BUDDHA and THE VESSEL OF TIME
Hao Sheng, the consulting curator of Asian art, gave the curatorial lecture for the fascinating Buddha | Nature: Five Dialogues on Our Shared World exhibition at the Museum of Fine…
Set Your Stout Hearts to Confront Adversity!
Anyone who knows of Rome will be familiar with Lucilius, Horace, Persius and Juvenal. These great poets wrote satires that have influenced writers for 2,000 years. In this book, John…
Is Shakespeare’s Bloodbath Our Own?
Shakespeare’s first tragedy, initially performed in 1594, is a real bloodbath. Thus, it is fitting that there is a literal bloodbath on the set in this production of Titus Andronicus…
The Choice of Odysseus or Penelope?
Image: Monteverdi This important contribution to Homeric studies is entitled The Choice of Odysseus. Due to reasons I will explain below, I added Penelope to the title in my headline.…
Reading Homer’s Odyssey
Picking up Homer’s Odyssey and reading it ‘cold’ is not a good idea. Reading it is essential, as it (together with The Iliad) is the foundational text of Western civilization,…
The Intoxication of the Ruins of Rome
You may think you know the ruins of ancient Rome, but this book will make you think about them in new ways. Roland Mayer is Emeritus Professor of Classics at…
EXHIBIT OF ANCIENT MARBLES in Ft. Worth
The Torlonia Collection is the most important private collection of Roman marble sculptures in the world. Comprising more 622 works and a wide range of sculptural types and subjects. A…
The Conqueror’s Gift
It is typical for an author to summarise the chapters of a book in the Introduction. Sort of like a film teaser, where you get a glimpse of the best…
THE PRISM OF BEAUTY: Ancient Greeks and the Gods
Image: A Classical sculpture in Florence “It is beautiful; it has no meaning,” the French Nobel laureate André Gide remarked on Aristide Malliol’s sculpture The Mediterranean when it was shown…
When MONSTROSITY DEFINED HUMANITY
While this is a fine synthesis of the ancient Greek experience, it must be said that there is little ‘new’ in this book by Jennifer Roberts. The target audience is…