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Discovered at the Roman villa of Finca El Secretario in Fuengirola, Spain, this ‘fake mosaic’ fresco might have meant the villa owners could find or afford a mosaicist, but the villa had many mosaic floor. The technique was perhaps used due to avoid the heaviness of mosaic walls. 🏺 3/

Ancient Roman floor mosaic with geometric patterns, in situ in the ruins of a Roman villa. The fresco would have been on the walls of one of these rooms.

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These fragments from a Roman villa in Spain are not from a mosaic but from a fresco. If you look closely you’ll see a grid of lines, many following the contour of the figures, much as tesserae do on mosaics. This trompe-l’oeil technique simulates mosaics. 1/ 🏺 1st-2nd c. Museo de Málaga 📸 me

Fragment of a fresco depicting part of a human face, mostly the eyes. Thin lines form a grid pattern, simulating the edges of tesserae.

Fresco fragment showing a naked torso of a woman, her legs and pubic area covered in a red himation (cloak). Her right hand carries a basket laden with fruit, which look like giant globes of grapes. Grapevine leaves appear in the background. A Dionysian scene. The faux tesserae grid lines follow the curves of the body.

Fresco fragment depicting some sort of half-human creature with wild hair and bare torso, gesturing upwards with his right hand and holding a branched stick with his left. The faux tesserae grid lines follow the curves of his garment and body.

Fresco fragment with the torso of perhaps a god with golden skin, a red himation flowing outwards and partially covering his or her legs. Perhaps Dionysos?

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It was discovered in 1951 when construction work for the Casa de la Cultura revealed the cavea (seating area). The theater was eventually excavated, and the casa had to be demolished. Worth it! 🏺 2/

1950s black and white photo showing the partially excavated Roman theater, with the large Casa de la Cultura building still sitting atop the site. It was demolished shortly after.

Photo of the Roman theater, from the spot where the Casa de la Cultura once stood. We can see the full sweep of the cavea (seating) and the Moorish citadel above.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

An ancient #Roman theater is always the perfect backdrop for a selfie. Bonus points for the Moorish citadel looming above: the Alcazaba. No, Joe is not *that* much shorter than me - I don’t know what he did here.🏺 #ancientbluesky 1/

Selfie of me and my husband standing in front of the Roman theater, with the Moorish citadel looming above.

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Well, that gets a follow. Because I can certainly relate.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That entire panel is just astonishing. I have to post my recent higher res photos, but all I have is this one, taken with an older iPhone. Still … wow.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A more intact faience statuette of Aphrodite Anadyomene can be viewed at the #BrooklynMuseum, below. the blue-green faience, of course, enhances the concept of the goddess rising from the sea. 🏺 2/

Blue faience statuette of Aphrodite Anadyomene. The goddess is shown entirely nude, her hands raised to wring out her hair. At her left is a greatly schematized urn with a garment thrown over it. She stands on a round base with mouldings.

A true product of a multicultural society in Ptolemaic Egypt, this statuette combines a classical image of the Greek goddess Aphrodite appearing from the sea, just born, with the typically Egyptian material, faience. Egyptian artists achieved the characteristic brilliant blue of faience in a complex process combining ground quartz with a mixture of alkali.

Condition: Right hand missing. Two large areas of glaze missing from the upper rim of the base, one extending almost entirely across the back of the base and the other more than half-way across the front and including part of the left foot. A very small chip off the vase at the foot of the statuette. A small chip near the right knee of the figure, which shows the undarkened white body of the piece.

Greco-Egyptian, Ptolemaic period, late 2nd century BCE.

Brooklyn Museum, New York (44.7)

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I have long found fragments of ancient artifacts to be fascinating - like a piece of a missing jigsaw puzzle. Here we have a brilliantly colored fragment of a faience statuette of the goddess Venus, rising from the sea, wringing out her hair (Aphrodite-Venus Anadyomene). #MetMuseum 🏺 1/ 📸 me

The missing lower portion of this intensely blue-green faience statuette makes it difficult to determine if the woman depicted was clothed. However, her preserved left hand, which pulls back her hair, recalls the gesture of Venus after she emerged newly born from the sea - Aphrodite/Venus Anadyomene - the subject of a famous Greek sculptural type of the third to second century BCE. Some other faience statuettes of Venus Anadyomene still exist, such as the one at the Brooklyn Museum, in which the goddess is naked (she is always naked in this type of sculpture, as she's rising from the sea or her bath).

