The Louvre portrait is of a "young boy wearing a toga praetexta (a purple-bordered toga) and bulla (ornament worn around a child's neck). […] Comparisons with coins bearing the image of Britannicus exclude the possibility that this is a...
"To the left Pasiphae, wife of the king Minos of Crete, is shown seated on a low chair with [a] back and one armrest. She is draped in a tunic falling to her feet. The garment leaves the right part of her upper body naked and is held by a gold...
"Picasso did forty-five studies for Guernica. The one illustrated here shows the dying horse and the mother with the dead child. They have been changed in the final painting, although they retain their basic character. The Cubist neck of the...
"With its somewhat distant-looking quality and distinctive crown of olive leaves, this statue is most likely a memorial portrait. Although the head and body originally came from two separate statues, they are chronologically consistent. The...
"The nose, chin, and fingers on the right hand and the complete left hand are modern. This exceptionally well-preserved statue is striking for its elegant pose and the complexity of the garment and hairstyle. The very young girl represented...
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...
"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...
Sculpture; Portraits; Women; Empresses; Princesses; Rulers; People associated with politics & government; Upper class; Nobility; Clothing & dress; Hairstyles
Discovered near Tivoli (Italy).
"Cut from a single block of marble, this bust of Faustina the Younger is notable for its excellent state of preservation, despite a few chips on the face, some damage to the drapery, and the modern restoration...
Discovered in Pompeii.
"With its fluted shaft and slightly flared bottom, the candelabrum rests on a tripod shaped like lion's paws, partially covered by a double plant-motif sheath. Three palmettes, one broken, ornament the space between the...
"Gala-Leda rendered 'in accordance with the modern "nothing touches" theory of intra-atomic physica' (Dali)." (Caption); Dali himself was only too happy to admit his debt to Gala. In the early 1930s he had begun to sign his...
Performance art; Video recording; Film stills; Men; Artists; Backs (Anatomy); Dance; Locomotion; Human locomotion; Geometry
"Carried out for the camera alone, Nauman's performances of the late 1960s often dealt with the artist's confinement in his studio. This was ironic given that elsewhere art was shrugging off its traditional solipsism and taking to the streets....
"This head of Isis, turned to the right, with delicately parted lips, is almost entirely intact except for the ends of a few locks of hair and the left edge of her tiara. The neck stops at a recessed fitting, a tenon, indicating that the head...
Women; Men; Spouses; Couples; Heads (Anatomy); Hairstyles; Eyes; Marriage; Relations between the sexes; Crying; Mental states; Pain
"An obsessive self-portraitist, Kahlo reveled in her distinctive features - heavy, continuous eyebrows, piercing gaze, shadowy mustache, small but ripe, cherry-red mouth, massive dark hair braided like a halo in the traditional Mexican style....
Sculpture; Equestrian statues; Metalwork; Jockeys; People associated with entertainment & sports; Boys; Youth; Children; Clothing & dress; Footwear; Sandals; Animals; Horses; Horseback riding; Bareback riding; Riding; Sitting; Gestures;...
"Ridden by the young Jockey, the restored horse is in full gallop. […] It is an original statue group dating from about 140 BC." (Captions, pp. 352-353); "Found in the sea off Cape Artemision, Euboea, and retrieved in pieces in...
