More imperial portraits
“Julia Domna” Syrian wife of Septimius Severus (193/211) who
was a native of Libya
“Maximinus Thrax (235/238)” the so-called “Emperor soldier”
He was born
in today's Bulgaria and was a shepherd who had made a career in the army. He
was huge and the Historia Augusta (document probably dating from the
early fifth century AD with biographies of the emperors) reports that he was
incredibly 2.40 m (9 feet) tall
He was the
first emperor who never went to Rome during his reign
“Balbino (238)” was emperor for three months together with
Pupienus with whom he quarreled bitterly. During the quarrel were both killed
by the praetorians who proclaimed emperor the thirteen-years-old Gordian III
“Bust of Merman” late second century AD with his mouth open to
let water flow out. It was in fact used as a fountain in the Septizonium
“Bas-relief of a woman with two birds in one hand and
a cane in the other” early fourth century AD maybe a personification of winter
“Graffiti with donkey man crucified” from the Pedagogium with the
inscription in Greek: “Alexamenos worships his god” first half of the third
century AD
It is
probably a very early mockery of the Christian religion
ROOM IX
The sculptural decoration of the Palace. Greek
originals and Roman copies of the Classical and Hellenistic periods
“Acroterial headless statue of Aura” with peplum open on the side. Maybe
Greek original of the fifth century BC from near the Arch of Titus
An
acroterial statue is a statue placed as a decoration on the roof of a temple
“Child
seated”
“Headless statue of Aphrodite or Kharis” from the original by Kallimacos
with beautiful light drapery that enhances the sensual posing of the goddess
“Dionysus as a child”. It was originally placed in the
arms of Hermes
“Head of
Aphrodite”
“Statuette
of Diomedes carrying the Palladium”
“Torso of
Artemis”
“Head of Aphrodite of Cnidus” and “Head of Apollo Sauroctonos” from the original by Praxiteles
(about 395/326 BC)
“His ideal
is the Charis, who is beauty combined with grace. He does not move in the
sphere of the solemn Olympian deities as Phidias and the artists of the fifth
century, but he chooses only a few semi-divine beings or gods, and represents
them with an all human beauty in a tone already delicately sensual and
romantic. For his particular poetic content he creates rhythms that free
figures from the equilibrium gravitating around their axis which was the
central problem of the art of the fifth century and which had been formulated
in more complex and organic way by Polykleitos. Praxiteles' rhythms are either
leaning on a lateral support, giving a new curve to the figure, or either, when
support is lacking, the body bends in its own soft gravity, it is released in
an inert abandonment, or bends in a simple pose, often with its head bowed,
always avoiding the static and vertical line” (Enciclopedia Treccani)
“Headless
statue of a girl dancing”
“Two muses
sitting”
“Fragmentary head of Doryphoros” from original by Polykleitos of
Argos (about 490/425 BC)
“Two heads of Apollo” of the Anzio type
“Veiled head of Venus Sosandra” or savior of mankind, from an original
of about 460 BC by Calamis
It was his
most famous work and it was placed on the Acropolis of Athens
“Figure
solemn and quiet, which expresses an ideal of femininity in the process of
affirmation. We are far beyond the ancient climate: there is obviously some
psychological research, the desire to penetrate in the privacy of individuals”
(Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
“Hera Borghese” second century AD from an original of the end
of the fifth century BC
“An original
of the last quarter of the fifth century BC takes to the extreme the drapery of
the Parthenon with a bold play of folds. It is a statue of a goddess found in
secondary arrangement in the agora of Athens and reconstructed from several
fragments. The work recalls the so-called type of the Hera Borghese, known only
through replicas of Roman age. These types of statues, created especially to
depict Aphrodite, introduce a new vision of the deity - more feminine and
sensual, different from the idealized humanity of the goddesses of the
Parthenon - which will lead, in the following century, to the naked Aphrodite
by Praxiteles, the famous Aphrodite of Cnidus” (Marina Castoldi)
“Head of Hygeia” Augustan copy of a late-classical work
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