Browse Items (167 total)

This statue of Commodus demonstrates his obsession with portraying himself as Hercules. This particular manifestation of Commodus’ megalomania is emphasized at the end of the film The Fall of the Roman Empire, when he wears a lionskin styled after…

This cameo relief of Commodus highlights his attempts to portray himself as a divine figure. The relief contains elements commonly associated with Jupiter, Helios, and Apollo. In the film The Fall of the Roman Empire, as well as in history, Commodus…

Founded in the thirteenth century by Francis of Assisi, one of the ways in which the Franciscan Order differentiated itself from other Catholic orders was by proclaiming a life of corporate (or absolute) poverty. In Pope John XXII’s Cum inter…

Directed by Marshall Herskovitz and released in 1998, Dangerous Beauty is a romance set in Renaissance Venice, with feminist tones, a strong leading lady, and an endless array of beautiful costumes and enchanting Venetian settings. Dangerous Beautyis…

This large mural painting from the fifteenth century, originally in Taby Church in Stockholm, shows Death playing chess with a man, as he does in Bergman's The Seventh Seal. It was painted by Albertus Pictor, a famous late medieval artist (who is…

In this antiphonary, or liturgical book, from Bologna, Italy, St. Francis and St. Clare, who is shown kneeling before him, are wearing the traditional gray habits of the Franciscan Order. They are painted in a historiated initial on a folio showing…

This image, from the fourteenth-century Abrégé des histoires divines found in the Pierpont Morgan Library, shows the coronation of King Arthur performed by a bishop. It is generally accepted that Arthur, though a popular literary figure, was not a…

This is a picture of Dover Castle. King Henry II started its construction in 1180 and it still stands today. Henry spent a large sum of money building and furnishing the castle. Its grandness exemplifies the lavish life that the king liked to live.…

Eilean Donan Castle, one of the main inspirations for castle DunBroch in Brave, was fortified early in the thirteenth century to defend the island against Viking invasions. The castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout the centuries,…

Here is a medieval manuscript of Le Cantar del Mio Cid, which is the basis for the film’s legendary presentation of Rodrigo Díaz’s life and his chivalric feats in El Cid (1961). This poem and and the film valorizes the dedication to one’s duty and…