Walk through any major collection of Roman sculptures, and you may notice something strange. There are a lot of similarities with the Greeks. Roman artists repeatedly recreated famous Greek statues.... Continue Reading →

 Museums are quiet places. Ancient Greek vases were not. Today, we usually encounter a vase behind glass, isolated from the sounds of the world it once inhabited. Many of these... Continue Reading →

Ancient Greek vases are often treated as pictures. We admire their scenes of gods, heroes, weddings, battles, and drinking parties. But if we look more closely, some of these figures... Continue Reading →

When we picture ancient Greek art, we often picture the nude body. Marble statues of athletes, painted heroes, and muscular gods have become so familiar that Greek art can seem... Continue Reading →

Boxer at Rest (Terme Boxer; Boxer of the Quirinal) Unknown Greek artist c. 330–50 BCE Bronze with copper inlay Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome, Italy For the... Continue Reading →

Portrait of Alexander the Great (the so-called Azara Alexander), Roman marble copy of a Greek original, c. 1–50 C.E, Louvre, Paris Alexander the Great died in Babylon in 323 BCE... Continue Reading →

Temple of Aphrodite, converted to a Christian basilica, view of standing columns. 1st century BCE–2nd century CE (converted 5th century CE). Marble. Aphrodisias (modern Geyre), Aydın Province, Turkey. In the... Continue Reading →

Artemision Zeus or Poseidon, c. 460 B.C.E., bronze, 2.09 m high, Early Classical (Severe Style), recovered from a shipwreck off Cape Artemision, Greece in 1928, National Archaeological Museum, Athens. There... Continue Reading →

The Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, Greece Nobody tells you that the Parthenon is smaller than you expect. Not physically. It is enormous, obviously, a fact your body understands... Continue Reading →