Nathaniel Jones studied Classics and Art History at Grinnell College and received his Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University.
His primary research focuses on the intersections of artistic production, art theory, and social practice in the ancient world. His first book explores the representation of panel painting within Roman mural ensembles of the first centuries BCE and CE, arguing that such depictions functioned as meta-pictorial reflections on the ethical and aesthetic value of art in the Roman world. A second book project seeks to examine the intertwined temporal and spatial aspects of Roman art in a variety of media, from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity. Further areas of research interest include ancient collecting practices, ancient perspective, repetition and replication in ancient art, the development of Greek and Roman art-historical thought, connoisseurship, and the reception of the classical world.