a stone’s throw from the Colosseum at the church of San Clemente where layer upon layer of the city’s history can be explored; a...

My favourite short cut: Smells, Bells & The Cappella Carafa

Art History, Centro Storico, Churches, Early Renaissance, Fresco, Rome, Santa Maria sopra Minerva

Tweet A lazy stone’s throw from the Pantheon, the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva takes its name from its position above an ancient temple dedicated to Minerva. It’s my absolute favourite short cut in Rome, enter on Piazza della Minerva and leave by the back...