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Location City: Naples

Statuette, 1st century C.E., ivory, originally from India, found at Pompeii, Italy, 24 cm high (Museo Nazionale, Naples) — In 1938, an excavation at the ancient Roman city of Pompeii revealed a small carved ivory of Indian origin.

An Indian ivory statuette in Pompeii

by Dr. Arathi Menon

Alexander Mosaic, c. 100 B.C.E., tessera mosaic from the House of the Faun, Pompeii, 8 feet 11 inches x 16 feet 9 inches (this Roman floor mosaic may be based on a lost Hellenistic painting by Philoxenos of Eretria, The Battle of Issus, c. 315 B.C.E.), Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples. — Sources tell us that painting was the Greek’s finest art form: is this a hint at what we’re missing?

Alexander Mosaic from the House of the ...

by Jessica Mingoia

martini grid — Simone Martini’s magnificent altarpiece of Saint Louis of Toulouse projects a legacy of sacred Angevin succession, a record of international exchange, and the story of a Franciscan saint

Simone Martini, Saint Louis of Toulouse

by Claire Jensen

Still Life with Peaches (left), two dates, a silver tray with prunes, dried figs and dates with a glass of red wine (center), and branch of Peaches, Fourth Style wall painting from Herculaneum, Italy, c. 62-69 C.E., fresco, 14 x 13 1/2 inches (Archaeological Museum, Naples) — Hospitality was key in ancient Rome, and this wall painting shows the gifts that guests may have received.

Still Life with Peaches

by Dr. Lea Cline

Farnese Hercules — Weary from his labors, Hercules leans on his club, with hints of his heroic trials hidden in plain sight.

Lysippos, Farnese Hercules

by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker

Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer) or The Canon, c. 450-40 B.C.E., ancient Roman marble copy found in Pompeii of the lost bronze original, 211 cm, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli — For the ancient Greeks, the human body was perfect. Explore this example of the mathematical source of ideal beauty.

Polykleitos, Doryphoros (Spear-Bearer)

by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker