John R. Clarke

John R. Clarke is Regents Professor of Art History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Texas. He has worked for over forty years on ancient Italy (100 BCE-300 CE), with a focus on how art reflected the tastes and beliefs of the Romans. His earlier books examined floor mosaics and the decoration of houses and villas. In the 1990s he began to analyze how visual representations can reveal Roman attitudes toward all of the practices of everyday life. Two of his books look at so-called erotic art to understand Roman sexuality; two others, Art in the Lives of Ordinary Romans, and Roman Life, examine how ordinary people expressed their identity through art. And there's a book on laughter. In 2006, with the support of the Italian Ministry of Culture, John assembled a team of 46 scholars--including himself--to study the art and archaeology of two amazing Roman villas near Pompeii, at a site called Oplontis. One is a luxury villa with stunning wall paintings and sculptures; the other a busy wine-bottling emporium. The Oplontis Project publications are mostly available as open-access e-books, except for the catalogue of an exhibition that toured the United States in 2016, called Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis near Pompeii. John lives with his husband, Alejandro Herrera, in Austin, Texas.