Showing posts with label Palazzo dei Conservatori. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Palazzo dei Conservatori. Show all posts

Sunday, May 11, 2014

CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS - GALLERY OF THE GARDENS (second part)

Exedra of Marcus Aurelius
Architecture by Carlo Aymonino (1926/2010) on the area of the GIARDINO ROMANO (Roman Garden) between the properties of the Conservatives and the Caffarelli family
In 1876 Virginio Vespignani had built an octagonal pavilion to preserve the works of art
"Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius" (161/180) about 176 AD, the only ancient equestrian bronze statue to reach our times of the many that were in Rome: a late imperial description lists no less than twenty-two Equi Magni (big horses)
It was saved from melting and recycling only because mistakenly believed to be the representation of Constantine the emperor who legalized Christianity in 313
The original location is debated. It was moved from the Lateran Square to the center of the Piazza del Campidoglio in 1538 by order of Paul III Farnese (1534/49) and placed on a pedestal designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti
In 1979 it was damaged by a bomb during a terrorist attack that didn't cause a massacre only because a storm had broke out and Piazza del Campidoglio was empty
It was restored in the years 1981/90
In 1997 a copy was placed in the center of Piazza del Campidoglio
"From the Aedes Aemiliana Herculis in the Forum Boarium probably dedicated in 142 BC during the censorship of Scipio Aemilian from an archetype dating from about 320/300 BC recognized in the Lenbach type Hercules similar, on stylistic grounds, to works of Lysippus or his school, to which refer features such as the smallness of the head (not without echoes of Skopas) or the pronounced twisting of the trunk" (Lucio Fiorini - TMG)
"Head", "Hand" and "Orb" in bronze of Constantine (306/337) or his son Costatius II (337/361) believed to be part of the same statue
"Orb" originally placed on top of the Vatican Obelisk, removed in 1586 by Domenico Fontana. According to an ancient tradition it was believed to be the tomb of Julius Caesar, but Fontana only found rust. It was transferred to the Capitoline Museum in 1589
The holes in the orb were made by bullets from guns of mercenaries during the sack of Rome in 1527. They are the only tangible evidence of that tragic event, along with the holes in the Belvedere bronze Pine Cone and in the bronze peacocks, originally located near the Pine Cone in the atrium of the Basilica of St. Peter
Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus
Also known as TEMPLE OF JUPITER OPTIMUS MAXIMUS the Roman version of the Greek Zeus. Temple of the Capitoline Triad, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva founded, according to legend, by Tarquinius Priscus (616/579 BC), the fifth king of Rome who wanted to dedicated it to Jupiter Optimus Maximus in exchange for victory over the Sabines
Maybe it was also built to emphasize the new religious as well as political importance of Rome over other cities of the Latin League who previously gravitated around Alba Longa and the Temple of Jupiter Latiaris on Mons Albanus, now Monte Cavo
Tarquinius Priscus' son, Tarquin the Proud, continued the construction but it was dedicated only in the first year of the Roman Republic, on September 13, 509 BC by the consul Horace Pulvilli
The legend says that during the construction a skull was found, which gave its name to the Capitolium hill (head in Latin is caput), hinting that that was where the center of power in Rome would have been in the future
It measured about 62 x 54 m (203 x 177 feet)
It suffered fires in 83 BC, AD 69 and AD 80 and it was always rebuilt with the same dimensions. Only part of the foundations in cappellaccio stone remains
THREE PARALLEL CELLAE separated by walls, under the same roof with the simulacra of worship inside: on the left Juno, in the center Jupiter and on the right Minerva
Rites took place in the Temple before wars and triumphal processions ended here. The Sibylline Books (books to predict the future) were kept here, it was a symbol of Rome and it was reproduced in all the newly founded cities
The huge STATUE OF JUPITER with a thunderbolt in his right hand was made by the Greek Apollonios, perhaps the same Apollonios Nestor's son who signed the Belvedere Torso in the Vatican Museums
On the roof there was a CHARIOT MADE OF TERRACOTTA by Vulca, the only Etruscan sculptor known to us
