Section I
3 “Tree with nests” largely restored in 1700,
from an original of the Hellenistic production
18 “Statuette of a child playing with a walnut”
from a Hellenistic original of the third century BC found in 1784 in the
village Acquatraversa on the Via Cassia
The head is modern. Ancient sources and illustrations
show that the games with walnuts were very popular in antiquity
26 “Gigantic toe of a right foot” found in early
1880 near the Colosseum
It has been calculated that the complete
statue was about 13 m (43 feet) tall, perhaps one of the cult statues of the
nearby Temple of Venus and Rome
37 “Crater with the myth of Lycurgus” about 40/30
BC found in 1863 in the Villa of Livia at Prima
Porta
It represents the aggression of Lycurgus to
the Maenads. Lycurgus, king of Thrace, was the enemy of Dionysus, destroyed the
vine and persecuted the Maenads. Dionysus punished him by depriving him of his
sight
56 “Drunken Satyr” first century AD from a
Hellenistic original of the school of Pergamum, in Egyptian stone, called grovacca
(greywacke), quarried in Uadi Hammamat
67 “Boy with a dog in his arms” from a late
Hellenistic type
It had been completed with a not relevant
ancient head which has been removed with the dog. It represent Hermes as a
child
68 “Seated statuette of a satyr” mid-first century
AD with additions and restorations in the modern era when the face was smoothed
out
70 “Relief of Horus” first half of the first
century AD with the Egyptian god depicted as a hawk with on his head the double
crown of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively in the shape of a tiara and modioi
“Sarcophagus with child” about 275 AD
“Two candlesticks from Otricoli” second century
AD including the No. 39 with a representation of the myth of Marsyas
Section II
2 “Meridian” found in 1858 in Ostia
The dial is divided into twelve vertical
segments in turn divided into three horizontal bands: the first corresponded to
the hours, the second to the winter solstice, equinox and summer solstice
19 and 75 “Modern Bases” by Francesco Antonio Franzoni (1734/1818) for two statues
of the muses now in the Hall of the Muses
9 “Pan extracting a thorn from the foot of a satyr” from
a Hellenistic original of the second century BC
It was in Villa
Mattei and it was purchased in 1770 by the Vatican Museums. It was
restored and in part completed in 1819 by Michele Ilari
The subject, typical of the Hellenistic
period, was often used for decorating gardens
68 “Artemis the huntress” with ancient head not
relevant, maybe from a bronze original of the fourth or third century BC
70 Elegant “Cup with square basin” made in mid-1800 the
reworking the yellow marble from Sabina formerly used for an ancient column
72 “Sarcophagus with scenes from the myth of Protesilaus”
about 160/170 AD from the second mile of the Appian Way
Protesilaus was the first to set foot on
the beach of Troy and the first to die
His wife, Laodamia was given permission by
the gods to see him again for a short time but then she killed herself to
follow her husband in Hades, evoked here with three mythical damned: Sisyphus
with the boulder on his back, Ixion chained to the wheel and Tantalus next to
source from which he could not drink
22 “Ephesian Artemis” second century AD from the
so-called Greek Theatre of Hadrian's Villa
from the original, maybe of the second half of the fourth century BC
It was restored by Giovanni
Volpato and purchased by the Vatican Museums in 1781. In this version
Diana was called Lady of the Animals symbol of the fruitful nature and
abundance
According to Filippo Coarelli, the alleged
breasts, that actually show no nipples, are in reality the scrotums of bulls,
symbols of fertility
28 “Sarcophagus with scenes from the myth of Orestes”
about 160 AD formerly kept in S. Maria in Aracoeli, then in the Palazzo
Barberini, and eventually purchased by the Vatican Museums in 1772
Orestes kills his mother Clytemnestra and
her lover Aegisthus to avenge the murder of his father Agamemnon. Pursued by
the Furies for what he had done he goes to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi to
purify himself
40 “Modern basin supported by three Sileni” with
two Sileni found in 1789 in the Villa dei
Quintili and the third made in 1790 by Ferdinando
Lisandroni who also assembled the group
83 “Ganymede and the eagle” used as a table leg,
second century AD copy from the original by Leochares of mid-fourth century BC
“Two candlesticks from S. Costanza” early
second century AD
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