The exhibition Roma: La Pittura di un Impero, which opened this week in Rome at the eighteenth century Scuderie del Quirinale exhibition space, may come as a bit of a shock to afficionados of the classic Roman style. These ancient realist paintings look more like the works of 18th century masters than the ancient Romans. Think of Roman art and you might think of marble statues, imposing architecture and intricate mosaics: the sculpture of the Dying Gaul at the Musei Capitolini or the Alexander Mosaic from Pompeii are just two examples of the thousands of famous Roman artworks that are…
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Amid all the excitement over the return of HBO’s Rome to our cinemas in 2011, as well as ongoing whispers about a remake of I, Claudius, it is only natural that our thoughts turn to those Roman emperors immortalised in a way they would never have dreamed possible. In Rome, Pullo and Vorenus stole the limelight but Ciarán Hinds was a dark and charismatic Julius Caesar. So how does he compare to other screen versions of the character? Rex Harrison was overshadowed in the role in 1963 by Richard Burton’s Mark Anthony in Cleopatra, and who could out-beef John Gavin’s…
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If seems that Britain (the Hoard made it to ‘most viewed’ on the BBC website today) – and Heritage Key (mine is definitely not the first blogpost on the topic) – can’t get enough of the Mercian Treasure baptised ‘the Staffordshire Hoard’. Realising what an incredible find this is – or standard archaeological procedure? – Birmingham University Archaeology published the actual unearthing of the collection of Anglo-Saxon hoarded wealth, at that point still looking more like little stones than the actual gems they are. In the video you see the archaeologists carefully searching the sand, digging up the precious artefacts… but…
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Salima Ikram Leading Expert on Animals in Ancient Egypt Professor Salima Ikram is one of the world’s leading authorities on animals in Ancient Egypt, and has published several books about the culture, which she has loved since childhood. Dr Ikram currently holds the post of Professor of Egyptology at Cairo’s American University, and frequently appears in magazines and on television to discuss Egypt. She is also a grantee of the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration. Born in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1965, Dr Ikram studies Egyptology and Archaeology at Pennsylvania’s Bryn Mawr College. She then earned a M.Phil.…
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David Oakley’s photostream is a complete joy to scan through, just for the beautiful simplicity of the effects he applies to his photographs in Adobe Lightroom to give such a unique style. I’ve selected an image of the Terracotta Army Museum in Xi’an, China to represent exactly how gorgeous this technique turns out. It looks as if it’s been inked out on paper, such is the power of post-processing software these days – it’s incredible the various effects that can be achieved given talent with a computer and graphics editing software. Anyone can be an artist without ever needing to…
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Take an image which is interesting enough as it is, showing great craftsmanship and attention to detail as in the construction of the Treasury of Atreus – a domed tomb (also known as a tholos tomb). Probably the most impressive of the tombs in the Mycenae region, Greece, the Treasury of Atreus’s ceiling has been beautifully photographed by Dave Wheatley, who has then made the image even more interesting by switching it to a Negative effect. This creates the effect that this is no longer a mosaic of bricks, but an image which sparkles to life with a shimmering of…
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A skull and gold-inlaid brooch ‘on a par with the Sutton Hoo burial‘, found by an amateur metal detecting enthusiast, could prove to belong to a 1,500 year-old Saxon princess, experts are claiming. The incredible haul came to light when Chris Bayston, 56, noticed something during a rally with the Weekend Wanderers Metal Detectors Club on farmland near West Hanney, Oxfordshire. On further inspection Mr Bayston found the skull and copper alloy brooch; circular in shape, covered in gold and studded with garnets and coral. “I lifted a shovel load of muck out and as I threw it down I…
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Renowned photographer Sandro Vannini has spent several years capturing beautiful images of the treasures held at the Cairo Museum in Egypt, and Heritage Key brings the results exclusively on the internet. Although it was the Golden Mask of Tutankhamun which captivated the world when KV62 was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, Tutankhamun’s tomb was adorned with several thousands of other artefacts including the External Trappings of the Mummy, sewn into the linen bandages. But why make that expensive trip to Cairo when you can see Sandro’s beautiful photography of them, or even view them in 3D in our King…
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The fight goes on for the repatriation of Australian Aboriginal remains stored in museums across the world, with two artworks now added to the list of artifacts campaigers want returned Down Under. A delegation from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in Hobart is in the UK this week to lobby institutions among them the Wellcome Trust, and Oxford and Cambridge universities to return the skulls, bones and other Aboriginal remains held in their collections. This follows their success earlier this month in having the remains of a skull from a Tasmanian Aborigine returned to Australia from the National Museum of Scotland.…
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Penn Museums world-renowned Mesopotamian Collection from Ur is the centrepiece of a new long-term exhibition exploring Iraqs Ancient Cultural Heritage that opens October 25th.The exhibition will contain field notes of previous expeditions to the region, photographs, archival documents as well as more than 220 extraordinary ancient artefacts unearthed at the excavation. Famous artefacts such as the Ram-Caught-in-the-Thicket, the Great Lyre with a gold and lapis lazuli bull’s head, and Queen Puabi’s jewelry, as well as her headdress and other treasures, will be on display at ‘Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery‘. In 1922 – the same year that Howard…