Roman, late 1st century BCE-early 1st century CE.

Height: 5 5/16 in. (13.4 cm)

Met Museum, New York (17.194.1662)

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Museums always call mitrai 'belly guards' when in fact they suspend from a cuirass and protect a warrior's genitals and the vulnerable femoral arteries. This is the awful reality of warfare - a good stab to that area will cause a man to bleed out in a couple of minutes. 💀 😱 🏺 📸 Ancient Warfare Mag.

Image of a Greek warrior reenactor in full armor. Each piece has explanatory text about it in the margin. The mitra is part of two pieces suspended from the cuirass (breastplate), which protects the groin and the femoral arteries, along with thigh armor.

Ancient Warfare Magazine (no artist credit that I can see)

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The Harvard Art Museums has several pieces of armor from Afrati, including a helmet and mitrae with an inscription in Archaic Cretan letters reading, “Fισοκράτης τόνδε,” (Fisokrates [took] this). More war booty. 🏺 6/

Rounded helmet with an open front and a flange in the back to protect the neck. It has a bright green patina.

Harvard Art Museums 1991.44

One of the mitrai (so-called 'belly guards', which suspend from a cuirass and actually protect the warrior's groin), an elongated half-circle shape. It has an inscription in ancient Cretan, a form of Greek, indicating that this was war booty.

Harvard Art Museums 1991.38

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No word on the other pieces from the Afrati site held in other museums. For instance, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (MK&G) in Hamburg has four pieces of armor, below, including a cuirass which perfect matches the decoration of one of the helmets from the Met. 🏺 5/

Bronze 'muscle cuirass' or breastplate, which would have protected the entire front of a warrior's torso. Sea snakes outline the pectorals, topped by heraldic lions. Griffin and kneeling warriors decorate the rib arches.

Accession 1970.26.a

Bronze back armor, which would have attached to the frontal armor (cuirass) and protected the entire back of the warrior's torso. Five relief lines each mark the upper, medial and lower edges of the shoulder blades, and one long furrow delineates the spine.

Acc. 1970.26.c

Rounded bronze helmet with a frontal opening for the eyes, nose, and mouth. Of note are the naturalistic ears modeled in relief on either side. Visible patina of greens and oranges.

Acc. 1970.26.d

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One of three bronze mitrai (belly guards, for protecting the lower abdomen) from the same collection. This one depicts two facing winged sphinxes wearing tall polo-style hats, their faces turned towards the viewer. 🏺 4/

Bronze mitra (belly guard), shaped like a slightly long half-circle. Mitra were suspended from belts to protect the lower abdomen. This is one of three, and is decorated with two sphinxes facing one another, their heads turned towards the viewer. They were tall polos-style hats.

Met Museum, New York (1989.281.53). Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2026.

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The second bronze helmet depicts horses worked in repoussé, one on either side. An inscription reads, 'Synenitos the son of Eukiotas [took this]', suggesting that these helmets were captured as booty, and buried (with Synenitos?) at the necropolis of Afrati-Arkades. 🏺 3/

One of two bronze Archaic Cretan helmets at the Met Museum, the finest pieces of a large cache of armor that came to light in southern central Crete, where they were undoubtedly made. It has a beautiful patina of bright greens and rich, deep orange-reds. The inscriptions suggest that the armor was captured as booty and offered as a dedication. This helmet depicts two long-legged horses worked in repoussé with incised details (one on each side). Small engraved lions appear on the cheekpieces. An inscription on the helmet states that “Synenitos the son of Euklotas [took this].”

Greek, Cretan, late 7th century BCE (Archaic). Said to be from Afrati, Crete.

Height: 9 5/8 in. (24.5 cm)

Met Museum, New York (1989.281.49). Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2026.

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This bronze helmet with its bright green patina depicts two winged youths who flank and grasp a pair of entwined serpents. Below them is a two-bodied panther. An inscription at the top reads 'Neopolis', or 'new city' (the original Greek name for Naples). Looted from Afrati (ancient Arkades). 🏺 2/

Bronze helmet with two winged youths on each side who flank and grasp a pair of entwined serpents. They are dressed in short kilts, wear winged sandals and have wings on their backs that appear to be attached with straps. Although some scholars have identified these figures as the legendary Cretan craftsman Daidalos and his son Icarus, they probably represent local daemonic beings. Below them are two panthers with a common head.

