PALAZZO ALTEMPS COLLECTION
1. Athena Parthenos
The 1st-century BCE Greek sculptor Antioco carved this statue to match the most famed sculpture in antiquity, the long-lost Athena in Athens’ Parthenon.
2. “Grande Ludovisi” Sarcophagus
This mid-3rd-century CE sarcophagus, deeply carved and remarkably well-preserved, shows the Romans victorious over the barbarian Ostrogoth hordes.
3. Orestes and Electra
This 1st-century CE statue was carved by Menelaus, an imitator of the great Greek artist Praxiteles. The scraps of 15th-century fresco nearby depict some wedding gifts from the marriage of Girolamo Riario and Caterina Sforza.
4. Garden of Delights Loggia
The loggia frescoes (c. 1595) are a catalogue of the exotic fruits, plants, and animals then being imported from the New World.
5. Dionysus with Satyr
Imperial Rome was in love with Greek sculpture, producing copies such as this grouping of Dionysus, a satyr, and a panther.
6. Ludovisi Throne
This set of 5th-century BCE reliefs came to Rome from a Calabrian Greek colony and were discovered in the 19th century.
7. Apollo Playing the Lute
There are two 1st-century CE Apollos in the museum, both restored in the 17th century.
8. Suicidal Gaul
This suicidal figure supporting his dead wife’s arm was part of a trio, including the Capitoline’s Dying Gaul, commissioned by Julius Caesar to celebrate a Gaulish victory.
9. Egyptian Statuary
The Egyptian collections are divided into three sections related to that culture’s influence on Rome: political theological, popular worship, and places of worship. The showpiece is the impressive granite Bull Api, or Brancaccio Bull (2nd century BCE).
10. Colossal Head of Ludovisi Hera
Goethe called this his “first love in Rome.” It is believed to be a portrait of Claudius’s mother, Antonia.
ANCIENT ROMAN ART
Ancient Rome’s art was as conservative as its culture. From the middle Republican to the Imperial era, Romans shunned original sculpture for copies of famous Greek works. The Caesars imported Golden Age statuary from Greece, and Roman workshops churned out toga-wearing headless figures in stock poses to which any bust could be affixed. Romans excelled at bust portraiture, especially up to the early Imperial age when naturalism was still in vogue. Roman painting is divided into styles based on Pompeii examples. The First Style imitated marble; the Second Style imitated architecture, often set within the small painted scenes that became a hallmark of the Third Style. The Fourth Style was trompe l’oeil decoration. Mosaic, first developed as a floor-strengthening technique, could be simple black-on-white, or intricate work with shading and contour. Opus sectile (inlaid marble) was a style that was imported from the East.
The Ludovisi Throne is a sculpted marble block depicting the birth of Aphrodite. The goddess is seen rising from the sea wearing finely carved diaphanous drapery.
TOP 10 ANCIENT ART COLLECTIONS
A 2nd-century BC Roman mosaic at the Museo Nazionale Romano
4. Centrale Montemartini (Via Ostiense)
5. Ara Pacis (Lungotevere en Augusta)
6. Villa Giulia
8. Column of Marcus Aurelius (Piazza Colonna)
10. Museo Barracco (Corso Vittorio Emanuele II)