The legend says that during the baking the oven that contained it cracked, another harbinger of the greatness of Rome
In 296 BC the terracotta chariot was replaced with a bronze one by the Ogulnii brothers the aedilii of that year, the same ones that had made the bronze she-wolf of the Lupercal
In front of the temple there was a square, the AREA CAPITOLINA, full of statues and monuments:
A square foundation remains on either side of Via del Tempio di Giove, maybe part of the ALTAR TO JUPITER CUSTODIAN (Ara Juppiter Conservator) erected by Domitian to thank the god for the narrow escape during the siege of the Capitol ine Hill by Vitellius' party, when he had hidden in the Capitoline Temple of Isis disguised as a priest of Isis, as represented on the altar
More likely, the square foundation is the nucleus of the ALTAR OF THE GENS JULIA maybe identifiable with the ARA PIETATIS AUGUSTAE dedicated by Claudius in 43 AD but voted by the Senate in 22 for a serious illness of Livia. The reliefs included in the rear façade of the Villa Medici probably belonged to this altar
The TEMPLE OF CAPITOLINE ISIS dated at least to 58 BC, when it is mentioned for the first time by the sources. It was located in the area where the church of S. Maria in Aracoeli is now. Maybe the Celimontano Obelisk dating back to about 1250 BC at the time of Ramses II (1297/1213 BC) belonged to temple. It was moved in 1582 to Villa Celimontana
On the south side of the Temple there was the TEMPLE OF FIDES (trust), the divinity guardian of the treaties and diplomatic relations, the remains of which crashed in the area of S. Omobono
Among these materials, fragments of a black marble base with victories and trophies in relief were also found, maybe the base of the bronze group with the scene of the surrender of Jugurtha donated by the king Bocco of Mauretania to Sulla and a statue of Aristogeiton one of the tyrannicides (along with Harmodius) copy of the group of Critias and Nesiote formerly made by Antenor in 476 BC to be erected in the agora of Athens, now in the Museum of the Central Montemartini: the event represented temporally coincided with the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud and the beginning of the Roman Republic 
On the Clivus Capitolinus (the road to the hill) maybe at the entrance of the Area Capitolina there was the ARCH OF TRIUMPH OF SCIPIO AFRICANUS built in 190 BC, one of the oldest in Rome
According to ancient tradition the VILLAGE ON THE CAPITOLINE HILL was the oldest of the ones on the hills of future Rome. It would have been founded by the god Saturn himself. Archaeological excavations made it possible to date the origin of the village of the Capitoline Hill to the fourteenth or thirteenth century BC
The Capitoline Hill is the smallest among the hills of Rome: it measures only 460 x 180 m (1,510 x 590 feet) and it is 46 m (150 feet) high above sea level, but the slope was much steeper in the past than now and it was protected from possible enemies
Remains of the decoration of an ancient temple from the sixth century BC found in the Sacred Area of S. Omobono in the Forum Boarium
The decoration of the pediment of the Corinthian type is the oldest example of a closed pediment of the Etruscan and Italic architecture in the archaic period
"Fragmented acroterial group with Hercules and Athena" second half of the sixth century BC. "Polychrome antefix (roof decoration) with female head" end of the sixth century BC
"Coating clay slab with a parade of chariots" second half of the sixth century BC. The temple was located at the point of beginning of the triumphal procession. The figure of Hercules was traditionally linked to the triumph as a man transformed into a god and he represented the consecration of power
"Laconic cup with roosters facing each other" sixth century BC
"Miniature pots and pans in bucchero" used for small offerings to the gods
"Ivory plaque in the shape of a feline" with Etruscan inscription of the beginning of the sixth century BC, maybe used as a pass, symbol of mutual hospitality, the so-called tessera hospitales
"Fragment of Amazon" in terracotta still polychrome, early fifth century BC. It was found outside the Esquiline Gate (now Arch of Gallienus) and maybe it was part of the decoration of the temple of the goddess Libitina, the goddess of deaths linked to the funeral rites
Reconstruction of the discovery of a "Girl's grave" dating to the tenth or ninth century BC found on the Capitoline Hill to prove the ancient human presence of the hill, which, judging from ceramics found in the S. Omobono area, was inhabited at least since the fourteenth or thirteenth century BC
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CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS - GALLERY OF THE GARDENS (first part)

Galleria degli Horti
Findings from the Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline hills during the construction work for the expansion of Rome at the end of 1800s
The archeologists found, among other things, 192 marble statues, 266 busts and heads, 54 polychrome mosaics, 36,679 pieces of gold, silver and bronze 705 amphora with inscriptions, 405 works of art in bronze, 711 gems, engraved stones and cameos
Many of the statues were found inserted in pieces in late ancient walls, used as construction material
Lamian Gardens
Between Piazza Vittorio, Viale Manzoni and Via Merulana
Property of Lucius Aelius Lamia consol in 3 AD and friend of Tiberius (14/37)
They became imperial property and were inhabited by Caligula (37/41)
The Lancellotti Discobolus, now at the Palazzo Massimo, was also found here as well as the Aldobrandini Wedding painting, now in the Vatican Museums, one of the most beautiful and best preserved ancient paintings
ROOM I
Very valuable original Greek pieces of the fourth century BC found in 1907 in Piazza Dante:
Two Greek funerary stelae, one with "Woman Sitting Down" and one with "Woman Standing"
"Group of the Ephedrismòs" with two girls, one on the shoulders of the other during a game of leapfrog, 
The group dell'Ephedrismòs is a masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture of a piercing beauty and sensuality, so full of dynamism and with drapery rendered in such a way to be able to compete in virtuosic beauty, if not in size, with the "Nike of Samothrace" the great icon of Hellenistic sculpture in the Louvre in Paris
Although the original colors are lost the virtuosistic treatment of the marble, however, manages to distinguish the heavier draped garnments from the lighter ones of the two admittedly skimpy dressed young girls
The group was probably originally used as acroterion, a element placed on roof of buildings. According to an interesting hypothesis by Georgios Despinis it was brought to Rome as war booty from the city of Tegea in Greece
The Ephedrismòs game consisted in hitting with a ball a rock stuck in the ground: those who had not succeeded had to take on their shoulders the winners who would cover the losers' eyes until the latter had not reached the stone
ROOM II
Part of the extraordinary "Floor of alabaster" from the disappeared Villa Palombara, which at the time of the discovery appeared about 80 m (260 feet) long
"Fragments of precious furniture": gems, crystals and gold plated metal sheets
ROOM III
"Esquiline Venus" first century AD, maybe a portrait of Cleopatra or Isis-Aphrodite product of religious syncretism of Hellenistic Egypt. Extraordinary sensuality on the movement of the legs and lateral torsion of the body mitigated, however, by the classicist style used for the impassive face
"Diadoumenos" from an original of about 430 BC by Polykleitos of Argos (about 490/425 BC)
"Here Polykleitos exacerbates the characteristics of the Doryphorus: the center of gravity is no longer on one leg but in the middle between the two, the modeling is more subtle, the rhythms are more complex and an idea of marble coloring is present in the face and especially in the hair" (Carlo Bertelli, Giuliano Briganti, Antonio Giuliano)
"Head of a satyr" believed by some scholars to be dating back tothe Tiberian period (14/37), and by others, like Filippo Coarelli, an original of early second century BC by an artist of the school of Pargamum. The marble is Asian and it wouldn't have made sense to use this kind of marble in the first century AD in Rome where there were far better kind of marble available. Bernini never saw this statue which surpasses even his most flamboyant works for its outstanding baroque expressionism
"The almost animalistic features of the face rendered with extraordinary effectiveness, the study exaggerated in the rendering of the features expressively tormented, are similar characteristics to the ones visible in the heads of the group of Polyphemus at Sperlonga, especially that of Ulysses. Maybe the same patron presided over the creation of this group of works, created with a declared similarity to Hellenistic art from Rhodes and Pergamum: Tiberius, owner of the villa at Sperlonga and heir of the Aelii Lamiae property" (Guide to the Capitoline Museums - 2007 Electa)
