 |
| Ancient Rome Theatrical Masks AD 100-200 mosaic Musei Capitolini, Rome |
 |
| Ancient Rome Mosaic of the Doves AD 100 200 mosaic Musei Capitolini, Rome |
"But the humanists' knowledge of classical art rested on a different basis from their much more direct knowledge of classical literature. Petrarch's interest in the ruins of Rome is well known and very impressive. He knew these and he also knew a number of classical accounts of art, particularly Pliny and probably Vitruvius. It was very difficult for the early humanists, who knew no classical paintings and relatively few and late classical sculptures, to harmonize the fragments they could see with the literary accounts they could read. It is not surprising that they talked of the latter in some dissociation from immediate visual experience. "
– Michael Baxandall, from Giotto and the Orators: Humanist observers of painting in Italy and the discovery of pictorial composition, 1350-1450 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971)
 |
| Ancient Rome Colossal Head of Trajan 2nd century AD marble British Museum |
 |
| Ancient Rome Seated male figure 1st century BC marble Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Ancient Rome Torso fragment of Centaur 1st-2nd century AD rosso antico marble Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Ancient Rome Torso of Hadrian AD 130-140 marble British Museum |
 |
| Ancient Rome Emperor Trebonianus Gallus AD 251-253 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| André Claudian Giroux Ruin of Roman Aqueduct ca. 1826-29 oil on paper Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Robert Macpherson Arch of Drusus, Rome 1860s albumen silver print Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
 |
| Hieronymus Cock Ruins of Colosseum, Rome 1551 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Ancient Rome Ceremonial Pillar with Snake and Wreath 1st-2nd century AD marble Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Hendrik Goltzius Pasquino Statue, Rome 1590-91 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
 |
| Ancient Rome Head of Diogenes late 2nd century AD marble Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
 |
| Ancient Rome Head of a lost statue 2nd-3rd century AD bronze Getty Museum, Los Angeles |