VATICAN MUSEUMS - CHIARAMONTI MUSEUM (New Wing)

Braccio Nuovo del Museo Chiaramonti

1817/22 Raffaele Stern (1774/1820), so called to distinguish it from the already existing wing of the library

Dimensions: 70 x 8 m (230 x 26 feet)

It divided the Belvedere Court in three parts, creating the central courtyard of the Library

Twelve columns of granite were taken in 1819 from the chapel of the Palazzo Barberini, in Via dei Giubbonari

Top stucco bas-reliefs by Francesco Massimiliano Laboureur (1767/1831) Roman neoclassical sculptor, author also of the colossal statue of Napoleon, in the Lions Square of Ajaccio, the birthplace of the “Empereur”

FLOOR with mosaics of the second century AD from one of two villas at Tor Marancia excavated in the years 1817/23, near the present stream of Grotta Perfetta:

In the center “Ulysses and the Sirens”

At the far end “Amphibious creatures and man-fish playing a trumpet”

In the exedra polychrome mosaic “Diana of Ephesus”

The works kept here are all very significant and very beautiful: the first half of the gallery covers topics of Roman history, the second Greek myths

RIGHT SIDE

“Caryatid” of Attic type from original of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis in Athens with head by the Danish Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770/1844)

“Silenus with Dionysus child in his arms” from the original of the school of Lysippus

“Augustus of Prima Porta” copy found in 1863 in the Villa Ad Gallinas Albas from an original in bronze

Augustus is represented here when he was about forty years old and on the lorica (breastplate) is represented maybe Tiberius receiving from Phraates, king of the Parthians, the insignia taken from Crassus in 53 BC at Carrhae and recovered only in 20 BC

“Augustus is portrayed with a gesture of 'adlocutio', that is, with his right hand raised in the act of speaking to the soldiers. The lack of shoes allude to divine dignity, while Cupid riding a dolphin, sculpted on the support of the statue, refers to Venus, ancestor of the Gens Julia and heavenly ancestor of Augustus. The posture is that of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos” (Andrea Pomella)

The statue in 1868 still showed clear traces of original color as a newspaper reporter from the New Illustrated Universal Newspaper describes: “...the tunic and surcoat are colored in red, fringes of the armor parts in yellow and so on (...) the bare parts are not flesh-colored, but with a clever cleaning (polishing) and probably with some sort of paint-wax the beautiful color of marble has been given greater prominence”

It was the layer of wax which is known as ganòsis, mimicking human skin

“In the exhibition entitled The Colours of White in 2005 the Vatican Museums, in collaboration with the Glyptothek of Munich and the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen exposed some reconstructions of ancient works, showing them how they must have been originally painted with colors. ( ...) Thanks to some investigations carried out by restorers on the statue, which brought to light traces of polychrome paint on the marble surface, it was possible to reconstruct the “palette” used to decorate the sculpture: Egyptian blue for the fringe, for the strips of the leather skirt and for some details of the armor pads, red for the cloak and for some parts of the garments and slight traces of color also for the eyes and lips, which were reconstructed using some comparisons with portraits of the same period of the August” (Licia Capannolo)

Splendid “Pudicizia Mattei” (Modesty Mattei) from the Villa Mattei or Celimontana with head and right hand not original, added before 1704

Maybe it's Mnemosyne, Mother of the Muses, from an original of the second century BC Philiskos of Rhodes

“Head of Youth” maybe a river god from the original by Phidias on a modern bust

“Statue of Titus” (79/81) in an attitude of adlocutio, that is, with his right hand raised to start talking, as the Augustus of Prima Porta

His chunky body and his square and semi-bald head did not help him very much in visually imposing the imperial authority

“Four heads of Medusa” at the corners of the room with an apse from the Temple of Venus and Rome, the largest Roman temple along with that of Serapis

“Five blocks of stone with the names of the Gens Julia (Julian family), and one of the Gens Flavia (Flavian family)” from the ustrinum (funeral pyre) near the Mausoleum of Augustus

At the sides “Two bronze peacocks” maybe from the Mausoleum of Hadrian. In the Courtyard of the Pine Cone there are two copies

At the center “Bust” with a modern head of Julius Caesar

“Caryatid” about 160 by Kriton and Nikolaos from the Pago Tropio (country villa) of Herodes Atticus on the Appian Way

“Portrait of Trajan” with his typical bangs

“Statue of Selene” personification of the Full Moon, along with Artemis (Crescent Moon), to whom she is sometimes equated, and Hecate (New Moon)

She was the daughter of Hyperion and Theia and sister of Helios (the Sun) and Eos (Dawn)

“Portrait of Roman man” of the Flavian period (69/96)

At the head of the gallery “Bust of Pius VII” by Antonio Canova (1757/1822)

Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23) in 1804 crowned Napoleon Emperor in Paris. He was arrested in the Quirinal Palace in 1809 and brought to France

He returned to Rome in 1814 when he reestablished the Order of the Jesuits in the world

LEFT SIDE

“Demosthenes” from a Hellenistic bronze original of 280 BC by Polyeuctus

Demosthenes was a great Greek politician and orator opponent of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, against whom he railed with his Philippics

“Wounded Amazon” from the original by Kresilas with arms and feet added by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770/1844)

The original was sculpted for the competition of about 435 issued by the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

The four participants, according to Pliny, were Phidias, Kresilas, Polykleitos and Phradmon. The allocation of existing copies to one of the four sculptors is very difficult and controversial

“Bust of Hadrian” with very realistic features

“Bust of Julia” daughter of Titus, original head with curious hairstyle on a modern bust

It seems that Julia had an affair with her uncle Domitian, who, after the death of Titus and the husband of Julia, Flavius Sabinus, took Julia to live with him as husband and wife

After she became pregnant, Julia died and was deified. It seems that her ashes were later secretly mixed with the ones of Domitian by a nurse

“Juno” of the Juno Borghese of Copenhagen type maybe from original of the fifth century BC by Alkamene

“Artemis” of the so-called Colonna type

In the hemicycle at the center “The Nile River” first century AD from Hellenistic original from the Temple of Isis found in S. Maria sopra Minerva, where also “The Tiber” was found now in the Louvre

The much restored sixteen putti represent sixteen cubits, the difference in height of the Nile between summer and winter

“Bust of Man” end of the first or beginning of the second century AD. Very intense and marked by the expression of the hair style

“Diana” performing the act of taking an arrow from his quiver as she is probably staring at the prey

Famous “Athena Giustiniani” of the Antonine period (138/192) in marble from Paros from a bronze original of the beginning of the fourth century BC maybe by Cephisodotus or Euphranor

It was found at the beginning of 1600s near the so-called Temple of Minerva Medica, to which it gave the misleading name. Arms, spear and sphinx on the helmet are modern

The name comes from having been part of the collection of Vincenzo Giustiniani who kept it in his Palazzo Giustiniani. It was purchased in 1805 by Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, and then sold to Pius VII

The snake at the foot of Athena is connected to the complex myth of Erichthonius: 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 and put him in a basket with a snake

“Portrait of, maybe, Gnaeus Domitius Enobarbus” father of Nero and supporter of Anthony

“Satyr at rest” (Anapauòmenos) from the original of about 340 BC by Praxiteles (about 395/326 BC)

“Athlete with head of Lucius Verus (161/166)” from the original by Myron of Eleutherae (about 500/440 BC)

Important “Doryphoros” one of the best existing copies, from the 440 BC bronze original by Polykleitos of Argos (about 490/425 BC)

“Characteristic of the work of Polykleitos is the calm determination of the subject and the balanced representation of the human body based on mathematical and geometric relationships” (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)

“He thoroughly show the body's reaction to the position that provides the loaded weight on one leg while the other is free. The head, with face turned to the side corresponding to the leg loaded with weight and firmly planted on the ground, seems to hold the figure still. The calm and distant expression, typical of the classical period, is the one seen in many figures of the frieze of the Parthenon. Throughout the Doryphorus' body the forms in tension balance the relaxed ones. This combination of weight and counterweight is defined as opposition or chiasm. The ambiguity of the pose, walking, or still, is accompanied by that of reality or ideality that the figure represents. Polycletus therefore continued the search of the ideal of male beauty pursued by Greek sculptors” (John Griffiths Pedley)

“Bust of Philip the Arab” (244/249) found in Castel Porziano

Philip the Arab was an emperor with definitely Middle Eastern features born in Shahba in Southern Syria and maybe Christian: Eusebius of Caesarea and John Chrysostom describe him as Christian and certainly during his reign Christians were respected unlike during the reign of his successor Decius (249/251)

During his reign in the year 247 AD the first millennium of the history of Rome was celebrated with major events

“Statue of young Domitian” (81/96) with breastplate and head maybe not relevant

VATICAN MUSEUMS - CHIARAMONTI MUSEUM (Old Wing)

MUSEO CHIARAMONTI

1805/08 for Pius VII Chiaramonti (1800/23) under the direction of Antonio Canova (1757/1822) in the gallery (about 300 m - 985 feet - long) known as Corridore della Libraria (Corridor of the Library) designed by Donato Bramante (1444/1514) to connect the Papal Palace with the Belvedere Palace

Fifteen Lunettes

High up on the left “Allegories celebrating Pius VII” 1817 three of which, “Sculpture encouraged and honored by Pius VII” (niche XXV), “Opening of the School of Fine Arts in Rome” (niche XIII) and “Construction of the promenade on the Pincio Hill” (niche IX) are by the great Francesco Hayez (1791/1882)

“Restoration of the arches of Septimius Severus and Constantine” (niche VI) by Luigi Durantini (1791/1857)

“Creation of the Vatican Pictures’ Gallery” (niche XLV) and “Restoration of the Borgia Apartment” (niche VIII) by Giacomo Conca (1787/1852), son of Tommaco Conca and grandson of the great Sebastiano Conca

“Unification of the Chiaramonti Museum and of the Pio Clementino Museum” (niche XLI) by Filippo Agricola (1795/1857)

“Purchase of medals for the museum by Pius VII” (niche XII) is by the Berliner Karl Eggers (1787/1863) who also painted in the Berlin Museum

“Recovery of classic paintings by Pius VII” (niche XXI) by Giovanni Demin (1786/1859) from Belluno in the Veneto region

“Triumph of Religion” by Philipp Veit (1793/1877) the most colorist among the Nazarenes painters

Among other painters who painted lunettes there were Vincenzo Ferreri (1762/1837), Giuseppe Caponeri and Giovanni Colombo

Sculpture Pieces in the Old Wing

The exhibition of the statues is still the original one with the statues densely packed in the long corridor, emphasizing even more the significant amount of works

Between the Old Wing of the original Chiaramonti Museum and the New Wing the works are about 1,000 in total

The odd-numbered niches are on the left, the even ones on the right:

COMPARTMENT I

“Sarcophagus of Gaius Iunius Euhodus and his wife Methylia Acte” 161/170 with the myth of Alcestis and Admetus

Alcestis is represented sacrificing her life instead of her husband's. He should have died for having forgotten to make a sacrifice to Diana. Eventually she was brought back to life as a reward for her sacrifice

COMPARTMENT II

“Herm of Hephaestus” maybe from original of the fifth century BC by Alkàmenes

Hephaestus was the Greek god of fire and Romans identified him with Vulcan

“Alkàmenes was a Greek sculptor, a native of Athens, or Lemnos, active in the second half of the fifth century BC, pupil and rival of Phidias. Pausanias ascribes to Alkàmenes the whole west pediment of the temple of Zeus at Olympia, which is however in Severe style. They might be his, therefore, only some of the angular figures, in Classical style. (...) He has been credited with the Caryatids of the Erechtheum” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