Inscription above the visor: 'Neopolis'.

Greek, Cretan, late 7th century BCE. From Afrati (or Aphrati, ancient Arkades), Crete.

Met Museum, New York (1989.281.50). Deaccessioned for return to the Hellenic Republic in September 2026.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

This morning it was announced that several pieces of 7th c. BCE Greek (Cretan) armor and other antiquities in the #MetMuseum were repatriated to Greece. Looted in the 1960s from Crete, this includes two helmets, and three mitrai (belly guards). A look at three items ... 🧵 🏺 1/ 📸 me

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Yes, this is very standard. It’s the Trojan princess and priestess, Kassandra, who spurned Apollo and was cursed so that her prescience would never be believed. It must have had special meaning to the owner of the ring, but sometimes it’s just about a famous scene, well known in ancient art.

Fresco depicting Ajax the Lesser dragging Cassandra from the Palladium in view of Priam.

From room 4 of the house of Quintus Poppaeus Sabinus (“House of Menander”).

Fourth style. 60—79 CE.

Pompeii, Archaeological Park, House of Menander (I, 10, 4, wing)

Photo: Ilya Shurygin

Pottery: red-figured hydria.
Depicted on this hydria is the rape of Kassandra by the lesser Ajax, son of Oileus, in Athena's temple at Troy. In the centre, the Trojan princess Kassandra kneels on the base of the statue of Athena, the Palladion. Her hair is loose and her drapery hangs from her left shoulder, leaving her upper body bare. She embraces the statue with both arms. An oinochoe lies below her on the base. Pallas Athena is portrayed wearing a peplos and carrying a shield on her left arm and a spear in her raised right hand. She wears an elaborate helmet to which feathers are attached. At the left, the Greek warrior Ajax seizes Kassandra by her hair. Ajax is nude except for a chlamys tied in front with a bulky, round brooch. On his head is a crested Corinthian helmet with added large feathers. His left foot is on the base of Athena's statue, and he raises a sword in his right hand. A phiale hangs above his head, part of the temple's ritual equipment. Two other phialai appear in the field to the right and left above the subordinate figures.

340-320 BCE. Made in Campania, found in Nola.

British Museum, London (1824,0501.35)

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The original Mr. Peanut! 🥜 At first glance, this Moche ceramic stirrup-spout bottle looks like a figure wearing a hooded cloak. Amazing details and color. THEN you look at the back … he’s a peanut! Peanuts are native to South America and have been used in their cuisine for millennia. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

This bottle depicts a figure wrapped within a peanut shell reclining on its side. The vessel has a stirrup-spout handle, a common spout form used in the second half of the Moche period (ca. 500 – 850 CE). The body of the vessel, possibly produced using a mold, was decorated with pigmented slip applied before firing. The figure’s torso is exposed, revealing a sleeved tunic featuring a repeated motif and additional sleeve detailing. Only the person’s legs, hands, and face remain uncovered. The hand gesture of the thumb touching the index finger became more common in Moche pottery after 600 CE (Donnan and McClelland 1979, 63). A headstrap, worn just above the eyebrows, adorns the forehead, peeking out from beneath the tip of the peanut shell (for another example of this type of headstrap see MMA 67.167.21). The small bulge on the figure’s left cheek suggests the individual is chewing coca.

Met Museum

Rear view of this stirrup-spout vessel (so named because the spout resembles a stirrup, with the rounded portion intersected with an upright spout) revealing that this is a peanut. Whether it’s supposed to be an anthropomorphic peanut or a man wearing a peanut shaped cloak is unknown.

500-800 CE, Peru. Met Museum.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

A scene from The Iliad, famous in Greek and Roman art, here engraved onto a gold ring as an intaglio seal: the Trojan princess Kassandra clutching at the ancient wooden statue of the goddess Athena, as Troy falls. Ajax the Lesser would rip her away, defiling the statue and temple. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

This heavy gold ring is decorated with a depiction of Kassandra, King Priam's most beautiful daughter, before the Palladion, the cult statue of Athena in Troy. The reversed lettering of Kassandra's name indicates that the ring was intended to be used as a seal.

