One can always spot an emperor by his haircut

Art History, Augustus, Empire, Greek Sculpture, Roman sculpture, Rome

Tweet Brand recognition is nothing new; the use of image as an immediately identifiable expression of the power of the state was one perfected by the Roman emperors. Today heads of state have a standard image: identical portraits of Queen Elizabeth II look down on...

Going underground: The Columbarium of Pomponio Hylas

Archeology, Architecture, Art History, Empire, Out of Town, Rome

Tweet I’ve mentioned (here and here) my fondness for clambering improbable staircases to view long bricked-in frescoes. Just as good, if not better, is making an appointment through the city heritage office to meet a key-bearing guard in an unlikely looking spot. One...

The Vatican Museums: Not just the Sistine Chapel

Art History, Early Renaissance, Melozzo da Forli', Vatican

Tweet Anyone visiting Rome over the next week or so may have been dismayed to find that at 1pm today the Sistine Chapel closed to allow preparations for the conclave to take place, and will remain closed as long as is necessary. The next time it opens there will be a...

Heavens Above: A few thoughts about ceilings

Art History, Baroque, Michelangelo, Renaissance, Rome, Vatican

Tweet Recently I’ve been thinking about ceilings. Elaborately painted ones to be precise. A couple of weeks ago I took a group of 41 seventeen-year-old girls from the James Allen’s Girls’ School, plus their teachers, to see two of them. In the morning we visited the...

The Birth of Christian Art: The Basilica of Saints Cosmas & Damian

Art History, Early Christian art, Roman Forum

Tweet The verdigris door in the photo above belongs to a temple in the Roman Forum, traditionally said to have been dedicated to Romulus, the infant son of the Emperor Maxentius. About a century after the mosaics at Santa Pudenziana (about which I spoke in my last...

Roman Christian-ness or Christian Roman-ness? The Apse Mosaics of Santa Pudenziana

Art History, Early Christian art, Esquiline, Rome

Tweet I have recently been in a mosaic phase, as mentioned in my last post. My mosaic phases are cyclical – all that glittering gold in the gloaming is so wonderfully atmospheric – but this one began last month when watching a BBC documentary about the...