Tuesday, May 13, 2014

CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS - CLEMENTINO CAFFARELLI PALACE

Palazzo Clementino Caffarelli
1576/38 Gregorio Canonico pupil of Jacopo Barozzi aka Vignola for Ascanio Caffarelli and his son Gian Pietro II
It has undergone many transformations that have altered its original appearance
Some remaining parts of the frescoed vaults are kept in the Museum of Rome at Palazzo Braschi
From the beginning of 1800s to the end of World War I it was occupied by the Embassy of Prussia
In 1918 it was recovered by the City of Rome and partially demolished: instead of the upper floors of the east wing the great TERRAZZA CAFFARELLI (Caffarelli Terrace) was built. The ground floor, partly dismantled for the excavation of the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, was set up as a new section of the Capitoline Museum, the Museo Mussolini, later known as Museo Nuovo (New Museum)
Capitoline coins and medals collection
Incredible heritage of about 50,000 coins, medals and jewels
The collection began in 1872 with the Castellani Donation of 9,074 coins, when Augusto Castellani was Director of the Capitoline Museums. The collection was enlarged with:
Stanzani Donation of 9,251 coins and 681 precious stones of the architect Ludovico Stanzani
Bignami Collection of 2,225 coins collected by Giulio Bignami
Campana Collection of 456 gold coins
Gems, jewelry and coins from the Archaeological Municipal Commission
Treasury of Via Alessandrina 2,529 gold coins and 81 gold objects, all ancient Roman pieces, the secret treasure of a Roman antiquarian, found accidentally in 1933 in the now disappeared Via Alessandrina during the construction of Via dei Fori Imperiali
Treasury of the Capitoline Hill 77 ancient silver coins found in the Tabularium
Orsini Collection 93 pieces dating back between 1300s and 1800s
Reconstruction of a brightly polychrome terracotta pediment of the Hellenistic period from a LATE REPUBLICAN TEMPLE IN VIA DI S. GREGORIO maybe the Temple of Fortuna Respiciens on Palatine Hill or a Temple of Mars on Celium Hill
It is the only pediment of a Hellenistic temple ever found in Rome
Filippo Coarelli deemed it part of the Temple of Fortune Respiciens originally built in the sixth century BC at the time of Servius Tullius and rebuilt by Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus perhaps in 166 BC (he was censor in that year), the time to which the beautiful pieces on display should date back
At the center is Mars and on his sides two fortunes of which the one on the right is the Fortuna Respiciens or "Fortuna looking back", negative Fortune. The temple was located, perhaps not coincidentally in the middle of the triumph itinerary during which the winner was told: "Look back, remember that you are a man!"

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