MASSIMO PALACE - NATIONAL ROMAN MUSEUM (fifth part)

SECOND FLOOR - Statues of the Imperial Period

First Room - Room of the charioteers

“Eight herms of charioteers” from the Shrine of Hercules Cubans (hypothetical attribution), in the area of Viale Trastevere

Second Room - Period of Trajan (98/117) and Hadrian (117/138)

“Two figures with breastplate”

“Plotina” about 120, Trajan's wife, from the Baths of Neptune in Ostia

“The personality of Plotina influenced a lot the formation of Hadrian and, according to sources, even his rise to power: linked to Hadrian with an almost maternal deep friendship if not a love affair, she would have reached the point of falsifying the last will of her husband in his favor. The belated evidence of gratitude from Hadrian shown on coins from the year 134 for the woman who had opened the doors of power for him, giving him also her niece Sabina - daughter of Matidia, sister of Trajan - as wife, was probably due to his intent to minimize the rumors about their alleged relationship” (Elena Calandra)

“Statue of Trajan-Heracles”

“Two portraits of Sabina” wife of Hadrian, one from the Victor Emmanuel Monument area with significant traces of colors and one from the Appian Way

“Hadrian” about 117 from S. Bibiana

“The fact that Hadrian used to wear a beard, expression of his philhellenism and function connoting the concept of sapientia (knowledge), plays a crucial role also from a formal point of view. Along with the curly and plastic locks of hair, it works as an element of vivid chiaroscuro contrast with the smooth and bright surfaces of the face. In a solidly classical composition is introduced therefore, albeit still mildly, an idea of plasticity and baroque exuberance that will find a strong emphasis in later portraits” (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)

“Antinous” from the Magna Mater field at Ostia with the faces of two unidentified people in the diadem, perhaps Nerva and Hadrian and traces of red in his hair

It is believed that at least 2,000 statues of Antinous existed in ancient times of which only about 115 are currently extant

“Relief of Antinous Silvanus” from Lanuvio

“Funerary relief of the Decii” from the Via Ostiense

Third Room - Period of Antoninus Pius (138/161)

“Heroic Antoninus Pius” from Terracina with chlamys buckled on the shoulder maybe like the Diomede Cuma-Monaco type of the fifth century BC widely used by public figures and Roman emperors

“Two portraits of Antoninus Pius” one from Formia and one from an unknown location

“Statue of Faustina Minor” wife of Marcus Aurelius with head maybe not relevant, of the so called praying type perhaps a reworking of a type created for Livia

“Two friezes of Provinces” (maybe Thrace and Egypt) from the Temple of Hadrian

Fourth Room - Period of Marcus Aurelius (161/180) and Commodus (180/192)

“Statue of Lucilla” sister of Marcus Aurelius

“Portrait of Crispina” wife of Commodus

“Lucius Verus”

“Two bearded philosophers”

PINCIAN HILL OBELISK

OBELISCO PINCIANO

Piazza Bucarest

Built for Hadrian (117/138) and dedicated to his gay lover Antinous, who was born in Bithynia in northern Turkey

It was found in 1500 near the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, where in antiquity there was the Sessorian Palace and it was moved in 1632 in front of Palazzo Barberini by pope Urban VIII

It was moved again in 1773 in the Cortile della Pigna in the Vatican, where he was never raised, and finally erected here on the Pincian Hill in 1822 by Giuseppe Marini for Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23)

The inscriptions on the obelisk say that it was placed on the tomb of Antinous and that the tomb of Antinous was in the garden of the emperor in Rome

Maybe then it was in the gardens of Adonis on the Palatine Hill from which also come the round reliefs of the Arch of Constantine

“The cult of Antinous lasted much longer than the reign of Hadrian, his imperial lover. Free of Hadrian he drew his mass following, and his image is found not only in works of art for the upper classes but also in objects of daily life - lamps, plates and bowls. Whatever was the original idea behind his deification, the ageless Bitinious became a talisman by which the Greeks inhabitants of the empire could simultaneously celebrate their identity and their loyalty to Rome. He embodied the reconciliation between the two dominant cultures of the Mediterranean world. He was the Panhellenic ideal made flesh” (Anthony Everitt)

