Recently in Photos, Video, Audio Category

From the Khan Academy series. Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace), 13-9 B.C.E. Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris & Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

Not new, but I hadn't seen it before:

The official Ara Pacis Museum website has a gallery of images from the Mimmo Paladino, Brian Eno exhibit. Nice photos but too small!

Can anyone shed some light on what this is:

Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by World Architecture News, and Mahalie & Uglynoid

Just came across another batch of photos from the Valentino exhibit at a site called "eternally cool". Some nice shots in there.

I think the show is over now, but there are still blog postings coming out with photos - here is a new one we came across with some different photos that what we have seen before.

Here is a really good video for the Ara Pacis Museum:

Here is some video of the Valentino show at the Ara Pacis museum (warning: if you are in a cubicle at work - it's accompanied by loud music). We have not made it down to Rome yet to see the exhibit in person, but we are hoping to before the show is over!

Another video - really a slide show - this one accompanied by some really corny music!

The interview is in Italian only:

Here is a really stunning slide show from the International Herald Tribune of the Valentino exhibit at the Ara Pacis Museum. I thought from the news reports that the museum was just going to be used for an event, but it looks like this exhibit will be in place until late October.

Photo credit Christopher Moore for the International Herald Tribune

A couple of nice new apparently early morning photos of the Ara Pacis Museum from a blog called "Rome Photo". In the first there appears to be some new sort of standing sign at the top of the steps - wonder if this is permanent? The second one is an interesting shot from the river side - you can see the Ara Pacis within and what looks like an old woman mopping the floor!

Interesting new photo on flickr of some restoration being done to the altar itself.

Not sure about the choice of the 4 panel view...

This looks like a good site to visit if you are into architecture: pushpullbar.com

There is a very long and detailed post up about the Ara Pacis Museum, with lots of photos and information.

A blog post from someone who thinks the Ara Pacis Museum is a smashing success:

"Richard Meier, you rock my world."

A couple of nice photos too.

This is very interesting - some propaganda from Mussolini at (what I assume) is the opening of the then new (1930's?) Ara Pacis Museum:

Some background from the NY Times:

The Ara Pacis was excavated from its original site and carted in pieces a short distance to its present location in the 1930's. Mussolini reinstalled the altar in a new glass-and-stone building by Morpurgo next to the ancient tomb of the Emperor Augustus (63 B.C. to A.D. 14), implying the dictator's supposed bond with ancient emperor-conquerors. The symbolic link between a modern Fascist state and a heroic classical past was fortified by the flanking buildings, with their abstracted facades and shadowy arcades.

Here is a new photo from a blogger in Rome called "romedailyphoto". Looks like he was up early.

Here is a minute of video of the Ara Pacis Museum and the Altar, set to something similar to elevator music (not sure why..):

This is probably the best overall picture I took during my visit back in November. It was hard to get a picture without people and with enough light - there is a no flash rule. They were also doing work (cleaning) inside the altar on the left, so half of the steps in front were roped off.

NPR has a 5 minute audio report on-line about the Ara Pacis Museum. It contains some interesting news but sounds over dramatized by the reporter - of course it dwells on the "controversy" of the building. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for the architect - love it or hate it, the building can not escape that conversation. There are some snippets from an interview with Meier and from some Italians who are both pro and con the project. It's worth a listen.

Here is a really well done website, Images of the Ara Pacis, with detailed text and many photographs of the Ara Pacis. The site appears to be the work of a student at Bluffton University. Unfortunately for her the lighting conditions seemed to be a little less than optimal the day she took her pictures and some of them are just dark overall (you may take photos in the museum but no flash is allowed), but the site is still a great resource.