The National Museum of Rome, with its excellent Classical art collection, grew too vast for its home in the Baths of Diocletian, which closed in 1981. In 1998 the collection was split between various sites, becoming a truly modern, 21st-century museum. The Ludovisi, Mattei and Altemps collections of sculpture moved into the gorgeous 16th-century Palazzo Altemps near Piazza Navona (see Palazzo Altemps Collection). The 19th-century Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, a former Jesuit College near Termini, received some of the best individual sculptures, as well as ancient mosaics and fantastic frescoes, some never previously displayed, as detailed below. The ancient Aula Ottagona inherited the oversized bathhouse sculptures; the Baths of Diocletian re-opened in 2000 with an important epigraphic collection and exhibition space.
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
Palazzo Altemps
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Gallery GuideThe Palazzo Massimo exhibits all its statuary relating to Republican and Early Imperial Rome (up to Emperor Augustus) on the ground floor, along with a few precious earlier, Greek pieces. The first floor exhibits detail art in the political, cultural and economic spheres of Imperial Rome up to the 4th century. The second floor, which must be visited on a timed-entry ticket, preserves ancient mosaics and frescoes. The numismatic collection is in the basement, alongside some gold jewellery and a mummified eight-year-old girl. |
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Triclinium Frescoes
These frescoes (20–10 BC) depicting a lush garden came from the villa of Augustus’s wife, Livia. They were in the triclinium, a dining pavilion half-buried to keep it cool in summer.
Four Charioteers Mosaic
The imperial Severi family must have been passionate about sports to have decorated a bedroom of their 3rd-century AD villa with these charioteers. They are dressed in the traditional colours of the Roman circus’s four factions.
Wounded Niobid
This hauntingly beautiful figure of Niobid (daughter of Queen Niobe), reaching for the fatal arrow that killed her siblings, was sculpted around 440 BC for a Greek temple, and was later acquired by Julius Caesar.
Leucotea Nursing Dionysus
A luxuriously frescoed villa, discovered in 1879, included this bedroom scene of the nymph nursing the wine god with additional scenes in the niches.
Bronze Dionysus
Few large Classical bronzes survive today, making this 2nd-century AD statue special beyond its obvious grace, skill and preserved decoration. You can still see the yellow eyes, red lips and a comb band in the grape-festooned hair.
Ostia Altar
This Trajan-era altar connects the foundation of Rome to the divine consorts Mars and Venus. Mars is shown as father to Rome’s legendary founder Romulus; Venus bears the hero Aeneas, who fled Troy for Rome and consequently founded the Iulia dynasty (Julius Caesar’s own, invented family tree).
Scenes from the Basilica of Giunio Basso
Colourful marble inlays represent paganism’s dying grasp among prominent Roman families. The empire had converted to Christianity by AD 331 when consul Giunio Basso (pictured as a charioteer in one panel) commissioned the scenes for his meeting hall.
Numismatic Collection
Italian coinage and currency is on display here, from the Roman Republic and Empire coins through to the medieval and Renaissance principalities, to the lira and the euro.
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.
Athena Parthenos
The 1st-century BC Greek sculptor Antioco carved this statue to match the most famed sculpture in antiquity, the long-lost Athena in Athens’ Parthenon.
Dionysus with Satyr
Imperial Rome was in love with Greek sculpture, producing copies such as this grouping of Dionysus, a satyr and a panther.
Apollo Playing the Lute
There are two 1st-century AD Apollos in the museum, both restored in the 17th century.
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.
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 BC).
Colossal Head of Ludovisi Hera
German writer Goethe called this his “first love in Rome”. It is believed to be a portrait of Claudius’s mother, Antonia.
Ancient Rome’s art was as conservative as its culture. Sculpture, the most durable art form, was also the least original. From the middle Republican period through to the Imperial age, Romans shunned original pieces for copies of famous Greek works. The Caesars imported shiploads of Golden Age statuary from Greece and its old colonies in southern Italy; Roman workshops churned out headless, toga-wearing figures in a variety of stock poses to which any bust could be affixed. It was at bust portraiture that Romans truly excelled, 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 panels; 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, initially developed as a floor-strengthening technique, could be simple black-on-white or intricate wall-mounted scenes using tiny marble chips to create shading and contour. Opus sectile (inlaid marble) was a style that was imported from the East.
Mosaic of Virgil and the Muses Top 10 Ancient Art Collections
Vatican Museums (see Museum Guide)
Montemartini (see Montemartini Art Centre)
Trajan’s Column (see Trajan’s Forum and Column)
Palatine Antiquarium (see Palatine Museum and Antiquarium)
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