COMPARTMENT IV

“Statue of Igea” I century AD from original of the end of the fifth century BC for the head and from the third century BC for the body

COMPARTMENT V

“Loricate statue of Antoninus Pius” (138/161) with torso of the second half of the second century AD and head not relevant

Antoninus Pius was born in Lanuvio from a family of French origin (Nimes) and it seems to he had been an excellent administrator of the empire

He had good relations with the Senate of which he expanded the powers and with the Roman people especially after he increased the donations of wheat and added oil and wine as well

He was called Pius for his devotion to his adoptive father Hadrian

Edward Gibbon in the eighteenth century described his reign in this way: “The moment in History during which the human condition could enjoy the greatest happiness”

“He was a handsome man of great wit: balanced and noble, he had a face that expressed unusual poise and intelligence. (...) His appearance had a severe majesty. He was tall, and for this reason, when he began to bend down to old age, he kept himself upright tying his chest with strips of linden wood. Even when he was already advanced in years, every morning, before the courtiers came to greet him, he used to eat dry bread to keep fit. His voice was hoarse and coarse, but not at all unpleasant” (Historia Augusta)

COMPARTMENT VII

Fragments of relief with the so-called “Aglauridi” of Hadrian's period from a neo-Attic original, including the famous Gradiva (she who walks) made famous by the 1903 novel Gradiva. A Pompeian fantasy by Wilhelm Jensen and by the passion of Sigmund Freud (1856/1939)

“Jensen tells of a young German archaeologist, Norbert Hanold, who sees a relief in a museum in Rome and becomes fascinated. After buying a cast of it that he would always bring with him, he begins to dream: he imagines Gradiva advancing in the streets of Pompeii and he follows her until she disappears into the night of the eruption of AD 79. Awake, he decides to leave for Pompeii, where he will see a girl with the features of the image etched into the marble and, with a happy surprise, he will find out that it is a girl with whom he used to be a partner in games of childhood and forgotten with time. It was Carl Jung who pointed out this novel to Sigmund Freud, who examined the literary event as a psychiatric case. In his essay 'Delusion and Dream in Jensen's Gradiva' (1906) Freud took inspiration from the literary story to explain how external forces can bring to the surface tensions hidden in psychological depths. These are expressed sometimes in the form of delirium, as in the case of the protagonist, who lives an experience between reality and imagination. In turn Freud, a collector of ancient art, visited the Museum Chiaramonti (in a letter he wrote of his 'meeting' with Gradiva) and he bought a plaster cast of the relief on display there, which he hung to the wall of his studio near the famous sofa-bed, on which his patients stretched” (Giuseppe Nicosia)

COMPARTMENT IX

“Group of Heracles with his child Telephus” from an original of the fourth century BC

Telephus was the son of Heracles and Auge, the daughter of the king of Tegea in the Peloponnese, and he would become king of Mysia in Turkey

COMPARTMENT X

“Tomb of Publius Nonius Zethus” (Ollario) of the first century AD with eight conical cavities for funerary urns

Publius Nonius Zethus was a miller and flour dealer as evidenced by the reliefs on the monument with craft objects

COMPARTMENT XI

“Head wrongly thought to be the head of Cicero” second century AD

COMPARTMENT XII

“Funerary statue of Cornutus” of the end of the third century AD depicted as Saturn surrounded by children

“Relief of sarcophagus with mill” third century AD

COMPARTMENT XIII

“Statue restored as Hermes” with torso and head from two different originals of the fifth century BC

“Shepherd Ganymede with the Eagle” second century AD from original of the early Hellenistic period. Ganymede was abducted by Zeus, transformed on the occasion into an eagle

The god, seized with sudden homosexual passion, took him to Olympus and made him his and the gods' butler

COMPARTMENT XIII

“Relief with Mithras sacrificing the bull” found in the Esquiline quarter

Inside a cave Mithras is sacrificing the bull by order of the Sun in the upper left. The Moon in the upper right guarantees the scenario in which cosmic sacrifice is underlined by the seven stars and seven trees above the ceiling of the cave, allusions to the seven planets