Greek, ca. 400–380 BCE. Met Museum, New York (53.11.2)

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Proto-Eros, before he started riding damn near everything ... 📸 me

Polychrome terracotta statuette of Eros riding a lion.

Greek, South Italian, said to be from Tarentum, late 4th or 3rd century BCE. Met Museum.

Met Museum, New York (12.232.16)

Terracotta figure of Eros riding on a dolphin, which is plunging downwards over a support in the form of a wave. Eros is sitting comfortably on its back, his face turned towards the observer, his right arm drawn across his body to pluck at lyre in his left hand, naked apart from thick stippled wreath and stephane (tiara) on head. Coarse brick red clay (with mica); white coating, orange-pink pigment on the flesh of the Eros, pink on his wing, black on the background, turquoise blue on the body of the dolphin, dark blue for its eye, dark red for its mouth and dorsal fin, and grey-blue with dark blue splashes for the sea.

Hellenistic, late 3rd-2nd century BCE. From Cyrenaica, Libya.

British Museum, London (1868,0705.32)

Small fresco detail decorating a door jamb/pillar dividing the atrium from the peristyle garden of the House of the Vettii in Pompeii. It depicts one of the many Cupids in the house, this one riding a crab (and whipping it on to go faster). Other door jambs depict Cupids riding goat, hippogriffs, and even a prawn.

Casa dei Vettii, Pompeii (VI.15.1)

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

#Canada recently rolled back the old "first-generation limit" on citizenship by descent, which means people whose Canadian lineage goes back more than one generation born abroad may finally qualify. My great-grandfather came from Nova Scotia, so ... O Canada! 🇨🇦 🫎 🍁

AI image of a Canadian flag unfurling in a breeze, backlit by a golden sunrise over the Canadian rockies.

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I love these little gold and silver effigies. The one shown in your left image never seems to be on display (I wish). The similar one below left is seen instead. The camelid is one of my favorite objects in the gallery. 📸 me

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Oddly, they don’t include photos of the cat and dog. Here’s ΖΜΑΡΑΓΔΙΝ (Zmaragdin, ‘Emerald’) the cat (who is appropriately on its own luxe pillow), and a leaping ΩΚΕΑΝΟΣ (Okeanos, ‘Ocean’) the dog. 📸 Anatolian Archaeology

From a large floor mosaic which depicts a grid of panels, each with its own image against a black background, dividing by strands of guilloche. This one depicts a white cat on a pillow, its name in Greek above, translating to ‘Emerald’.

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Well, it looks like I'm going on a last minute trip to London and Malaga, Spain. Five days in each location (25-30 Sept., 30 Sept.-4 Oct.). The *really* sad part is that I've always wanted to see the Alhambra, but it's sold out until November! 😭 Does anyone know if special tours can get in?

Photo shows the Court of the Myrtles (Patio de los Arrayanes), the central courtyard of the Comares Palace located within the historic Alhambra complex in Granada, Spain. A medieval Moorish brick palace looms over the long water feature and fountain.

Image courtesy of thenotsoinnocentsabroad.com

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A mix of indigo and clay, Maya blue was very vibrant and durable, and associated with all things fresh and new, particularly highly valued materials including jade, quetzal bird feathers, and water. Ritually potent, it was used to anoint images of gods and sacrificial victims. 🏺 2/ 📸 me

This ceramic figurine depicts a standing male wearing a long textured bodysuit and conical headdress. His mouth is open, as if speaking, and he wears an ornament between his eyes. Incised lines on his cheeks may represent wrinkles, indicating he is a mature individual. He wears a belt and loincloth above the bodysuit, as well as a ruffled collar and large round earflares, or ornaments worn in the earlobes. His pectoral consists of a large round element with a zoomorphic face emerging from the top right corner. He carries a rectangular shield in his left hand; the shield is marked with patterns that probably represent feathers. The right arm of the figurine is broken at the elbow. This figurine is also a whistle; the mouthpiece of the whistle, visible from the sides and back, serves as a third support so that the figurine can stand erect.

His body, face, and parts of his headdress are covered in vibrant Maya blue pigment, while his loincloth is painted in now-faded red pigment. His feet are an equally bright orange pigment or perhaps the raw clay.

Maya, 600-800 CE, Jaina Island, Campeche, Mexico.

