Sala a Croce Greca
Completed in about 1780 by Michelangelo Simonetti (1724/87)
It was called Greek Cross Room for the
Greek Cross plan
It was the entrance of the Museo Pio
Clementino at the time of Pius VI Braschi (1775/99): when Michelangelo
Simonetti died in 1787, Pius VI gave the job of finishing the project to Giuseppe Camporese (1763/1822), who reversed the
museum route with a new access from the Greek Cross Room. That's why over the
portal to the Round Room there is the sign Museum Pium
On either side of the portal “Two Roman telamons” imitation of Egyptian
ones, maybe from the Canopus in Hadrian's Villa, restored by Gaspare Sibilla (about
1723/82)
Above the portal “Bas-relief with gladiators and wild beasts”
highly integrated, of the second half of the first century AD
In the floor “Color mosaic” of a shield with a bust of
Minerva and phases of the moon, of the third century AD, found in 1741 at
Tusculum (Frascati). It was heavily restored
“Two sphinxes of pink granite” about first
century AD
On the right “Sarcophagus of Constantina” of the fourth
century AD in porphyry, from the Mausoleum of S.
Constanza. She was the daughter of Constantine (306/337)
On the left “Sarcophagus of St. Helena” mother of
Constantine in porphyry from Torpignattara,
maybe prepared for the “companion” (they never married) Costantius Chlorus
(305/306) or more probably for his son Constantine
“The Eastern workers employed sculpted a
very high relief, in which there is very lively naturalistic analysis of the
bodies of Roman soldiers and of the fallen and captive barbarians. The figures,
however, are located in an area completely devoid of landscaping elements and
in an environment that refuses a uniform spatial nature, so that the
composition is reduced to two simple overlapping rows” (Gian Luca Grassigli -
TMG)
The Romans called porphyry (Lapis
Porphyrites) a type of red marble that came into their availability after
the conquest of Egypt by Augustus in 31 BC
It came from quarries owned by the Emperor
on Mons Porphyrites o Mons Igneus, a mountainous area known today
as Gebel Dokhan west of Hurghada, in the Eastern Desert of Egypt
It is an extremely hard kind of marble and
difficult to carve, formerly used by Egyptian pharaohs and much appreciated for
its red color typically associated with the imperial dignity
Porphyry was therefore used in works for
the emperor and his family
From the fifth century AD its red color was
assimilated to the cult of the body of Christ reserving, however, its use for
the honor of the emperors themselves, according to a tradition that remained in
the Byzantine Empire and was later adopted by other European kingdoms
Behind the sarcophagus inscriptions of “Carmen Fratrum Arvalium” one
of the most valuable fragments of poetry, perhaps dating from the seventh or
sixth century BC, with an archaic language that dates back to the origins of
the Roman religion
The inscriptions are dated to May 29, 218
and were found in 1778 in the Vatican
This is the traditional chant of the
Arvales (Fratres Arvales), an ancient Roman college of priests made up
of twelve members chosen among the senators, repeating this sort of litany in
honor of the goddess Dia, whose ancient worship was restored by Augustus
The temple of the goddess Dia was in the
area above the Catacomb of Generosa on
the Via Portuense. It is noteworthy that the tradition was still followed in
the early third century AD
In the niches statues of “Augustus” so-called Verospi, maybe posthumous
with Augustus dressed in the Greek fashion and “Gaius Caesar” the grandson of Augustus, with
his head covered: it was found in the so-called Basilica of Otricoli
In a niche behind Constantina's sarcophagus
there is a statue of “Lucius Verus young” (161/169) who here has a
vague resemblance to former U.S. President Bill Clinton while smoking a huge
cigar
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