Italy

Triton, ridden by Poseidon, backgammon game piece, walrus ivory, Louvre Museum, Norway or Cologne origin, late 12th c. Mythical...

In my last post, I began the Herculean task of trying to give a general overview of demons in medieval art. I came away from writing...

13th c. capital of a sinner being devoured, Saint Pierre, Chauvigny, France A nasty case of Covid pretty much bankrupted my energy for...

A statue has been haunting me. I saw it inside the Duomo of Milan. In retrospect, I think it's the only thing I really saw in the Duomo,...

Hydria, 470-460 BCE, from Puglia, Italy. Home museum is the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Last May, I had the pleasure of...

Some art seems to have a life of its own, its own vitality and presence which can make it seem like a character in its own right. The...

di Balduccio monument for Saint Peter of Verona, 1339 After having examined the larger sculptures at the base of this monument, we arrive...

Capturing the back of the sarcophagus of Saint Peter Martyr is much trickier than photographing the front. The apse is quite close by,...

As much as I love medieval art that strikes me as bizarre, I really love it when I come across works which are marvels of symbolic...

Caves evoke mystery to a modern person. We're so used to having all the light we want, wherever and whenever we go. Our interiors are...

The use of lions in medieval religious and political art hews closely to the traditions inherited from around the Mediterranean. Lions...

Baptism changed both in its practice and its artistic representation from its introduction in the Gospels to its depictions across...

For such a small patch of excavated floor, the mosaic pavement in the abbey at Bobbio (under the current basilica) has a number of...

The lovely town of Bobbio has always been small and out of the way, but in the early 600s, this was exactly what the Irish abbot St....

Ancient Roman sarcophagi were for the wealthy, and were created in workshops which concentrated on particular themes: demonstrating the...

Images of barbarians were created to support a narrative of Roman superiority, and to justify military aggression as a defense of...

The ancient town, on Lake Bolsena, north of Rome, has Etruscan origins. The festival has roots as a fertility rite, where the town gave...

Here, I continue to point out some features of church architecture, generally before 1100. Please see Part 1 post for more on this...

What follows here are some features of churches from roughly 350-1100 in Rome. Most of my photo studies are of Romanesque and Gothic,...

The Villa Giulia houses a great collection of Etruscan art. This post provides you with a few of the highlights. Here is a close-up of...