VATICAN MUSEUMS - GREGORIAN EGYPTIAN MUSEUM (second part)

Room III - 131/138 AD
 

Reconstruction of the Serapeum and Canopus of Hadrian's Villa with statues:

“Two-faced Osiris/Apis (Serapis) born from the lotus flower” erroneously restored in the eighteenth century with a female lower part

“In the Serapeum of the Canopus Hadrian implements a brave attempt at religious reform, deifying his favorite Antinous drowned in the canal known as Canopus which linked Alexandria to the main branch of the Nile, through assimilation with Osiris, the god who dies and is reborn in turn formerly associated by the Ptolemies with Serapis, Alexandrian divinity of salvation” (Web site of the Vatican Museums - mv.vatican.va)

“Priests and priestesses” participating in the ritual of the birth of Osiris

“God Nefertum”

“God Ptah”

“Antinous/Osiris” from the Pecile of Hadrian's Villa, found in 1736

“Isis-Sothis-Demeter” from the Palestra of Hadrian's Villa, found in about 1550

“She was considered to be the bearer of the flood of the Nile River. The bust would hung over a fountain powered by a large tank which, driven by complex hydraulic mechanisms, was able to replicate a sort of Nile flood in the Canopus. The association of Isis with Sothis is also motivated by the fact that in 139 it began a new sothiac era (every 1465 years) and Hadrian had planned a series of festivities for the occasion” (Web site of the Vatican Museums - mv.vatican.va)

Room IV - I/II century AD - Egypt and Rome

 

Statues and a relief Roman imitations of Egyptian originals

“Dog-headed Thoth” from Rome

“God Anubis” in white marble from Villa Pamphilj in Anzio

“God Anubis, lord of mummification, who led the dead to the underworld, represented here in the Roman style wearing a toga, but following an 'Egyptianising' iconography. In his right hand he holds a sistrum, while the left has the caduceus of Hermes, which served to guide the souls in Greek-Roman religion” (Web site of the Vatican Museums - mv.vatican.va)

“Hapy God of fertility” found in Veii in about 1812

“Three statues of the god Horus-Zeus Casios of Pelusium”

“Earthenware with painted landscapes of the Nile”

“Recumbent figure of the Nile” from Rome

Room V - 2000 BC/100 AD - Masterpieces of Pharaonic Statuary

 

“Two statues of the Goddess Lioness Sekhmet” sitting 1390/1352 BC in gray granite, from the Temple of Mut (equivalent to Sekhmet) at Karnak, reign of Amenhotep III, XVIII Dyn

Eight more statues of the same goddess are outside on the hemicycle of the Cortile della Pigna (Courtyard of the Pine Cone)

They were part of two series of 365 statues each on display in the Temple of Mut at Karnak built by Amenhotep III himself

“Head of Mentuhotep II” 2010/1998 BC, XI dynasty from Thebes in yellowish sandstone with face painted red

“Statue of the great priest of Ra Hor-Udja” about 600 BC from Heliopolis, XVI din.

“Colossal statue of queen Tuya mother of Ramses II” (1297/1213 BC) in dark granite with yellowish-red spots, from Thebes

“The Queen Tuya, an important historical figure, was wife of Pharaoh Seti I (1294/1279 BC) and venerated mother of his successor, Ramses II (1279/1213 BC). The work was dedicated in the temple of the latter, the Ramesseum, at Thebes, and from there it was brought to Rome by Caligula (AD 37/41), along with statues of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II (in the room) to adorn the gardens of Sallust, where they were discovered in the eighteenth century, in the neighborhood of Piazza Fiume” (Web site of the Vatican Museums - mv.vatican.va)

“Colossal statues of Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoe II” from Heliopolis in red granite, found along with that of the queen Tuya near Piazza Fiume

“Colossal statue of Arsinoe II-Drusilla” dating back to the reign of Caligula (37/41 AD) from the gardens of Sallust in Rome

