Minerva Magazine 202
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Making a splash
How did water go from being something to fear to a place of privilege in Greece and Rome? Karen Eva Carr plunges into the cultural history of swimming.
Secrets of their craft
Many metalworkers and ceramicists in Renaissance Europe seemingly had no qualms about killing a lizard – or other animal – for their art. Pamela Smith investigates the intriguing practice of life-casting that turned nature into art, and why artisan authors recorded practical knowledge in words.
Aztecs: where eagles dare
Buried beneath Mexico City lie the remains of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and its sacred centre. Lucia Marchini reports on an exhibition investigating wealth, worship, and empire in pre-Hispanic Mexico.
Thebes: city of myths
Sparta is famous for its warrior tradition, Athens for its intellectual and artistic achievement. But what of Thebes? As ancient historian Paul Cartledge explains, Thebes too had a most distinctive image.
China: in the beginning
Chinese rulers held the disciplines of astronomy and cosmology in high regard for millennia. Dalu Jones
previews an exhibition of exquisite objects exploring the connections between Heaven and Earth.
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Saving Notre Dame
When flames ripped through the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris in April 2019, the world feared for its survival. Now a small team of scientists is working towards its restoration and discovering secrets along the way. Christa Lesté-Lasserre spoke to some of them about their work and its challenges.
Painting Antiquity: visions of Egypt
Three Victorian artists – Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Edward Poynter, and Edwin Long – helped to shape our image of the distant past. Stephanie Moser describes how their passion for archaeology and love of domestic objects produced a wealth of detailed, descriptive paintings.
Domus Aurea: the golden and the grotesque
Nero’s spectacular palace in Rome, the Domus Aurea or ‘Golden House’, was rediscovered in the Renaissance. Dalu Jones describes how the opulent designs of its ancient halls inspired some of the most celebrated artists of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Chinese Museums: the lure of the East
China’s marvellous ancient treasures are displayed in a number of venerable provincial museums throughout this vast and richly historical country. Seeking expert guidance, we asked Cathy Giangrande and Miriam Clifford, co-authors of two books on the subject – CHINA: museums and the Chinese Museums Association Guide – to choose six of the best archaeological museums and sites to visit when touring China
Last Supper in Pompeii
The extraordinary levels of preservation at the relatively ordinary Roman city of Pompeii and other sites in the Bay of Naples, where the eruption of Mount Vesuvius devastatingly interrupted the inhabitants as they went about their daily lives, provide remarkable insights into the production, distribution, and conspicuous consumption of food and wine.
Mistress of time travel: an interview with Caroline Lawrence
Best-selling children’s writer Caroline Lawrence tells Diana Bentley where she finds the inspiration for her pacy, impeccably crafted novels and why young and old alike continue to be fascinated by the ancient world
The fabulous Mariano Fortuny
Fortuny’s designs were hugely successful among the fashionable elite of the early 20th century, and admired by intellectuals and femmes du monde alike.
Roman women: following the female line
Guy de la Bédoyère tracks the Roman women who were held in high esteem because they exemplified the virtues of the state and thereby ensured the succession of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
Classical buzz: bees in the Roman world
Lucy Shackleton lifts the lid on bee-keeping in the ancient world and sees how Virgil’s presentation of bees symbolises the role of the collective over the individual in Augustan Rome
The Rothschild Pentateuch
The text contains features that indicate it may have been written in France for Jewish emigrés who had been expelled from England in 1290.
The wrong Caesars
As a dozen Renaissance gilded silver treasures, the Aldobrandini Tazze or Twelve Caesars, go on show at Waddesdon Manor, Professor Mary Beard unscrews the puzzle of how the Roman emperors and dishes got mixed up
A sense of place
Using the unlikely site of Butrint in Albania as a prime example, Richard Hodges explains how the work of archaeologists defines them as placemakers
Lawrence Alma-Tadema: the archaeologist of artists
Dominic Green looked at the sensual paintings of the acclaimed Victorian artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema on show at Leighton House in London.
Picasso – half man, half bull
Picasso never visited Greece, let alone Crete. He didn’t need to do so. He re-created it on paper. The drawings and prints in our show reveal how Picasso evoked the ancient world and peopled it with gorgeous girls who resembled his mistresses.
Much more on Henry Moore
Dr Hannah Higham traces the shifting influences of the ancient world on the work of Henry Moore – from Sumerian art to Greek Classicism
The colossus of Rome
Dalu Jones discovers what happened to the largest amphitheatre in the world after the brutal public fights and barbaric contests ceased.