Ancient Splendor

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.  

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.  

Highlights of the exhibition include an impressive display of marble portraits of the imperial family and the more-than-seven-foot-tall Statue of Trajan (from Minturno). Lending historical and visual context to these remarkable artworks are life-size 3D-printed scenes from Trajan’s Column—a triumphal, towering pillar with a spiraling narrative frieze that remains one of the greatest achievements of Roman art. 

Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan is co-organized by StArt and Saint Louis Art Museum. The exhibition is curated by Lucrezia Ungaro, archeological curator of the city of Rome.