Tacitus and Suetonius report of an incestuous relationship between Caligula, faithful follower of the Egyptian religion, and his sister Drusilla that he wanted to celebrate just like an Egyptian goddess

“Genius Bes” protector of pregnant women, I/II century AD from Rome

“Bust of Serapis” second century AD from Rome

“A pair of statues of the baboon god Thoth”

VATICAN MUSEUMS - PIUS CLEMENTINUS MUSEUM - Round Room

Sala Rotonda

About 1782 by Michelangelo Simonetti (1724/87) who was clearly inspired by the Pantheon

In the floor there is the extraordinary and impressive “Great color mosaic” of the beginning of the third century AD from the Baths of Otricoli in Umbria 80 km (50 miles) from Rome: struggles of Greeks against centaurs and sea and river gods

It is not totally original and it was completed at the time of installation in the room

In the external section “Black and white mosaic” from Otricoli and Sacrofano near Rome

In the center enormous “Monolithic basin” in red porphyry marble, maybe from the Domus Aurea. The circumference is 13 m (42.6 feet)

FROM RIGHT

“Otricoli's Jupiter” end of the first century BC from an original of the fourth century BC

It was restored in 1783 with additions by Giovanni Pierantoni

“It had to be part of an acrolith that hypothetically could be attributed to the cult statue of Jupiter in the Capitolium of Otricoli. (...) The original would have been a model for the statue of the god in Rome, built after the fire that burned the Capitoline Hill in 83 BC” (Eleonora Ferrazza)

“Antinous” from Hadrian's Villa in Palestrina where now is the modern cemetery

It was restored by Giovanni Pierantoni

Here the gay lover of Emperor Hadrian, who died drowned in the Nile is represented as Osiris-Dionysus

On his head there was a crown on which a uraeus (snake) or a lotus flower was added, replaced, in the modern restoration, with a kind of pine cone

“Portrait of Faustina the Elder” about 140 AD, found in 1769 by the painter Gavin Hamilton in the Pantanello area near Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli

It is one of the best portraits of the wife of Antoninus Pius (138/161) deified after her death in 141 AD

It was restored by Giovanni Pierantoni who made the bust

“Statue of Ceres” or maybe Juno, beginning of the second century AD from the original maybe by a pupil of Phidias of 430 BC

It was exhibited in the Palace of the Chancellery and entered the Vatican Museums in 1782 when it was restored by Giovanni Pierantoni. The head is ancient but not relevant

“Bust of Hadrian” (117/138) maybe 140 AD, from Castel Sant'Angelo, which was his tomb. It is known from the middle of 1500s

The portrait appears to be somewhat idealized, and perhaps dates back to after his death. The bust is modern

“Colossal Hercules” in gilded bronze of the end of the first century or early second century AD from a Greek original of the fourth century BC found in 1864 under the courtyard of Palazzo Pio Righetti

It was donated to Pius IX Mastai-Ferretti (1846/78) and restored by Pietro Tenerani (1789/1869), who reinstated it in part using plaster and bronze

It was buried superstitiously because it had been struck by lightning at the Theatre of Pompey, to the decoration of which maybe it belonged, in the area of the nowadays Campo de' Fiori

It had been covered by a slab of travertine marble, on which there was an inscription with the letters F C S (Fulgur Conditum Summanium = buried because hit by lightning) and a sacrificed lamb had been buried with it

“Bust of Antinous” about 130/138 AD. It was found in 1790 at Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli

The peculiar hairstyle of this portrait has been put in connection with the servile origin of the youth

Statue of goddess called “Barberini Hera” mid-second century BC from an original of the fifth century BC by an artist of Phidias' circle

It was part of the Barberini collection and it entered the Vatican collections in 1772 when it was restored and integrated by Gaspare Sibilla (about 1723/82)

In the base there is a relief from a sarcophagus of a child of the late third century AD with an extraordinary “Representation of quadrigas’ races in the Circus Maximus”

“Herm of marine deity” maybe Okeanos 130/140 AD, from the area of Pozzuoli, where it was purchased in 1771

The eyebrows are formed by algae and in the beard there are dolphins that seem to swim

