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...
Empire, popes, Roman Forum, Rome, Vatican
Tweet Yesterday, as every Good Friday, the papal Via Crucis was held at the Colosseum. The procession begins in the amphitheatre and concludes at the temple of Venus, built by Hadrian at the pinnacle of Roman imperial power. The image of the pope amid the ruins has...
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...
Archeology, Architecture, Augustus, Empire
Tweet If you find yourself entering Rome by the via Ostiense, you might be surprised to see a large white marble pyramid, not perhaps a form one associates with the city. It certainly struck Thomas Hardy, and in his poem Rome at the Pyramid of Cestius Near the Graves...
Archeology, Art History, Empire, Esquiline, Rome
Tweet I was delighted to be asked to lead the first in Context Travel’s Rome series of “Tours in the Public Interest” last month at the Auditorium of Maecenas. It embodies the idea behind Context’s initiave which seeks to draw under-visited sites to public attention....
Recent Comments