"If Hadrian with the theme of contrast between light and smooth parts of the face and the chiaroscuro of the animated short beard and hair is balanced by the strong classical matrix, with Marcus Aurelius and even more with Commodus, the almost frenetic pace of the masses of hair and beard, longer and longer, becomes the dominant feature, which wants to convey the idea of strength and vigor of the monarch, represented, not surprisingly as Hercules" (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)
"Statue of woman with chiton" in marble from Paros inspired to the early Hellenistic style
THREE ROOMS OF THE HORTI TAURIANI E VETTIANI
Taurian and Vettian Gardens
Via Labicana, Viale Manzoni
Property of senator Statilius Taurus
They became imperial property in 53 at the time of Claudius (41/54)
In 368 they became eventually property of the Praefectus Urbi (Superintendent of the city) Vettius Agorius Praetextatus
ROOM IV
"Statue maybe of Igea" first century BC with bracelet and beautiful armilla on the left arm
"Bust of a goddess" maybe Artemis from an original of the fourth century BC by Kephisodotos
"Sarcophagus with the myth of the Caledonian Boar" from Vicovaro in Proconnesian marble
ROOM V
"Statue of cow" maybe a copy from the famous original of Myron from Eleutere (about 500/440 BC) for the Acropolis in Athens and brought to Rome at the time of Vespasian (69/79)
Three neo-Attic reliefs: "Landscape with a sanctuary" "Quadriga of Helios" and "Quadriga of Selene" running after each other
"Draped female statue" second century BC in pentelic marble, an original Greek statue from the Magna Graecia (Southern Italy)
ROOM VI - GALLERY
"Genius of Domitian" in marble of Thasos
"Female Statue with a different head of the Faustina the Elder type"
"Legs of a Roman soldier" beginning of first century AD in pentelic marble
"Relief with Eros" without head in Synnada marble from Hadrian's period
"Base with four Greyhounds" in Luni (Carrara) marble maybe for a bronze decorative element
Portraits:
"Portrait of Man" first half of the III century with bust in alabaster not original
"Portrait of Child" in Greek marble
"Portrait of Woman" Severian period (193/235) in Luni marble with typical hairdo fashionable at that time
Imperial portraits:
"Adrian" (117/138)" between his wife "Sabina" and his mother in law "Matidia" whom he transformed onto a goddess
"Faustina the Elder"
"Domitian" (81/96) perhaps the finest extant portrait of this emperor who reigned for 15 years and who had, after hisdeath, the damnatio memoriae, or the cancellation of his images. This is why his portraits are quite rare and ruined like this one
THREE ROOMS OF THE HORTI OF MAECENAS
Maecenas Gardens
Via Merulana, Via Buonarroti
The area was reclaimed and became the sumptuous home of Maecenas in 40 BC. He was the first to colonize the Esquiline Hill as the place for luxury homes
It used to be the site of an ancient cemetery
The villa became imperial property by the first decade AD
Of all the structure only the so-called Auditorium in Via Merulana still exists today
ROOM VII
"Hermes" with portraits of writers
"Rhytòn shaped Fountain" (a Rhytòn was a cone shaped container for drinking) end of the first century BC, signed by the Greek Pontios
"Head of an Amazon" from the original of the fifth century BC by Polykleitos
"Statue of Marsyas" from an original of the second century BC in pavonazzetto marble in order to imitate the flayed skin
"Relief with Dionysian initiation scene" from an original of the second century BC
ROOM VIII
Group of "Charioteer and horse" Roman reinterpretation of Greek stylistic features from the fifth century BC
Three fragmentary statues identifiable as Muse from Hellenistic originals including "Calliope" (muse of epic poetry) and "Melpomene" (muse of tragedy)
"The special position of the body creates an elegant design of the heavy drapery of fabric arranged in a refined pattern of curved lines. The waist is encircled by a Nebrid, the goat skin typical of Dionysian characters, which is a clear reference to the origin of tragedy invented in honor of Dionysus" (Guide to the Capitoline Museums - 2007 Electa)
"Dog" of Egyptian green marble
"Four herms of caryatids" in the archaic style of the Augustan age
ROOM IX
"Igea" in pentelic marble from the original of 290 BC
"Eros Thanatos" second century AD from the original of the fourth century BC
"Archaic Attic funerary stele with dove" Greek original about 480 BC
"The production of dense folds still has an archaic taste, but the smoothness of the drapery and the effect of transparency reveal that attention towards the human figure, animated and alive, typical of the Severe style of 480/450" (Marina Castoldi)
