The 620
pieces of the TORLONIA COLLECTION founded in 1859 by Alessandro
Torlonia were exhibited until the Fifties in seventy-seven rooms
It was
sculptures, busts, sarcophagi and ancient reliefs collected by the family and,
for the most part, bought from the most important private collections:
115 pieces
from the Giustiniani collection and other pieces from the Savelli
and Caetani collections as well as from the Cavaceppi studio
The
collection was later enriched with the excavations in areas owned by the
Torlonia family: Villa dei Quintili, the Circus of Maxentius on the Appian
Way (the tomb of Romulus was transformed into a “country home” with the
addition of a porch in the nineteenth century) Cerveteri, the Port of Trajan
in Fiumicino and the area around Lake Fucino which was drained by
Alessandro in the mid-nineteenth century (he later founded the Bank of Fucino
of which the family is still a shareholder) and other locations
It is
considered the most important private collection of ancient sculptures in the
world and it constitutes for quantity and quality almost a third of all the
ancient sculptures in Rome
Among the masterpieces shamefully hidden:
The famous “Hestia Giustiniani” perhaps a copy of the second
century AD from a bronze original of about 470 BC
In the
seventeenth century it was property of the Giustiniani family who kept it in
their palace and from whom took its name
Hestia was
the Greek goddess of hearth and home, even if this beautiful Roman statue was
perhaps a Hera or Demeter, as a type of representation in the round of Hestia
in Greek sculpture is not yet known
Johann
Joachim Winckelmann (1717/78) considered it erroneously an example of the kind
of classical Greek art described as “severe”
The statue
is now in the Palazzo Torlonia on Via della Conciliazione
Other pieces:
Two copies
of the “Eirene” from the original by Kefisodotos
An “Athlete”
from the original by Myron of Eleutere (about 500/about 440 BC)
A “Diadoumenos”
from the original by Polykleitos of Argos (about 490/about 425 BC)
A copy of a
“Feminine Figure” from the group of Menelaus
An “Aphrodite
Anadyomene”
A “Statue
of woman sitting with a mastiff” among the most significant examples of such
neo-attic representations
“Relief
with Vesta during a sacrifice” found near the Port of Trajan in 1867
A “Greek
object offered as a vow to some Athenians deity” of the fifth century BC
Moreover:
“107
Imperial Busts” including “Colossal and veiled portrait of Plotina”, “Julia
Domna”, “Portrait of a Man veiled known as Massenzio” from the Circus of
Maxentius and some of the most remarkable examples of portraits dating back to
the late empire
Until the
Fifties the collection was accessible to those who would ask the Torlonia, but
they would discretionarily limit the entrance only to the rich and nobles, so
that it is said that Professor Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli had to pretend to
work as a cleaner to see the collection
The end of
this amazing private museum was chilling: in 1979 seventy-seven rooms were
converted into 93 STUDIO APARTMENTS for rent. The whole operation was done in a
completely illegal way as it was established by the Supreme Court!
The poor
sculptures were either closed in boxes in the basement where they are still now
or were transported elsewhere
For years a
controversy has been going on between the City of Rome and the Torlonia family
so that the 620 treasures could be finally exhibited
Palazzo Rivaldi,
which is being renovated, has been proposed as a suitable place for a new
museum