“Galba” (68) represented as Jupiter, believed to be Nerva (96/98)

Only the torso and head are old and they were integrated and processed by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi in 1776 to rework facial features mimicking those of a portrait of Galba, believing it was Nerva

The original statue, however, represented a seated figure, perhaps a deity or a Hellenistic ruler of the first century BC

In the base neo-Attic relief with the “Birth of Erichthonius and Hephaestus”

The myth of Erichthonius is quite complex: according to the account of Apollodorus of Athens, Athena went to the forge of Hephaestus to ask the forging of some weapons. Hephaestus pounced on her, trying to possess her and Athena, determined to save her virginity, fled

In the ensuing struggle, the seed of Hephaestus was scattered on the ground and where it fell, Gaea, Mother Earth, was fertilized, and begat Erichthonius. Athena, however, wanted to raise him in secret anyway

“Bust of Serapis” second century AD from an original of about 320 BC by Briaxis for the Serapeum of Alexandria

It was found in 1771 in the so-called Villa of Gallienus on the Appian Way by painter Gavin Hamilton and sold to the Vatican Museums

He has on the head the characteristic calathos, highly integrated modioi-shaped, a cylindrical container that served as a unit of measurement for grain

In the circlet on the head there are still holes where beams of metal were inserted which made it comparable to the god Helios/Sol as was typical of the operations of syncretism between religions that the Romans made

“Claudius in the act of libation during sacrificial rites” (41/54) depicted like Jupiter with the eagle and the civic crown of oak

It was found in 1865 in Lanuvio where maybe it decorated the theater

In the base there is a rather ruined votive relief with “Hermes, Asclepius, and the Three Graces” mythical projections of Joy, Beauty and Grace

Maybe it comes from the Tiber River, possibly from the Tiber Island where the sanctuary of the god of medicine was

The caduceus of Hermes, a stick with two snakes, which served to guide the souls and is currently symbol of trade was mistakenly confused with the rod of Asclepius, which had only a snake, so that often in the United States is used as a symbol of medicine and in Italy it is also the symbol of pharmacists

The precise meaning of the caduceus remains mysterious

“Portrait of Claudius” which had to be part of an imperial statue seated on a throne representing, however, Caligula (37/41), the nephew of Claudius

Caligula, after being killed, had the damnatio memoriae, the elimination of all images and memories for posterity of the declared enemies of the people of Rome and of the Senate after their death

It can be noticed the double bangs and small size of the face compared to the neck, consequences of the rework of the portrait

It was found in the so-called Basilica of Otricoli in 1779 and restored by Gaspare Sibilla (about 1723/82)

“Juno Sospita” first half of the second century AD venerated in Lanuvium, maybe statue of the temple dedicated to the goddess in the Forum Holitorium, corresponding to S. Nicola in Carcere

It was exhibited in the courtyard of the Palazzo Mattei di Paganica, it was acquired by the Vatican Museums in 1782 and it was restored by Giovanni Pierantoni

“Portrait of Plotina” about 129 from Villa Mattei or Celimontana, wife of Trajan deified by Hadrian in that year

The portrait is on modern bust and was sold to the Vatican Museums in 1770 when it was restored by Giovanni Pierantoni and Gaspare Sibilla

“Bust of a Severan princess” about 210/230 AD maybe Julia Mesa, Julia Domna's sister, the Syrian wife of Septimius Severus (193/211) or her daughter Julia Soemnia mother of Elagabalus (218/222)

The hairstyle, however, identifies her with certainty as a woman belonging to the Severan dynasty

It was found in 1780 in the Quadraro area between Via Appia and Via Tuscolana

The bust is modern and the hair has been restored

Maybe “Genius of Augustus sacrificing” perhaps from Pozzuoli

The vague resemblance to Augustus led to the identification with the Genius Augusti a sort of personal deity of the first emperor of Rome

“Portrait maybe of Plautianus” praetorian prefect put to death by Septimius Severus (193/211) on the advice of his son Caracalla in 205 who had married his daughter Plautilla, later divorced