BRASCHI PALACE - MUSEUM OF ROME (sixth part)

Microcosm of Beauty

ROOM 11

Engravings and miniatures in plaster

Four statues: “Farnese Hercules”, “Danaide”, “Melpomene” and “Faun” by Giovanni Volpato (1735/1803)

Terracotta statue “Achilles dragging the body of Hector” 1833 by Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781/1835)

“Portrait of Caterina Giustiniani” about 1815/20 by Gaspare Landi (1756/1830)

“Portrait of the engraver Pietro Girometti” about 1831 by Francesco Podesti (1800/95)

“Portraits of the painter Cesare Mariani and of his wife Virginia” 1870 by Domenico Bruschi (1840/1910)

“Portrait of the painter Francesco Podesti” 1870 by Francesco Gai (1835/1917)

Francesco Gai was a pupil of Francesco Podesti, married his nephew Guendolina and helped him in his great work which lasted nine years in the Room of the Immaculate Conception in the Vatican

“Two busts, one in marble and one in plaster of the young farmer from Albano Vittoria Caldoni” 1821 by Pietro Tenerani (1789/1869)

“Self-Portrait” by Pietro Gagliardi (1809/1990)

“Wooden model of the central area of Rome known as Tridente” about 1826 by Tommaso Falcetti

The Code of Fashion

ROOM 12

Eighteenth century ceremony clothes for men and women

BRASCHI PALACE - MUSEUM OF ROME (fourth part)

The City of Rome

ROOM 6

The Roman Senate

Finery belonging to nineteenth-century senators of Rome

ROOM 7

The City of the Grand Tour

Views of Rome in the second half of 1700 and early 1800:

“Campo Vaccino” about 1780 and the “Temple of Fortuna Virile” about 1780 Abraham Louis Rodolphe Ducros and Giovanni Volpato (1735/1803)

“Piazza S. Maria del Pianto” about 1840 by the Englishman John Ruskin (1819/1900)

“Via di Porta Pinciana” 1685/90 by Gaspar Van Wittel (1622/74)

“Triumphal Arch on St. Angelo’s Bridge for the Feast of the Federation” and “Altar of Homeland on St. Peter’s Square” 1798 by Felice Giani (1758/1823)

“The paintings were made to commemorate the most important ceremony which took place in Rome after the French occupation and the proclamation of the Jacobin Republic on February 10, 1798: the Feast of the Federation which was celebrated on the 20th of March. Felice Giani, describes the complex choreography of military parades, along Rome, occupying the symbolic places of the papal city. The second image documents the final event, held in St. Peter's Square, the arrival of the troops on horseback directed toward the Altar of Homeland and preceded by the row of deputies and representatives of the departments. With an evocative style, rich in descriptive details, the table demonstrates the participation of the artist, fervent revolutionary to the propaganda initiatives of the French government” (Official website of the Museo di Roma - www.museodiroma.it)

ROOM 8

Urban settings

“Cabinet with drawers and eighteen views of Rome” known as studiolo, end of seventeenth century, in carved and gilded wood and painted parchment

“Capriccio with the Arch of Titus” second half of the seventeenth century by Viviano Codazzi (1604/70)

“As for Alessandro Magnasco, tiny figures are distributed in an animated space, but to his rapid style and to his popular subjects the Roman painters, who had as a precursor Viviano Codazzi, opposed a noble way: the golden light of Rome replaces the stormy skies of Salvator Rosa and monumental perspectives with large squares, and sometimes ruins with shady boughs take the place of the dark ravines” (André Chastel)

ROOM 9

The view

“Fog over Rome” 1847, “Roman Forum” 1841, “The Colosseum” about 1845 and “The Colosseum seen from above” 1855 by Ippolito Caffi (1809/66)

“The unusual view of the Fog of Rome shows how in the mid-1800s the descriptive concern was substituted by an unmistakably modern attention for the atmospheric phenomena” (Brief Guide to the Museum of Rome)

VATICAN MUSEUMS - GALLERY OF THE CANDELABRA (second part)

Section I
 

3 “Tree with nests” largely restored in 1700, from an original of the Hellenistic production

18 “Statuette of a child playing with a walnut” from a Hellenistic original of the third century BC found in 1784 in the village Acquatraversa on the Via Cassia

The head is modern. Ancient sources and illustrations show that the games with walnuts were very popular in antiquity

26 “Gigantic toe of a right foot” found in early 1880 near the Colosseum

It has been calculated that the complete statue was about 13 m (43 feet) tall, perhaps one of the cult statues of the nearby Temple of Venus and Rome

37 “Crater with the myth of Lycurgus” about 40/30 BC found in 1863 in the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta

It represents the aggression of Lycurgus to the Maenads. Lycurgus, king of Thrace, was the enemy of Dionysus, destroyed the vine and persecuted the Maenads. Dionysus punished him by depriving him of his sight

56 “Drunken Satyr” first century AD from a Hellenistic original of the school of Pergamum, in Egyptian stone, called grovacca (greywacke), quarried in Uadi Hammamat

67 “Boy with a dog in his arms” from a late Hellenistic type

It had been completed with a not relevant ancient head which has been removed with the dog. It represent Hermes as a child

68 “Seated statuette of a satyr” mid-first century AD with additions and restorations in the modern era when the face was smoothed out

70 “Relief of Horus” first half of the first century AD with the Egyptian god depicted as a hawk with on his head the double crown of Lower and Upper Egypt respectively in the shape of a tiara and modioi

“Sarcophagus with child” about 275 AD

“Two candlesticks from Otricoli” second century AD including the No. 39 with a representation of the myth of Marsyas

Section II

 

2 “Meridian” found in 1858 in Ostia

The dial is divided into twelve vertical segments in turn divided into three horizontal bands: the first corresponded to the hours, the second to the winter solstice, equinox and summer solstice

19 and 75 “Modern Bases” by Francesco Antonio Franzoni (1734/1818) for two statues of the muses now in the Hall of the Muses

9 “Pan extracting a thorn from the foot of a satyr” from a Hellenistic original of the second century BC

It was in Villa Mattei and it was purchased in 1770 by the Vatican Museums. It was restored and in part completed in 1819 by Michele Ilari

The subject, typical of the Hellenistic period, was often used for decorating gardens

68 “Artemis the huntress” with ancient head not relevant, maybe from a bronze original of the fourth or third century BC

70 Elegant “Cup with square basin” made in mid-1800 the reworking the yellow marble from Sabina formerly used for an ancient column

72 “Sarcophagus with scenes from the myth of Protesilaus” about 160/170 AD from the second mile of the Appian Way

Protesilaus was the first to set foot on the beach of Troy and the first to die

His wife, Laodamia was given permission by the gods to see him again for a short time but then she killed herself to follow her husband in Hades, evoked here with three mythical damned: Sisyphus with the boulder on his back, Ixion chained to the wheel and Tantalus next to source from which he could not drink

22 “Ephesian Artemis” second century AD from the so-called Greek Theatre of Hadrian's Villa from the original, maybe of the second half of the fourth century BC

It was restored by Giovanni Volpato and purchased by the Vatican Museums in 1781. In this version Diana was called Lady of the Animals symbol of the fruitful nature and abundance

According to Filippo Coarelli, the alleged breasts, that actually show no nipples, are in reality the scrotums of bulls, symbols of fertility

28 “Sarcophagus with scenes from the myth of Orestes” about 160 AD formerly kept in S. Maria in Aracoeli, then in the Palazzo Barberini, and eventually purchased by the Vatican Museums in 1772

Orestes kills his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus to avenge the murder of his father Agamemnon. Pursued by the Furies for what he had done he goes to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi to purify himself

40 “Modern basin supported by three Sileni” with two Sileni found in 1789 in the Villa dei Quintili and the third made in 1790 by Ferdinando Lisandroni who also assembled the group

83 “Ganymede and the eagle” used as a table leg, second century AD copy from the original by Leochares of mid-fourth century BC

“Two candlesticks from S. Costanza” early second century AD