Adriano Aymonino is senior lecturer in art history at the University of Buckingam.

Wall panel in opus sectile (c. 394), from a Roman house outside the Porta Marina, Ostia. Museo dell’Alto Medioevo, Rome

Vein glorious: an epic history of marble, reviewed

For millennia, marble was taken to be a gleaming reflection of the heavens – and, in Fabio Barry’s new book, it regains its divine mysteries

20 Feb 2021