Met Museum, New York (1979.206.953)

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

We frequently speak of the world's first synthetic pigment, Egyptian blue, but a very similar all-natural and highly durable blue pigment was being utilized by the Maya in Mexico: Maya blue. Here used appropriately on a ceramic crocodile whistle with rattle. #MetMuseum🏺 1/ 📸 me

This zoomorphic ceramic figure has been hand-modeled into the form of a crocodile. It functions as both a whistle—air holes appear in front of the animal's rear legs on its underside, and an air vent is found underneath its neck—and a rattle—clay pellets are inside the front half of the figure.

The crocodile has raised eyelids projecting from atop its long, upturned snout with round nostrils and three triangular teeth projecting horizontally from each side of his mouth. Flopped and flaring dog-like ears project from back sides of the head behind the eyes. Its short, squat legs splay out from the underside of the body. On the two forelegs, toes have been delineated through notched and incised detail. The long, flat, wide tail features triangular notches replicating the zigzag pattern of a crocodilian tail.

Painted all over - saved some patchy spots - with a still incredibly vibrant Maya blue pigment, which is a bright turquoise hue.

700-800 CE, Mexico.

Met Museum, New York (1979.206.1143)

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This beautifully detailed silver and gilt pyxis (lidded box) was probably made in a Greek workshop in Apulia, eventually deposited in an #Etruscan tomb. How do we know? It’s inscribed with the Etruscan word ‘śuthina’ (‘for the tomb’), marking it as the property of the deceased. 🏺 1/ 📸 me

Silver and gilt pyxis (box with lid), part of a group of three items known as the Bolsena silver. The bands of ornament on the box and alternate leaves on the pointed lid have gilding. The inscription written on the side of the cylindrical box in Etruscan must have been added subsequently. It reads śuthina, meaning "of [for] the tomb" suggesting that the objects were acquired by an Etruscan and buried with him.

The pyxis itself was originally manufactured as a luxury item in Apulia (southern Italy), likely in a Greek workshop. Marking an item as śuthina served a religious function in Etruscan burial practices. It legally and spiritually designated the luxury object as property of the deceased and the underworld deities. Once marked "for the tomb," the item was consecrated and could never be reused or stolen for the world of the living.

Height: with cover 3 5/16 in. (8.4 cm)

Apulian, possibly Tarentine, early 3rd c. BCE, Met Museum (03.24.6)

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This is, of course, the Met Cloisters in Upper Manhattan. A gorgeous Sunday, and the perfect escape from the insanity of the city. Looking out over the Hudson River at the steep cliffs of the New Jersey Palisades.

A view of the Hudson River and the basalt cliffs and woodland of the New Jersey Palisades on the opposite bank, looking almost primeval. A gorgeous blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

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I was at the Met Cloisters - brought stone by stone from Europe, mainly France.

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I wonder who bought it? I know what it reminds me of …

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Entertaining guesses as to where I'm at this week. 🤔

Medieval cloister, with arches and double marble columns surrounding a wild garden. In the center of the garden is a carved stone fountain and cross.

Exterior of the medieval abbey, constructed of a light stone. The rear of the chapel can be seen, with pointed gothic windows and stained glass, along with thick buttresses and a tower. The garden outside is filled with fruiting apple and citrus trees. and lots of herbs and berries.

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I love this. Because I have a wee ancient glass obsession … 📸 me

This ancient Roman free-blown (not molded) glass flask - of a type that would have probably held perfume - has intense iridescence.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor (61.14.16)

Roman free-blown glass footed flask with wheel-etched lines. Possibly one of the most strikingly iridescent pieces of Roman glass in a public museum (and surprisingly intact).

Roman, E. Mediterranean, 3rd-4th century CE.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Legion of Honor (61.14.42)

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Even though that photo looks a jumble, the amphorae were broken up and carefully laid out, layer by layer. You can see this in my photo below. Just pieces of used amphorae remain, but some still show the potters’ handprints.

