Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Vatican Museums: Hadrian’s Contributions




One thing I’m much more aware of now than I was on my first trip to Rome in the 1980s, is how much stuff the Church appropriated from the Romans. So I was not particularly surprised to learn that some of my favorite pieces of sculpture in the Museum were from Hadrian’s Villa: this lion, one of two; the giant pinecone; and the Bacchus-like spigot.

No comments: