ALTEMPS PALACE - NATIONAL ROMAN MUSEUM (fourth part)

ANTECHAMBER OF THE FOUR SEASONS

Frieze with “Landscapes” maybe by Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo (1560/1620) pupil of Federico Fiori aka Barocci

“Head of Hera” second or first century BC

Beautiful “Head of Heracles” first century AD

“Fragment of a sarcophagus with the myth of Phaedra” third century AD

BEDROOM OF THE CARDINAL

Frieze “Battle scenes” painted in tempera in the seventeenth century by Francesco Allegrini (1587/1663) designed by Antonio Tempesta (about 1555/1630)

“Dionysian mask” in ancient red marble, probably part of a fountain

Heads “Igea” and “Attis”. “Sarcophagus with Judgement of Paris”, all statues of the Hadrian's period (117/138)

The head of Attis originally represented Athena and the Phrygian cap was added by the restorer

STUDIO OF THE CLEMENCY

In the vault “Life of the Virgin Mary” 1590 Vitruvio Alberi (active 1575/died after 1590)

“Base with winged dancers” of the Augustan period

PAINTED LOGGIA OR GALLERY

In the vault “Pergola with animals and fruits some of which exotic” 1595 Vitruvio Alberi, Pasquale Cati and Antonio Viviani aka il Sordo (1560/1620)

The fountain dates back to 1594

“Twelve portraits of Caesars” including Nerva, Antoninus Pius and Tiberius

PARTY ROOM OR FIREPLACE ROOM

Martino Longhi the Elder (1534/91) who also designed the fireplace

“Galatian's suicide with his wife” copy from a bronze original of the period of Julius Caesar found in the Villa Ludovisi gardens formerly Gardens of Sallust

It is part of the sculptural group that was in turn part of the votive offering dedicated by Attalus I (240/197 BC) in the sanctuary of Athena Nikephoros at Pergamon to mark the victory of 228 BC on Galatians

According to Filippo Coarelli the group included also the Dying Gaul in the Capitoline Museums, whose base fits perfectly in the one of the Galatian Suicide. The group was completed by another statue of Dead Galatian Woman with Child

The arm that holds the sword is restored but the original had the opposite direction and also the original left arm of the woman had to be more realistically lower

“The whole figure is crossed by a dynamic twist drill which starts from the right foot, spread through the legs, very wide apart in a direction oblique to the axis represented by the torso and ends with the head turned in the opposite direction of the upwards torsional movement. The elegant execution of the bodies and the intense expression of suffering make this a sculptural group one the dramatic masterpieces of the Hellenistic age” (Lucio Fiorini - TMG)

“Large Ludovisi Sarcophagus” about 250, with battle between Romans and barbarians

“The all classical attention for the analysis of individual figures and the refinement of their specific articulation, surely connected with Attic experiences, oversees the composition to give maximum relief to the figure of the deceased in arms, but at the same time results in a vibrant and exciting overall effect that denies any spatial naturalistic space” (Gian Luca Grassigli - TMG)

“Bust of Mars” second century AD with bust added in 1500s

“Ludovisi Fury” maybe fragment of Dead Galatian Woman with Child belonging to the group of Attalus I

Chiesa di S. Aniceto

St. Anicet's Church

Begun in 1603 at the behest of Giovanni Angelo Altemps son of poor Roberto, the only church with a tomb of a pope in a private home

S. Aniceto (155/166) was the eleventh pope and his body was found in 1602 in the Catacomb of St. Sebastian

On the walls

“Stories of St. Anicet” with inspiration from the martyrdom by beheading of Roberto Altemps by Antonio Circignani aka Pomarancio (about 1568/1629), son of Niccolò Circignani

Vault

“Glory of St. Anicet” and “Angels bearing palms on the left and instruments of torture on the right” by Polidoro Mariottini

Reliquary of 1612 with the relics of Sts Anicet, Zosimus and Famianus in an “Ancient yellow Urn” which, according to tradition, contained the bones of Alexander Severus (222/235)

Behind “Cycle of oil paintings about St. Anicet” 1612 Ottavio Leoni (1578/1630)

OCTAGONAL CHAPEL AND SACRISTY

Wooden door with incredible security lock

CHAPEL OF St. CHARLES BORROMEO

Fragment of St. Charles Borromeo's vestment, musical scores late 1500 and early 1600 written for the Church of St. Anicet

ALTEMPS PALACE - NATIONAL ROMAN MUSEUM (third part)

Teatro Goldoni

One of the oldest in Rome. Here Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart performed

It was used as a cinema in 1905 with the technique of the magic lantern

Decorations made at the end of 1800s

It was restored by Francesco Vespignani (1842/99)

GRAND STAIRCASE

Three statues, three portraits and “Greek Stele with relief vase”

First Floor

OPEN GALLERY

“Two female figures with drapes”

On the wall reliefs in the Del Drago Collection:

Two reliefs with “Various gods” 160/180 AD

“Washing of the feet” 150/170 AD

“Funeral Feast” Greek original beginning of the fourth century BC

“Dioscuri” Greek original fifth or fourth century BC from the Brancaccio collection

ROOM OF VENUS JANDOLO

“Jandolo Venus in the bathroom” Hadrian's period from original by Doidalsas of the fourth century BC

“Bust of Septimius Severus (193/211)”

ROOM OF THE PAINTED PERSPECTIVES

Maybe it was the original chapel of the fifteenth-century palace

Cardinal Altemps ordered to paint a porch after 1568 to Vitruvio Alberi (active 1575/died after 1590) and Pasquale Cati (1537/1612) and a frieze with putti to Lattanzio Bonastri (about 1572/died after 1580)

“Hermes Loghios” late first/early second century AD from the original of the fifth century BC restored arbitrarily in 1631 by Alessandro Algardi (1598/1654) with one arm raised

This gesture gave the statue its name loghios, attribute of Hermes as god of eloquence. On the hair and on the mantle there are traces of red functional to painting the hair in a golden color

“Hercules” II sec. B.C. known as the Lenbach type

“Hermes headless” first century AD

“Asclepius” god of medicine, known among the Romans as Aesculapius

“Bust of Satyr” in gray marble on urn and altar, restored in 1600s maybe by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

ROOM OF THE PLATE RACK

Frescoes of dishes maybe by the workshop of Melozzo Ambrosi aka Melozzo da Forlì (1438/94)

“Ares Ludovisi” late second century BC in Pentelic marble

Maybe by Skopas Minor restored by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598/1680) in the hilt of the sword, the small eros and elsewhere

According to Filippo Coarelli it is the Achilles receiving from his mother Thetis the weapons she had received from Hephaestus

It was part of a group of sculptures, including also the Thetis of Palazzo Massimo, placed in the Temple of Neptune in the Campus Martius (corresponding now to the House of Manili) on a base identified as the Altar of Domitius Enobarbus fragments of which are now both in the Louvre and in Munich

“The eclectic nature of the work has been emphasized: to the Phidian pose of the Ares, similar to the image of the god in the frieze of the Parthenon, corresponds, in fact, the pathetic facial expression similar to Skopa's style, even though Praxiteles' style is also recognizable in the head. Echoes of Lysippus are also detectable in the proportions of the body and in his conception of space” (Lucio Fiorini - TMG)

“Warrior” of the Antonine period. Body of Pentelic marble, head of Parian marble

“Group of Electra and Orestes” first century AD in the neo-Attic period, signed by Menelaos

ROOM OF THE STORIES OF MOSES

Frescoes with “Stories of Moses” 1591 by Pasquale Cati (1537/1612)

“Hera Ludovisi” in Parian marble

Maybe a portrait of Antonia Minor mother of Claudius (41/54), revered by Goethe as my first Roman love and believed to be an original Greek by Winckelmann who considered it a milestone in the history of ancient statuary

“Acrolith Ludovisi” 480/470 BC Greek original, part of a cult statue, probably Venus

“Ludovisi Throne” 460 BC Greek original, maybe from Magna Graecia (Locri in Calabria) or more likely brought with the Acrolith Ludovisi in 184 from the Temple of Erice in Sicily to be placed in the Temple of Venus Erycina on the Quirinal

It was not a throne but probably the decoration of a sacred well

Federico Zeri believed, probably mistakenly, that it was a fake of the nineteenth century

An acrolith was a statue with the exposed parts of the body in marble and the rest in wood covered with metal, perhaps gilded bronze

“It is more likely the parapet of a bothros (sacred well) in the Ionic temple of Marasà, in the urban area of Locri. For the complexity of the decorative and fine execution, it must have been an important commission, maybe public, for an expert sculptor in marble and thoroughly permeated by the style of the Islands of the Ionic sea” (Marina Castoldi)

“The flute player is the first female Greek nude carved of which we know of since the geometrical Athenian ivories. Although in the statues there errors in anatomy, the overall composition is very well structured” (John Griffiths Pedley)