Images

Painting by Vasily Polenov (1882). Oil on canvas. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

A detail of the celebrated Aztec double-headed serpent. It is made from wood covered in turquoise mosaic, spondylus (red) and conch (white) shell. The eyes would have been rendered with inlay, probably of iron pyrite. The piece is believed...

The states during the Western Zhou period (1046-771 BCE) in China.

The Persephone Sarcophagus is on display in the Aachen, Germany Cathedral Treasury, and may have once held the bones of Charlemagne (d. 814 CE). The sarcophagus depicts "The Rape of Persephone," and was constructed in Rome sometime in the...

The Rosetta Stone is an incomplete grey and pink granodiorite stela dating from 196 BCE which presents a priestly decree concerning King Ptolemy V of Egypt. The text is in three different versions: Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek. The stone...

An Egyptian funerary stele of Ankh Hapy with an aramaic inscription. Limestone, from Memphis, 27th Dynasty, 525-404 BCE. (Vatican Museums, Rome)

The birth of Aphrodite from the Ludovisi Throne. Two Horai (divinities of nature and the seasons) assist the goddess. The piece, made from marble from Thasos, was in fact part of an altar. 460-450 BCE. (Palazzo Altemps, Rome)

These bronze hands would have decorated the end beams of a Roman ship. They were placed at the end of beams running parallel with the ship's long axis, two either side and with the arm horizontal and thumb pointing upwards. They were believed...

A bronze wolf which would have decorated the lengthwise beams on a Roman ship. The wolf was made using the lost-wax technique and dates to between 37 and 41 CE. The ring had no function other than decorative, used on occasions to hang garlands...

Statue of a Bodhisattva (someone who is on the way to obtaining enlightenment) from a Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, a region where the Buddhist Lokottaravāda school (which emerged from the Mahasanghika school) were known to be prominent...