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Saturday, May 10, 2014

CAPITOLINE MUSEUMS - PALACE OF THE CONSERVATIVES (second part)

ROOM OF THE TRIUMPHS
Ceiling 1568 by Flaminio Bolonger
Frieze "Triumph of the consul Lucius Aemilius Paulus over Perseus king of Macedonia in 167 BC" as described by Plutarch about 1570 Michele Alberti (active 1535/82) and Jacopo Rocchetti pupils of Daniele da Volterra
A magnificent procession accompanying the winner to the Capitol Hill, where, instead of the Temple of Jupiter where traditionally triumphal processions ended at, it is recognizable the new façade of the Palace of the Conservatives that it was being built in those years
"Portrait of a Man" fourth or third century BC, believed to be Junius Brutus the founder of the Roman Republic in 509 BC. Spectacular example of Roman portraiture, featuring marvellous and intense expressionism
"Camillus" classical work of the Augustan age, representing a young man employed during devotional rites (Camillus)
"Spinario" first century BC maybe representing Martius, a shepherd from Vitorchiano, who walked 90 km (56 miles) to warn the Romans of the arrival of an enemy army. A thorn stuck in his foot and after he raised the alarm, he died of the wound. This is maybe the oldest copy of the various existing (Uffizi, Louvre, British Museum, Pushkin Museum), whose head is probably not relevant and it was united to the body in the first century BC, as one would think looking at the hair defying the laws of gravity
On the walls:
"Victory of Alexander the Great over Darius" 1635 by Pietro Berrettini aka Pietro da Cortona (1597/1669)
"St. Frances of Rome" 1638 by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62) from Viterbo, a pupil of Pietro da Cortona
"St. Francis adoring the dead Christ" 1641 by Paolo Piazza (1557/1621)
"Front of sarcophagus" of the third century AD
At the center of the room:
"Bronze Crater of Mithridates VI Eupator" 120/63 BC found the Villa of Nero at Anzio in 1740, part of the spoils from the war against Mithridates in Turkey
Coffered wooden ceiling of 1865
"Mosaic Floor" of the first century AD found in 1893 in Via Nazionale
Frescoes on the left "Triumph of Aemilius Paulus" and on the right "Campaign against the Tolostobogi" 1508/13 by artists from the workshop of Jacopo Ripanda
"Two plaques in honor of Alessandro Farnese and Marcantonio Colonna"
Until the seventeenth century the room was an open loggia and certainly by the sixteenth century there was the bronze statue "Capitoline She-Wolf" believed until recently to have come from Magna Grecia (Southern Italy ruled by Greek) and to be dating back to the V century BC. It is certainly NOT Roman
The scholars that have restored it believe, on the other hand, with good evidence that it is a medieval statue, probably of the XII century AD: not only for the fact that a single casting of bronze, as this piece is made, was not practiced in ancient times (it was used the lost wax casting of various pieces of the statue assembled later) or that the position of the muzzle in all other iconographic representations is always turned backward, but also, and above all, for the analysis using carbon-14 in 2011 that convinced even the skeptics
The twins were added only in the fifteenth century maybe by the Florentine Antonio Benci aka Antonio del Pollaiuolo (about 1432/98)
The documentary evidence tell us that the true symbol of ancient Rome was the EAGLE and in the Middle Ages the symbol became the lion. Only by the end of 1400s the she-wolf became the symbol of Rome
The walls enclosing architecture of Michelangelo Buonarroti "Fragments of consular and triumphal pomp" engraved in the disappeared Parthian Arch of Augustus of 19 BC in the Forum with a list of Consuls from 483 to 19 BC in the panels and a list of Triumphs from 753 to 19 BC in the pilasters
It is a document of inestimable importance for the reconstruction of the history of ancient Rome and it can be considered the most important Latin inscription in the world
Michelangelo had placed it in the courtyard of the palace and it was moved here in 1586
Ceiling and frieze of the time of Paul III Farnese (1534/49) with "Trophies of arms, flowers and fruit, and grotesque decorations" alternate with "Small scenes of ancient Roman games" set in landscapes sometimes real, sometimes fantastic. In one of these the Capitoline Hill Piazza before Michelangelo's modifications is visible with S. Maria in Ara Coeli in the background
