A volume that retraces the story of Queen Zenobia and her reign, presenting the elegant archaeological finds from Palmyra.
[Zenobia. The dream of a queen of the Orient] The catalogue of the exhibition at Palazzo Bricherasio reconstructs the importance of a legendary figure of the Eastern Empire, Queen Zenobia, and her land, Palmyra, which she ruled in the 3rd century AD. The exhibition gathered together the eloquent archaeological remains – sculptures and mosaic fragments, everyday objects, jewelry, coins – that illustrate the great importance of her reign, in which Hellenistic-Roman culture was joined with oriental influences. Palmyra, a city on the caravan route, was an obligatory stop for trade with the Orient. This explains its prosperity, which reached great heights under Zenobia, as demonstrated by the sculptural and architectural relics seen in the exhibition. The show presents pieces of great value from the main museums of Syria and the Archaeological Service of Latium. Also worthy of note are the reliefs from the bequest of Federico Zeri to the Vatican Museums, and a rare sculptural relief from the Museum of Oriental Art of Rome. The exhibition also presents, for the first time, three of the twelve precious Flemish tapestries of the Zenobia cycle from Palazzo Mansi in Lucca, dating back to the first half of the 1600s, and described in a separate essay in the volume.