Ancient Splendor Roman Art in the Time of Trajan

Majestic marble sculptures and vivid frescoes, along with mosaics, glass vessels, and bronze artifacts, vividly chronicle life at the height of Rome’s empire in Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan. The exhibition speaks to the enduring power of art as a political and social tool, showcasing how the emperor Trajan invested in art and architecture to shape civic life in the ancient Roman world.

The exhibition brings unprecedented loans—most of which have never before left Italy—to the United States from the renowned antiquities collections of the Vatican, Ostia Antica, the National Roman Museum, and the Naples National Archaeological Museum.

Lending historical and visual context to the artworks is a life-size 3D-printed scene from Trajan’s Column—a triumphal, towering pillar with a spiraling narrative frieze that remains one of the greatest achievements of Roman art. Four scent stations—developed by Alexy Karenowska, director of technology at the Institute for Digital Archaeology—are throughout the galleries, showcasing the smells of ancient Rome. Scents range from rose to garum, a fermented fish sauce, and visitors have the option of smelling them by lifting the lid to scent boxes. Ancient Splendor also features a soundscape. Created by musician Chris Cundy, the soundscape brings ancient Roman baths to life through field recordings made at the Roman Baths, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bath, England.

A soldier and an emperor who ruled Rome from 98 to 117 CE, Trajan was the second of the “Five Good Emperors” of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. His military and imperial successes launched him to popular fame. He granted citizenship and the rights that came with it to people from the far-reaching provinces that his forces conquered, expanding and fundamentally changing the concept of what it meant to be Roman.

The exhibition is curated by Lucrezia Ungaro, archaeological curator of the city of Rome.

Credit: Overview from museum website

Image crewdit:  “Relief of the Haterii with Monuments”