"Head of Medusa" by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680). The dating of this masterpiece is debated and it is has been inserted sometime between the years 1630 and 1648 
"The classical myth is revisited in the light of a poem by G.B. Marino: Medusa is looking at her reflection into an imaginary mirror, and she is caught in the moment when, with pain and anguish, she becomes aware of the horrible trick and physically, before our eyes, she turns into marble. Medusa, in Bernini's idea, is a fine Baroque metaphor for sculpture and the power of the sculptor who can leave 'petrified' in amazement those who admire the extraordinary ability of his chisel" (Guide to the Capitoline Museums - 2007 Electa)
"In an essay reworked by Irving Lavin (...) the scholar (...), with unpublished reflections, establishes a closer link between the bust of Constanza Bonarelli, sculpted between 1636 and 1638, and that of Medusa, maybes designed by Bernini as a moral counterpart of the first, both anyway designed as a personal reflection of the artist, and both later donated or sold to others by Bernini himself. According to this new hypothesis the dating of the Bust of Medusa might be slightly predated to the end of the thirties of the seventeenth century" (Web site of the Capitoline Museums - www.museicapitolini.org)
"Bust of Michelangelo Buonarroti" copy of the one by Daniele da Volterra (1509/66) in the National Museum of Florence, a bronze bust of bigio marble
Ceiling mid-1500s and frieze in panels and medallions about 1544 maybe by Cristofano Gherardi (1508/56) with interesting "Scenes of Rome's monuments" including a view of the Capitol Square with the statue of Marcus Aurelius moved there in 1538
"Statue in marble and bronze of Artemis of Ephesus" from an original of the second century BC: symbol of fruitful nature even though, according to Filippo Coarelli, the breasts are in reality scrotums of bulls
"Statuette of Athena Velletri type" Roman copy of the original of the fifth century BC
"Statuette of an eagle" early imperial period
"Herm of Socrates" first century AD from the original by Lysippus
ROOM OF THE TAPESTRIES
Ceiling mid-1500s and frieze in panels about 1544 with "Stories of Scipio Africanus" and "Monochromes of famous ancient sculptures" including the Laocoon, Apollo Belvedere, and Hercules in gilded bronze
In 1770 the room was renovated to house the papal throne
Tapestries with "Stories from the History of Rome":
"Romulus and Remus as painted by Rubens" from the painting in the Capitoline's Museums art gallery, "Roma Cesi" from the statue kept in the courtyard of the Palace of the Conservatives, "Vestal Tuccia" and "Bad Teacher of Falerii" 1764/68 from cartons by Domenico Corvi (1721/1803) from Viterbo woven in the factory of the Hospice of St. Michael
It is the only room of the fifteenth century apartment that wasn't changed or modified
Wooden ceiling 1516/19, the oldest of the Palace, with in the center "She-wolf suckling the twins" used as a decorative element and, for the first time, as a symbolic reference to the origins of the city
Frescoes "Stories of the Punic Wars" first decade of the 1500s traditionally attributed to Jacopo Ripanda (about 1465/1516) and assistants, but the attribution is quite disputed among scholars
 These frescoes are the only ones surviving from the first complete decorative cycle of the building, which was also present in the other rooms of the apartment
"Bronze Horse from Vicolo delle Palme" discovered in 1849 during an excavation in Trastevere during which the Apoxyòmenos now in the Vatican Museums was found as well
Recently restored after having been neglected for a long time. It is considered by some to be a Roman copy from an original of the fourth century BC, by others an extraordinary Greek original of the fourth century BC
Filippo Coarelli deemed it part of the "Turma Alexandri" an original work by Lysippus (about 370/300) who had represented Alexander the Great and twenty-five ethers (barons and small local rulers who ruled the mountainous areas of the ancient Kingdom of Macedonia) on horseback, died during the battle of the Granicus in 334 BC. The group was made for the sanctuary of Dion in Macedonia and was brought to Rome by Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus after his conquest of 146 BC in Macedonia
It is one of the rare examples of ancient large bronze statues still extant. Magnificent natural dynamism and tension for an incredible ancient masterpiece full of epic and Homeric suggestions
It was deconsecrated and closed at the end of 1800s
