ROME—A fresco that depicts what might be an ancestor of the Italian pizza has been found on the wall of an house in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, Italy’s Culture Ministry said on Tuesday. Archaeologists presume that the flat bread depicted in the painting, next to a wine goblet, may have been eaten with…

Through his lens, Dutch photographer Roman Robroek, 34, has captured the forgotten splendor of once-glorious abandoned buildings, offering us temporal insight into our present and future. For a dozen years, Robroek has toured hordes of abandoned sites across Europe—everywhere from old Soviet power stations, to decaying Italian chapels, and even deserted homes near the bomb…

For almost four years it was a common sight on Vatican Hill. Between eight and a dozen men at their various tasks: Mixing plaster, using pick-axes to give a ceiling the rough surface which helped plaster stick, applying plaster and painting it. Does that sound like an ordinary construction job? It’s actually how one of…

The Eye of the Beholder: Reflecting On the Purpose of Beauty and Art We’ve all heard the phrase “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” but what does this mean and does it hold weight? In this series, we will take a casual look at the philosophical debates concerning our experiences with beauty and…

Their artworks are icons of Italy and their names are among the most well-known in the art world: Donatello, Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Michelangelo. Eager viewers stop and snap photos of the instantly-recognizable paintings, sculptures, and buildings. Displayed in museums around the world, the immortal paintings invite a popular following. What remains obscured in the history books,…