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The tale of a classical statue's journey from a Roman theater to the MFA Boston If this monumental second-century Roman statue could speak, she would tell of travels from a theater in ancient Rome to a Christian church to the gardens of an Italian prince's villa--and then across the Atlantic to a suburban garden, where she endured for a century before finding a home at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Although standing 13 feet tall and weighing some 13,000 pounds, this colossal statue has a long history of hiding in plain sight. Now, stylistic evaluation, historical research and technical examination have revealed connections with five other "sister" statues, all carved of Carrara marble, that were part of an Augustan renewal of Rome. Despite losing her head (and gaining a new one), and suffering damage and repairs, she has continued to be admired throughout two millennia. As the largest classical sculpture in America, newly restored and protected from the elements at last, she has just begun to share her secrets.
Featuring 118 objects excavated from the city's ruins, all reproduced in full color, Antioch: The Lost Ancient City recreates the spatial sensation, visual splendor, and cultural richness of this urban center."--Jacket.
Built on the southwestern coast of Cyprus in the second century A.D., the House of Dionysos is full of clues to a distant life—in the corner of a portico, shards of pottery, a clutch of Roman coins found on a skeleton under a fallen wall—yet none is so evocative as the intricate mosaic floors that lead the eye from room to room, inscribing in their colored images the traditions, aspirations, and relations of another world. In this lavishly illustrated volume, Christine Kondoleon conducts us through the House of Dionysos, showing us what its interior decoration discloses about its inhabitants and their time. Seen from within the context of the house, the mosaics become eloquent witnesses ...
Published in conjunction with the exhibition organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Oct. 26, 2011-Feb. 20, 2012, J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Malibu, Mar. 28-July 9, 212, and San Antonio Museum of Art, Sept. 15, 2012-Feb. 17, 2013.
Luscious reproductions of more than 50 of Twombly's paintings, drawings and little-known sculptures, along with classical works of art, tell the story of an American abstractionist's poetical dialogue with antiquity Cy Twombly's first visit to Italy as a young man ignited a lifelong passion for classical culture that is everywhere present in his art. Painted canvases, works on paper and small-scale sculptures reveal the historical soul of Twombly's abstract compositions. Taking on myths and heroes as personal guides, he created a psychologically complex dialogue with the visual and literary art of antiquity. This sumptuously illustrated publication reproduces a carefully chosen selection of ...
Early Christians used charges of adultery, incest, and lascivious behavior to demonize their opponents, police insiders, resist pagan rulers, and define what it meant to be a Christian. Christians frequently claimed that they, and they alone were sexually virtuous, comparing themselves to those marked as outsiders, especially non-believers and "heretics," who were said to be controlled by lust and unable to rein in their carnal desires. True or not, these charges allowed Christians to present themselves as different from and morally superior to those around them. Through careful, innovative readings, Jennifer Knust explores the writings of Paul, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, and other ea...
From Rome to Byzantium, classical to medieval, pagan to Christian--this book beautifully documents momentous changes as well as surprising continuities. -- From product description.
Performances in the premodern communities shaped identities, created meanings, generated and maintained political control. But unlike other social scientists, archaeologists have not worked much with these concepts. Archaeology of Performance shows how the notions of theatricality and spectacle are as important economics and politics in understanding how ancient communities work. Without sacrificing conceptual rigor, the contributors draw on the wide-ranging literature on performance. Without sacrificing material evidence, they try to see how performance creates meaning and ideology. Drawing on evidence from societies large and small, Archaeology of Performance offers an important new ways of understanding ancient theaters of power.
In this book, the author draws on two original sources, on a Greek biographer, historian, and rhetorician, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, as well as on Pompeian domestic art and architecture. Generally, NT scholars read texts, but Greeks and ancient Romans loved beauty. The walls and floors of their houses were decorated with thousands of colorful frescoes and mosaics, art that two millennia later is still on display in Pompeii. Christians lived and worshipped in those typical houses; relating the art to NT texts generates many intriguing new questions! What stories/myths did Greeks and Romans see every day? What were their sports, and how violent were they? Many NT scholars know as much or mor...
The fourth catalogue in a series that documents the renowned Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art, this book focuses on the collection’s 453 terracotta oil lamps dating from the Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine periods. The rich iconography on many of these common, everyday objects provides a rare look into daily life on Cyprus in antiquity and highlights the island’s participation in Roman artistic and cultural production. Each lamp is illustrated, and the accompanying text addresses typology, decoration, and makers’ marks on each of these objects that provide new insights into art, craft, and trade in the ancient Mediterranean.