This painting blends deep piety with scientific observation. Both its architecture and figures were radically new.
Location Country: Italy
Set against gleaming gold, Mary and Christ sit on an intricately carved throne studded with gems.
Cimabue, Maestà
One of the oldest surviving bibles was made in England but has clear visual ties to traditions from the ancient Mediterranean.
Codex Amiatinus, the oldest complete Latin Bible
Pompeii, once called the "City of the Dead," gives a marvelous sense of day-to-day Roman life.
Pompeii, an introduction
Two portraits capture the ambition and impudence of Titian's close friend and publicist.
Titian, two portraits of Pietro Aretino
The rediscovery of ancient Pompeii and Herculaneum and the beginnings of archaeology.
The rediscovery of Pompeii and the other ...
What colorful stone and stark geometry! San Miniato hovers above the Arno river; Pisa Cathedral lies in its marshes.
The Romanesque churches of Tuscany: San Miniato ...
Brotherhoods lent stability to religious and civic life. These wealthy institutions also commissioned paintings.
Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice
To the victor go the spoils? These sculptures were taken by the Byzantines, the Venetians, and Napoleon.
Plunder, War, and the Horses of San ...
Thirty-three feet long, the Codex Borgia records historical, ritual, mythological, and botanical information.
Codex Borgia
This cloth—first woven by a wise spider—sends social messages through a system of specific patterns.
Kente cloth
Gods carry away the dead on a pot looted from a tomb, trafficked out of Italy, bought by the Met, and finally returned.
Euphronios, Sarpedon Krater
Rome’s pagan and Christian pasts merge at San Clemente, where a mosaic advertises the power of the Western Church.
The Basilica of San Clemente, Rome
That hoof, that sword—everything is so close! This chapel gives us a privileged view of a private conversion.
Caravaggio, The Conversion of St. Paul (or ...
Hospitality was key in ancient Rome, and this wall painting shows the gifts that guests may have received.
Still Life with Peaches
This ancient map served as an administrative tool for one of the largest empires in history.
Severan marble plan (Forma Urbis Romae)
When the citizens of Florence looked up at St. Mark, they saw a mirror of their own dignity—and of ancient nobility.
Donatello, St. Mark
An earthquake buried this early Roman church. Recent excavations exposed layers of wall painting.
Santa Maria Antiqua
Romanesque, Gothic, or ancient Greek? Whether you divide this façade by styles or squares, its stones come alive.
Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Night and day, rough and polish—this chapel embodies opposition and traps the viewer in a moment of transition.