The Lagoon of Peace

Jorge Alberto Smith Ellas

This 2021 oil and acrylic painting evokes serenity and ancestral rhythm. A golden twilight bathes the rural scene, where everyday life unfolds by a calm lagoon. The composition speaks to Colombia’s Pacific and Caribbean heritage, honoring peace through stillness, memory, and connection to the land.

Main Cloister Garden, Convent of San Francisco

Laid out in the 16th c., this quadrangular garden served as the contemplative heart of the Franciscan convent in Quito. Palm trees soar over geometric boxwood paths and a central fountain, reflecting the fusion of European monastic design with Andean landscape. A living metaphor of Eden, it nourished both body and spirit.

Calle de la Juventud at Night

This cobbled street in Santa Fe de Antioquia comes alive after dark with cafés, bars, and locals enjoying the cool evening air. Colonial balconies and celosías (wooden lattice windows) reflect Spanish architectural legacy, while string lights and laughter infuse the scene with contemporary vitality.

Triumph of Galatea (detail)

Raphael

This portion (1511–12) shows Galatea, the sea nymph of Greek myth, riding a dolphin-drawn shell chariot. Around her, tritons and nereids embody the vibrant energy of the sea. Raphael’s design celebrates Galatea’s beauty and grace, while capturing the joyful movement of the marine procession.

Ashurbanipal Strikes

This 7th-c. BC relief from Nineveh depicts King Ashurbanipal in a chariot, spearing a lion. The dynamic carving symbolizes royal power and valor. The lion’s defiant stance, even in defeat, highlights the king’s dominance over nature’s mightiest creature. Such scenes reinforced the king’s divine right to rule, portraying him as a protector and conqueror of chaos, a central theme in Assyrian royal ideology.

Abundance

This mosaic (2nd–3rd cc.) depicts fruits, fish, and birds, symbolizing abundance and domestic prosperity. Mosaics like this adorned Roman villa floors, reflecting the wealth and refined tastes of their owners. They celebrated nature’s pleasures and the household’s connection to the empire’s bounty, serving as decorative elements and cultural statements that emphasized agriculture and trade’s role in sustaining Roman society.

Fantastical Rhinoceros

This mural detail (c. 1590) depicts a rhinoceros modeled on Dürer’s 1515 woodcut, which became the European archetype of the beast despite anatomical inaccuracies. Its armored plates and dragon-like expression reflect colonial-era fascination with exotic fauna, filtered through Renaissance imagination and limited firsthand knowledge of African and Asian animals.

Leda and the Swan

Fernando Botero

This 1996 bronze sculpture reinterprets the myth in which Zeus, king of the gods, seduces or assaults Leda, Queen of Sparta, in the form of a swan. From their union, according to legend, were born Helen of Troy and other heroic figures. Botero’s voluptuous forms soften the myth’s violence, transforming it into a surreal, sensual tableau. His signature style invites reflection on desire, divinity, and the boundary between seduction and power.

Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun

This mask (c. 1323 BC) covered the face of the deceased boy pharaoh Tutankhamun. Fashioned from solid gold and inlaid with colored glass and semi-precious stones, it bears the cobra and vulture emblems of unified Egypt. The idealized features and protective spells inscribed on the back ensured divine identity and safe passage into the afterlife.

Pectoral with Face and Ornamental Discs

This elaborate Tairona pectoral (900–1600 AD) depicts a human face adorned with large earspools and a decorative nose pendant, framed by twin crescent forms engraved with sacred motifs. Likely worn by a chief or priest, it conveyed divine authority and ancestral power during ceremonial rituals in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Mosaic of the Seasons with Cornucopias

This Roman floor mosaic (4th–5th cc. AD) from Le Capannelle on the Via Appia depicts the Four Seasons personified, each framed by cornucopias and birds. It symbolizes the eternal cycle of nature, fertility, and abundance, central to Roman cosmology and villa life. The Seasons, shown with symbolic attributes, reflect Romans’ reverence for nature and its impact on agriculture and daily life.

Nave and Main Altar

This nave (17th c.) is clad almost entirely in gold leaf, with barrel vaults, arches, and altarpieces covered in dense relief. Jesuit designers used gilded wood, painted panels, and sculpted saints to structure processional space and focus attention on the main altar. The repetition of arches and mudejar patterns shows how European Baroque forms merged with local carving traditions.

Sunset Among the Stone Pines

At dusk, the iconic umbrella pines of Villa Borghese cast delicate silhouettes across the Roman sky. These Mediterranean trees shape the park’s timeless beauty, blending nature and history. Planted since the 17th c., they symbolize endurance and grace in the Eternal City’s beloved green heart.

Marble Relief of Antinous as Silvanus

This marble relief (130–138) depicts Antinous, Emperor Hadrian’s beloved, as Silvanus, the Roman god of woods and fields. After Antinous’s tragic death in the Nile, Hadrian deified him, sparking a widespread cult and commemorative artworks. Here, Antinous harvests grapes—a pastoral symbol of Silvanus—while his idealized features reflect the Greek classical style that Hadrian promoted. Restored in the 18th c., the relief preserves the elegant fusion of a Roman deity with Greek aesthetics.

The Rape of Proserpina

Bernini

In this masterful marble (1621–22), Bernini captures Pluto’s violent abduction of Proserpina—an allegory for the changing seasons from Roman myth. Her twisting body and anguished face contrast Pluto’s force, while Cerberus, the underworld’s three-headed hound, reinforces the drama. At just 23, Bernini infused the stone with breathless motion and tactile realism, anchoring the Borghese legacy in Baroque brilliance.