“The first part of the project, which began perhaps as early as Augustus, was a grandiose temple to Jupiter; an inscription suggests it was completed by 60 CE. The Jupiter temple is a typical example of the compromise between Greek and Roman...
"Fate of the Beasts (1913), perhaps also related to the prevailing apprehensions of war, portrays a total, inescapable catastrophe. Hard, arrowlike diagonals intersect to shoot across the canvas. Trees bleed and descend in a cosmic cataclysm....
Architecture; Temples; Greek temples; Religious facilities; Buildings; Interiors; Sculpture; Metalwork; Goldwork; Woodwork; Women; Goddesses; People associated with religion; Supernatural beings; Fictitious characters; Myths; Legends; Clothing...
"The statue was made of wood, plated with ivory and gold." (Caption, p.74); The statue "was about 12 metres [meters] (39 feet) high and made of wood faced with ivory and gold. [...] The figure wore a triple-crested helmet. It had a...
"It was built illegally by private interests in the last decade of the first century B.C. [...]. Renovated in the Fourth Style after the earthquake of 62 A.D. [...]." (p.122); "Although the villa needed restoration after the...
Paintings; Oil paintings; Commemorations; Meetings; Oaths; Pledges of allegiance; Allegiance; Politics & government; Political issues; Political activity; Political strategies; Revolutions; Opposition (Political science); Economic &...
“Four fully painted heads stand out against the enormous expanse of white ground: the abbé Grégoire, the author of tracts in defence [defense] of Jews and Blacks; Mirabeau, the celebrated orator; Barnave, a jurist from Grenoble; and...
Architecture; Buildings; Religious facilities; Interiors; Rooms & spaces; Cults; Sculpture; Portraits; Men; Emperors; Rulers; People associated with politics & government; Clothing & dress; Architectural elements; Walls; Pilasters;...
Shows "the end wall (frescoed) and the side wall (on the south side) with the reconstruction of the architectural order." (Caption, p. 145); "The Hall of the Colossus was deliberately set in the northeast corner of the Forum, at the...
Paintings; Oil paintings; Still life paintings; Still lifes; Business & finance; Tables; Furniture; Books; Encyclopedias & dictionaries; Geography; Money; Coins; Greenbacks; Correspondence; Pens; Writing materials; Envelopes; Marks...
“In The Writing Table, eight meticulously described items are arranged on a cool green trompe-l’oeiled marble slab: a hefty leather-bound tome; a small shiny gold or copper coin; a sparkling silver coin; a roll of well-worn five-dollar bills;...
"The figure traditionally interpreted as Minerva is actually the armed personification of a subjugated people." (Caption, p. 187); "The top of the attic story, set almost 18 meters above the grade, contains holes for the cramps that...
"The assertive flatness of the implacable field of red is emphasized by the linear vertical 'zips'. Rather than functioning as 'drawing' within space, these reinforce and delimit the space as a whole. White 'zips' in Newman's works also evoke...
"In her consistent use of grids Agnes Martin participated in a tradition in twentieth-century art stretching from the Cubists and Mondrian to her Minimalist contemporaries. The grid was a non-hierarchical and non-referential structure. It...
"The First Days of Spring inaugurated a series of works in which, determined to be more Surrealist than the Surrealists themselves, Dali elaborated a symbolic language for delineating, with microscopic precision, his erotic obsessions. It...
"This is the painting Dali took to show Freud in London. It belonged formerly to Edward James." (Caption); "At Zürs […] Dali embarked on a new experiment: the composition, in French, of a 'paranoaic' poem, The Myth of Narcissus,...
"The text on the label punningly translates as 'beautiful breath/veil water'. Duchamp's female alter ego, Rrose Sélavy, peers out from above it." (Caption, p.54); "Among Duchamp's strangest gestures had been the creation of a female...
Sculpture; Allusions; Chemistry; Science; Interpersonal relations; Social science; Sociology; Utopias
"The work consisted of a triangular gauze filter stretched across a corner into which lumps of fat had been packed. Apart from alluding to physical metamorphoses brought about via osmosis, processes of refinement and purification were evoked....
Photographs; Composite photographs; Montages; Justice; Social justice; Social values; Economic & social conditions; Moral & ethical aspects; Ethics; Alcoholism; Men; Sleeping; Artists; Sculptors; Photographers; Heads (Anatomy); Faces;...
"Gilbert and George's presence in their photo-works can be seen as an extension of their early performance activities. They often stand apart from the other imagery in the pieces as though acknowledging the artifice involved. Moral conundrums...
Sculpture; Metalwork; Abstract sculpture; Abstract works
"In formal terms, this sculpture manages to harmonize the claims of an aspiring, organic element within and the protective, enveloping characteristics of an outer casing. This is achieved via Moore's signature 'holes'. (Caption, p.68);...
Sculpture; Mixed media; Puns (Visual works); Sex; Couples; Relations between the sexes; Human body; Body parts; Anatomy; Genitals; Pails; Containers; Fruit; Melons; Food; Citrus fruit; Oranges; Cucumbers; Vegetables
"Lucas grew up in a working-class environment in East London and uses its idioms in her work. To some extent she has also borrowed from the American art that she saw in the late 1980s in London's Saatchi Gallery. Her 'grungy' abject imagery...
"Alongside his own production of visual poetry, which took the form of silkscreen prints as well as inscribed objects, Finlay was significant for his involvement in the 'small press' publishing activities associated with the alternative poetry...
Five white canvases with pupae, steel shelves with potted flowers, bowls of sugar-water solution, table, radiators, humidifiers, and live butterflies; "There was a lyrical quality to Hirst's use of butterflies' lifecycles, both in the 1991...
"There was a lyrical quality to Hirst's use of butterflies' lifecycles, both in the 1991 installation In and Out of Love, and the related 1994-5 series of paintings, of which I Love You forms part." (Caption, p.231); "By contrast to...