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Chapps @chapps.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I was surprised to come across this (Graeco-)Romano-Egyptian tempera mummy portrait at #LACMA recently. The portrait depicts a young man with dark curly hair, a goatee, and large brown eyes. His white tunic is edged in red and decorated with dark pink clavi (vertical stripes). 🏺 1/ 📸 me

The tradition of painted naturalistic portraits of deceased elite individuals developed in the first to third centuries CE of the Roman Period in the Faiyum area of Egypt. Portraits on wood panels were placed over the heads of mummified bodies and anchored with linen wrappings or layers of plaster cartonnage. The Austrian archaeologist and dealer Theodor Graf uncovered several hundred portraits in the er-Rubayat cemetery in 1887. Graf’s inventory stamp on the back of the LACMA panel, as well as the stylistic similarities between this panel and others from the area, indicate that it was part of this group.

A young, curly-haired, bearded youth is shown frontally, his body turned slightly to the left. He wears a white tunic with decorative vertical pink stripes (clavi) and a white mantle over his left shoulder. As seen in other portraits, a dotted line indicates the tunic’s seam on his right shoulder. The gray background is also similar to many of the portraits believed to have originated in the Faiyum area. The portrait has been substantially cleaned, as an early photograph reveals a thin layer of a black substance, possibly a resinous burial material, covering the upper portion of the panel down to the sitter’s mouth.

Romano-Egyptian, probably from Faiyum, Egypt, late 3rd-4th c. CE. Tempera on wood.

12 × 6 × 1/4 in. (30.48 × 15.24 × 0.64 cm)

LACMA, Geffen Gallieries (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, M.71.73.62)

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But can he keep the cool mask? (yes, I know he actually wore a veil, but …)

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This is the one in the Getty, and there’s a similar Parthian rhyton in the #MetMuseum, below (1979.447a, b).

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I missed Augustus’ birthday! He died on the 19th of August, 14 CE, in Nola, Italy. Ironically in the month named after him (by Senate decree in 8 BCE). Here he’s portrayed in his role as Pontifex Maximus, Rome’s high priest. Piety as political propaganda.🏺 #ancientbluesky Palazzo Massimo. 📸 me

Closeup of the Via Labicana Augustus, which depicts the emperor with his head covered, and represented formally dressed in a toga. Near his feet, shoed with the calcei patricii, is the capsa, a container for official documents. The position of the right forearm suggests that the princeps is in the act of performing a sacrifice, holding a sacrificial cup (patera) to pour a libation (not seen in this closeup).

The emperor is in the guise of Pontifex Maximus, an office that he assumed in 12 BCE and that remained an imperial prerogative until the 4th century CE as a sacred sanction to imperial power. The office was part of the new political and religious program promoted by Augustus, who also introduced the cult of the Genius Augusti. The emperor was keen to emphasize the value and significance of the ‘mores maiorum’, which were the basis for his political legitimacy: he is thus represented performing his official religious duties wearing the toga, the traditional garment of the Roman gentleman (cives romanus).

The head, worked as a separate piece, is inserted on the torso and shows realistic features that are somewhat imbued with stylistic elements of Hellenisite portraiture. You can still see visible remains of pigments on the hair, and on the ground.

The statue, generally considered a work of the late Augustan period, should probably be dated to the last decade of the 1st century BCE.

It was found on slopes of the Oppian Hill, in the Via Labicana, in 1910.

Museo Archeologico Romano, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome

Closeup of the veiled head and upper torso of the Via Labicana Augustus statue. Some pigments are still visible to the naked eye - red in his hair, the shadow of dark irises, and quite a bit of red on the ground.

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This very large bronze eagle once proclaimed the might of Rome, possibly from atop a column. It once probably clenched a gilded orb or thunderbolt in its outstretched left talon. The feathers are exceptionally detailed. 🏺 1/ 100-200 CE. #GettyVilla 📸 me

Large bronze statue of an eagle, with wings partially open, and head turned to the viewer's left. The eagle's left leg is raised, probably to hold a globe or thunderbolt. The feathers are carefully delineated with incisions, and take different shapes and forms on the body, head, leg and wings.

Cast in several parts (head and neck; wings made separately and inserted; end of wings made separately and inserted; body; end of tail (now missing). The eagle is far too large to have been an attribute, and it has been suggested that it stood on a column.

The end of the tail and the right foot are missing. The tip of the left wing is completely restored.

Roman, ca. 100-200 CE. Bronze.

104.2 × 78.7 × 76.2 cm (41 × 31 × 30 in.)

Getty Villa Museum, Malibu, California (72.AB.151)

Close-up of the bronze eagle, once a shining golden color, catching the rays of the sun. See the ALT text for the other photo.

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