It was renovated and rebuilt in 2000. It is dedicated to the Virgin and the Sts. Peter and Paul, patrons of Rome
In the vault stuccos and frescos "Stories of Sts. Peter and Paul" 1575/78 Michele Alberti (active 1535/82) e Jacopo Rocchetti pupils of Daniele da Volterra
Altar "Sts. Peter and Paul ask Our Lady to protect the city of Rome" on a blackboard 1578 by Marcello Venusti (about 1512/79)
"Frontal of the altar" elaborately inlaid with precious marbles with bees of Urban VIII Barberini (1623/44)
On either side frescoes of saints: "Evangelists" and "Cecilia", "Alexis", "Eustachius" and "Blessed Ludovica Albertoni" 1645/48 maybe by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610/62)
On the long wall opposite the window, to cover a golden grating formerly communicating with the adjacent Room of the Captains, fresco "Madonna and Child" maybe by Andrea di Assisi or Antonio da Viterbo, from the fifteenth century loggia of the palace
Some 700 artifacts from Etruria, Latium and Magna Graecia dating from the eighth to the fourth century BC donated in 1867 and in 1876 by Augusto Castellani (1829/1914) goldsmith, collector and director of the Capitoline Museums since 1873
ROOM I
"Red-figure Attic kylix with athlete who draws water from a well" first three decades of the fifth century BC in the style of the Painter of Onesimos. The kylix was a cup to drink wine just like we do now from glasses
"Red-figure Attic kylix with pentathlete seen from behind" first three decades of the fifth century BC in the style of the painter of Onesimos
ROOM II
Production of Etruscan Latium region including objects from the so-called Castellani Tomb of Palestrina not really coming, however, from a single tomb: "Biconical bronze" and "Reconstruction of cyst" in silver last thirty years of the eighth century BC
"Oenochoe of Tragliatella" (wine jug) Etruscan-Corinthian, last thirty years of the seventh century BC, found near Lake Bracciano. The polychrome paintings on the oenochoe represent men, women and animals with meanings not entirely clarified, maybe connected to the myth of Theseus and Ariadne
Greek manufacturing objects, including terracotta "Crater with blinding of Polyphemus and naval battle" about seventh century BC signed by Aristonothos
"The intense westward diaspora of families fleeing the Eastern Assyrian pressure had created the conditions for new techniques and iconographic languages were learned directly from Greek masters from the East. The assimilation is not naturally free of trauma and lacerations, the order of the Geometric age is overwhelmed by the furious Eastern trend of narrative matrix, whose more violent and dark contents are, however, gradually exorcised, smoothed and eventually rejected. The clash between figurative Greek order and Eastern monstrosities is expressed clearly in the Greek stories of struggle" (Claudia Lambrugo)
"Terracotta statuette of a seated dignitary" second half of the seventh century BC from the Tomb of the five chairs in Cerveteri
Huge "Fragment of a bronze bull" found in 1849 during an excavation in Trastevere together with the Apoxyòmenos of the Vatican Museums and the bronze horse from Vicolo delle Palme in the Hall of Hannibal. This is probably an original Greek piece of the fourth century BC just like the horse
"Bas-reliefs from the tomb of dogs in Tolfa" in gray tuff, first half of the sixth century BC
"Reconstruction of a tensa" with stories of Achilles in the relief, maybe of the fourth century AD. It was rebuilt by Castellani, who made very subjective reconstructive choices believing it to be a chariot. It was actually a tensa, a kind of rickshaw used during sacred processions in antiquity, so that near the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus there was a building known as Tensarium used as a "garage" for these vehicles
Objects from the archaeological section of about 300 objects from the Collection of the Museum of Industrial Art dispersed in the 50s of the twentieth century among various museums: figurative ceramics of Greek production, buccheri, terracotta statuettes, antefixes from Campania region and silver objects from Boscoreale
Embedded in the walls inscriptions with the names of the civic magistrates in Rome from 1640 until today
ROOM I
Two "Athletes of Velletri" from originals of the second half of the fifth century BC, found in a villa in Arriano, near Velletri
"Erma of Apollo" from original of the fifth century BC
ROOM II
"Fluted column" of marine alabaster
"Statue of an old shepherd" from the Esquiline Hill
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