“Gladiatorial scenes from the Zliten mosaic. The upper scene shows, on the far left, a retiarius wearing a shoulder shield (galerus) and arm guard (manica). He has been disarmed and wounded by a secutor and is holding up a finger in a plea for...
Paintings; Acrylic paintings; Abstract paintings; Abstract works
“Johnson is a practitioner of a style sometimes labeled ‘abstract illusionism’, making paintings where apparently solid but abstract forms float in illusionary space. Riverfront Break may have been suggested by the industrial forms of the...
“Moreau has rendered Salome as an enchantress, the archetypal femme fatale who seduces Herod into performing her will. Moreau was very careful to avoid endowing the figure of Herod with any magisterial dignity but rather shows him as an old man,...
“One of the finest – and most controversial – works of third-century relief sculpture is the fragmentary sarcophagus found at Acilia, near Rome. It is an example of a later form of Roman coffin that art historians call the lenos (bathtub)...
“One of the finest – and most controversial – works of third-century relief sculpture is the fragmentary sarcophagus found at Acilia, near Rome. It is an example of a later form of Roman coffin that art historians call the lenos (bathtub)...
“The images on Trajan’s Column are not only notable for their bold artistry, but also constitute an important historical record. This section of the frieze vividly illustrates the painstaking accuracy of the depictions. The lower register shows...
Sculpture; Sarcophagi; Coffins; Death & burial; Containers; Monuments & memorials; Memorial works; Inscriptions; Human life cycle; Childhood & youth; Domestic life; Child rearing; Breast feeding; Feeding; Lifting & carrying; Riding;...
"[…] this child's sarcophagus has been reassembled from many fragments. The front panel is, however, in fairly good condition, with a few missing pieces reconstructed from Carrara marble. […] This sarcophagus is among the earliest of the...
"[...] Uncle Tom and Little Eva depicts a scene in [Harriet Beecher] Stowe's chapter 22, 'The Grass Withereth--The Flowers Fadeth [...] on the mossy banks of Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana." (p.155)
"Action behind the sheet, in the presence of the ubiquitous lion. Dali said the painting referred to his and Gala's repudiation by his father. There are allusions to Gala's operation, which Dali feared might be fatal." (Caption);...
"From the 'King's Grave' at Ur comes a splendid lyre that, in its restored state, resembles the instrument depicted in the feast scene on the Standard of Ur [from Tomb 779]. A magnificent bull's head caps the instrument's sound box. It is...
Paintings; Oil paintings; Civil wars; War; Politics & government; Political issues; Dictators; Nazis; Fascism; Civilization; Bombings; Military tactics; War destruction & pillage; Death; Dismemberment; Body parts; Mental states; Despair;...
"In this monumental work of 1937, Guernica, Picasso combined Analytic and Synthetic Cubist forms with several traditional motifs, juxtaposing them in a new Surrealist way. The combination serves the political message of the painting - namely,...
"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); “The oecus is a rectangular vaulted hall six meters wide by...
"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); “The oecus is a rectangular vaulted hall six meters wide by...
"One of Dali's most Freudian paintings. Indeed, the elderly gentleman helping the lady in distress seems to be Freud himself, borrowed from [Max] Ernst's Pietà or Revolution by Night." (Caption); "Illumined Pleasures is one Dali's...
"Relief from the northern side of the entrance to the Arch of Titus depicting Titus, the conquerer of Jerusalem, in triumph. The tympanum to the top of this scene is elaborately decorated." (caption, p.94); “The panel on the north side...
"The Child-Woman is Gala, who appears here for the first time in Dali's work." (Caption); "Meanwhile, Dali had painted the first major work in which he alluded directly to the relationship with Gala that was partially to blame for...
"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...
"The most representative surviving part of the Forum is a stretch of the south wall containing what are known as the 'Colonnacce': two surviving columns from the Corinthian colonnade erected around the outer wall of the square, an imitation...
"There still remains a stretch of the frieze which depicts female figures intent on spinning and weaving. The scene with Minerva is set almost in the middle of the intercolumns. The goddess is identified by the conventional iconography as...
Sculpture; Portraits; Men; Emperors; Rulers; People associated with politics & government; Military officers; Military personnel; People associated with military activities; Gestures; Clothing & dress; Hairstyles; Military uniforms;...
"This armored statue was discovered in the ancient city of Gabii. […] The portrait of Trajan, set on a modern neck, did not belong to the statue; it was furnished in 1793 by Vincenzo Pacetti, who produced this reconstituted piece for the...