“Relief with lion-headed figure” found in Ostia with the statue of similar subject now in the Profane Museum of the Vatican Library

The dark spots are all that remain of the original gilding. This figure of the Mithraic cult with a lion's head and two pairs of wings symbolized the eternal time and the coils of the serpent alluded to the cyclical alternation of stellar motions

COMPARTMENT XVI

“Colossal head of Athena Promachos with painted eyes” of the Hadrian's period from original by Phidias of the fifth century BC

“Silenus with a panther” from a third century BC Hellenistic original

The panther was part with Sileni, Bacchantes and Satyrs of the triumphal procession which, according to the various versions of the myth, accompanied Dionysus around the world

COMPARTMENT XIX

“Portrait of a Roman” second half of the first century BC. It is a portrait of extraordinary and, perhaps, even overemphasized realism

“Portrait of a priest of Isis” with black head shaved and scar typical of the priests of Isis, mistakenly believed to be Scipio Africanus

COMPARTMENT XX

“Statue of Athena” from an original by an artist of Myron's circle in the fifth century BC

COMPARTMENT XXI

“Eros tending the bow” from the original of the fourth century BC by Lysippus (about 370/300 BC)

“He devoted much attention to detail and was able to find a harmonious accord between the proportions of the body and posture, giving a more natural dynamic to the figure, aimed to reproduce men not as they were, but as they appeared to the eye, thereby affirming the originality of the artistic vision. (...) Such special treatment of the hair, the proportions of small heads compared to lean and slender bodies, with a fundamental organic symmetry, with a refined sense of fine detail. Deep was the influence he exerted on the art of Hellenism” (Enciclopedia Treccani)

COMPARTMENT XXXI

“Relief with the Three Graces” (Charites for the Greek, mythical embodiments of Joy, Beauty and Grace) of the end of the first century BC from original by Sokrates of about 470 BC which was in the Propylaea of the Acropolis of Athens

It was found in 1769 in the area of the Hospital of St. John's Lateran

COMPARTMENT XXXII

“Dacian prisoner” from the Trajan's period (98/117)

Highlighting the strength of the subjected prisoners was probably a not too subtle reference to the obvious greater force of the Romans winners

COMPARTMENT XXXV

“Portrait of a Man with veiled head” Roman art of the first century BC. Veiled head meant in practice covered by a hood which was required when making sacrifices

COMPARTMENT XXXVI

“Statue of athlete at rest” of the first century BC. Roman eclectic reworking with body that mimics the Apollo Lyceum by Praxiteles

COMPARTMENT XXXVII

“Statue of Hercules with a club” from an original of the fourth century BC

COMPARTMENT XL

“Muse so-called Polyhymnia” muse of hymns and mimicry, from an original of the second century BC by Philiskos of Rhodes

This copy albeit with good working in the drapery, pales in comparison to the irresistible beauty of the copy kept at the Centrale Montemartini

“Statue of Artemis the huntress” from two different originals: head of the Colonna Artemis type, torso from original ofthe late fifth century BC

“Stele of the Magister Fabrum Gaius Vedennius Moderatus” from the age of Domitian (81/96) with two machines and implements of war

COMPARTMENT XLIII

“Ulysses offering a drink to Polyphemus” first century AD from an original of the second century BC

COMPARTMENT XLVII

“Portrait of an unknown woman” of the late Tiberian period (14/37)

“Portrait of an unknown man” third quarter of the first century BC very individualized and with interesting disheveled bangs

COMPARTMENT LVIII

“Winter” of the Antonine period (138/192). Female figure lying in a river with fish and water birds captured by cupids

COMPARTMENT LIX

“Fall” also of the Antonine period. Female figure with cupids harvesting

“Relief with meal preparation and dinner over a stibadium” semicircular sofa which in late antiquity replaced the triclinium for meals