Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

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Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

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Statue of Trajan, Minturno, Italy, 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum, Naples.

Source: 01 Statue of Trajan

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

02 Relief with Harbor Scene and Personification of the Port

Source: 02 Relief with Harbor Scene and Personification of the Port

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Statue of Sabina as Ceres, the Baths of Neptune, Ostia, Italy, 2nd century, marble, Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica, Rome.

Source: 03 Statue of Sabina as Ceres

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Colossal Head of a Barbarian with Tall Pileus, Rome, Italy, 117–38, marble, Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

Source: 04 Colossal Head Barbarian

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Group with Two Greyhounds, Villa of Antoninus Pius, Monte Cagnolo, Italy, 2nd century, marble, Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

Source: 05 Group with Two Greyhounds, Villa of Antoninus Pius, Monte Cagnolo, Italy, 2nd century (1)

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Mosaic Pavement with Fish, House of the Severi, Rome, Italy, 2nd century, mosaic, National Roman Museum, Rome.

Source: 06 Mosaic Pavement with Fish

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Colossal Portrait of Plotina, Rome, Italy, 2nd century, marble, Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

Source: 07 Colossal Portrait of Plotina, Rome, Italy, 2nd century (1)

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Sepulchral Relief with Circus, Rome, Italy, 2nd century, marble, Gregorian Profane Museum, Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

Source: 08 Sepulchral Relief with Circus, Rome, Italy

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Colossal Portrait of Trajan, Rome, Italy, 2nd century, marble, Chiaramonti Museum, Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

Source: 9 Colossal Portrait of Trajan, Rome, Italy, 2nd century

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Achilles at Sciro, Italy, 1st century, fresco, National Archeological Museum, Naples.

Source: 10 Achilles at Sciro

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Portrait of Hadrian, Italy, early 2nd century, marble, National Roman Museum, Rome.

Source: 11 Portrait of Hadrian

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Relief of the Haterii with Monuments, Rome, Italy, 100-110, marble, Gregorian Profane Museum, Vatican Museums, Vatican City.

Source: 12 Relief of the Haterii with Monuments

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Relief with Cupids Performing Sacrifice of Bulls (Tauroctony), Rome, Italy, early 2nd century, marble, National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Source: 13 Relief with Cupids Performing Sacrifice of Bulls (Tauroctony)

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Selene and Endymion, Pompeii, Italy, 1st century, fresco, National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Source: 14 Selene and Endymion

Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through January 25, 2026

Cup, Rome, Italy, 1st-2nd century, glass, Roman National Museum.

Source: 15 Cup

Intown recommends an exceptionally fine exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. “Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times” is a major exhibition bringing unprecedented loans of Roman antiquities to the U.S. from the renowned collections of Italian museums

The exhibition runs through January 25, 2026 and then will be presented at the Saint Louis Museum of Art in March 2026. 

The extensive presentation brings to life the extraordinary reign of Trajan, who ruled the Roman empire at its height; it is the first major exhibition in the U.S. dedicated to Trajan and his era. 

“This is truly a rare opportunity for U.S. audiences to experience spectacular objects from this glorious era of the Roman Empire,” commented Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH. “We are enormously grateful to our colleagues in Rome, Naples and Vatican City for lending these treasures to us and broadening the appreciation of Italy’s cultural heritage.” 

Trajan commanded the Roman Empire between 98 and 117 CE. A soldier-emperor, he was the second of the so-called “Five Good Emperors” of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty; his military and imperial successes launched him to popular fame. Born Marcus Ulpius Traianus into an elite family in what is now Andalusia, Spain, Trajan became the first of Rome’s emperors born outside of present-day Italy. As emperor, 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. 

The exhibition will explore how art was used during Trajan’s era: privately, in the houses of the elite, and publicly, in the forums and public buildings as propaganda to promote the empire’s values as it was expanded to its greatest extent. The objects on view will tell the many stories – cultural, social, political, and economic – of life in imperial Rome, immersing visitors in the majesty of Trajan’s world at the turn of the second century CE. Featured will be rarely displayed marble portrait busts and statues of the men and women who shaped the Roman world of Trajan’s dynasty, as well as vivid frescoes and ornate furnishings from the villas of Pompeii. Lending historical and visual context to these remarkable artworks in Houston will be a recreation of a section of Trajan’s Column– a towering pillar with a spiraling narrative frieze that is one of the few monumental sculptures to have survived the fall of Rome. Its 155 scenes and 2,662 carved figures depict two major campaigns against the Dacian kingdom between 102 and 106 CE, Trajan’s crowning military triumph; the vignettes unfold in a frieze the length of the 100-foot column. 

The exhibition features some 160 objects, many on view in the U.S. for the first time. Lenders include the Museo Nazionale Romano, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the Parco Archeologico di Ostia and the Musei Vaticani. 

Organization and Funding 

The exhibition—in Houston, Art and Life in Imperial Rome: Trajan and His Times and in St. Louis, Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan—is curated by Dr. Lucrezia Ungaro, former director of the Imperial Forums Museum, Rome. 

At Houston, the exhibition is co‐organized by StArt and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and is on view through January 25, 2026. 

At St. Louis, the exhibition is co-organized by StArt and the Saint Louis Art Museum, where it will be on view from March 14 to August 16, 2026. 

Lead foundation underwriting is provided by: 

Kinder Foundation

Major support is provided by: 

See Also

Arts + Events September & October 2019

Jerold B. Katz Foundation 

Generous support is provided by: 

The Favrot Fund 

1. D. Anderson Foundation 

Ambassador Tilman J. Fertitta 

Consulate General of Italy in Houston and The Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles

www.mfah.org