Its decadence, satiety, and languor [of Roman civilization] interested me. And I kept looking and returning to their wall paintings with their veiled melancholy and their elegant plasticity. I admired the way they used their geology in their art — the sense of mineral, clay. rock, marble, and stone.

In his letter to Alfred H. Barr, Jr. 6 November, 1955; as quoted in the text of 'The Baziotes Memorial Exhibition' and its accompanying catalogue, by Lawrence Alloway; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum 1965, p. 11