Head of a Roman Patrician from Otricoli, c. 75-50 BCE, Marble, 1’ 2” high, Museo Torlonia, Rome, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Verism (noun) From the Latin word meaning “true,” verism is the name of a style of portraiture that is hyperrealistic and emphasizes individual features. The Romans created veristic portraits of older men most likely because the style conveyed experience as … Continue reading
© 2012 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Did you ever wonder why male figures in ancient Greek art are almost always nude? You probably didn’t. It’s something that we all take for granted, but it really is a curious thing. This is a famous sculpture because it … Continue reading
Head of a Persian Guard from Persepolis, Iran, c. 486-465 CE, limestone, 21.26" x 24.41" x 4.72", Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Bas-relief (noun) A sculpture in which the figures project only slightly from the background. A Persian bas-relief dating from the first century CE, that looks very similar to the one shown above, is among the most recent art heists. The … Continue reading
Venus of Willendorf, c. 28,000 - 25,000 BCE, limestone, 4⅓” high, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Photo by Matthias Kabel via Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License.
The Venus of Willendorf is seriously old; someone carved her from limestone around 28,000 BCE. That’s 30,000 years ago! Needless to say, it’s very difficult to know why this Paleolithic artifact exists. Because we know so little about the circumstances … Continue reading
Kallikrates and Iktinos, The Parthenon, 447-438 BCE, marble, Acropolis, Athens, photo by Florestan via Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation license.
Okay, it’s grossly incorrect to call the Parthenon “wonky,” but the truth is that the horizontals and verticals in the structure are not straight. Actually, the architects did that on purpose. The Parthenon, which stands atop the highest point of the … Continue reading
Aullus Metellus, early 1st century BCE, Bronze, 5’9”, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Perhaps the Romans were not the most original artists, but they really knew how to work with what they borrowed. This is the first Roman emperor, Augustus, which means, “Supreme Ruler.” He was the grandnephew and adopted son of Julius … Continue reading
Menorahs and Ark of the Covenant, Jewish Catacomb in the Villa Torlonia, Rome, 3rd century C.E., Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
In the Late Antique period, when the Roman emperors were still in power and the official religion included the cult of the emperor and the pantheon of Roman gods, several religions were practiced in secret, among which were Judaism and … Continue reading
Sculptures from the east pediment of the Parthenon, c. 438-432 B.C.E., marble, over life-size, The British Museum, photo by Andrew Dunn under a Creative Commons Attribution license via Wikimedia Commons.
The recent news about the economic and political crisis in Greece brings to mind the controversy surrounding the Parthenon Marbles. The Parthenon Marbles are the classical Greek sculptures by Pheidias and his workshop that originally were part of the Parthenon … Continue reading
Queen Nefertiti, c. 1348-1336/5 BCE, Limestone, 19” high, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Ägyptisches Museum. Photo via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
This sculpture of Queen Nefertiti of ancient Egypt is arresting because she is beautiful in the twenty-first-century sense of the word. She easily could be on the cover of Vogue. Her set jaw and her large almond-shaped eyes that gaze … Continue reading
Part of the Isaiah Scroll, The Dead Sea Scrolls, Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Uploaded by Daniel Baranek, via Wikimedia Commons.
Even though this is more of historical rather than art historical interest, it certainly is worth mentioning here. Google has put the Dead Sea Scrolls online for everyone to view. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest copies of the … Continue reading
Anonymous Artist, The Emperor Hadrian, c. 127, marble, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.
The Roman emperors surely did not invent political propaganda, but they were experts at it. The Emperor Hadrian paid for and may have designed The Pantheon which is a religious temple dedicated to all of the Roman Gods and members … Continue reading
© 2011 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Everyone recognizes this lady who lost her arms. The heavy marble limbs probably fell off hundreds of years ago. She a big lady too, standing over six and a half feet tall. Because she was created in ancient Greece, probably … Continue reading