Capitoline Museum
In the wall of the COURT opposite the entrance there is a tablet placed there in 1734 to commemorate the setting up of the Museum. Beneath this and above the fountain reclines the colossal statue of Oceano from the first century B.C. popularly called Marforio, one of the talking statues of Rome. The Portico to the right of the courtyard contains the Egyptian Collection, with sculptures coming in large part from the Temple of Isis in the Campus Martius; of particular interest are the three grey granite columns decorated with figures of priests; the two Cynocephali in the same stone come from the tomb of Nectanebo Il (fouth century B.C.).
Among the sculptures in the ATRIUM are the statue of Minerva from a Greek original of the middle of the fifth century B.C., the statue of the Emperor Hadrian in Pontifical robes, a female divinity, possibly Demetra. from an original of the fifth century B.C., Faustina the elder, a copy of a statue of the fifth century B.C., and a group of Polyphemus and a companion of Ulysses from the late Roman period.
THE GROUND FLOOR ROOMS ON THE LEFT are dedicated to Oriental Cults. Of particular interest are the altar of the Vestal Claudia, which recalls a legend of the end of the third century B.C., and the altar of the Sol Sanctissimus from the first century A.D. (Room I); statues and altars dedicated to the worship of Isis and Serapis (Room II); sculptures from the shrine of Jupiter Dolichenus on the Aventine (Room III).
THE GROUND FLOOR ROOMS ON THE RIGHT contain works of the Roman period. Among these it is worth noting fragments of the calendar, the Amendola Sarcophagus showing details of the struggle between the Greeks and the Galatians from the second century B.C. and very similar to Pergamon art; the so-called Alexander Severus Sarcophagus, a Greek work from the third century B.C., with reliefs on its sides figuring the legend of Achilles and two dead figures lying on the lid.
From the courtyard opposite an enormous statue of Mars Ultor, a staircase leads up to the first floor gallery. This corridor is lined with statues and busts. The following are the most interesting: Leda and the Swan, from a fourth-century B.C. original; Drunken old woman, possibly a copy of a work by Myron the younger; Winged Psyche from a fourth-century B.C. original; Athena from Velletri, a copy of an original bronze from the fifth or fourth century B.C.; bust of Probus, from the third century B.C.; a large bowl set on a well-head with archaistic decoration from Hadrian’s Villa; Cupid bending his bow, from an original by Lysippus, the infant Hercules strangling the Hydra, restored in this form by Alessandro Algardi in the seventeenth century but probably in the original representing Hercules and the hind.
THE HALL Of THE DOVES takes its name from the famous mosaic of four doves drinking at a fountain, which came from Hadrian’s Villa and is a copy of Sosias of Pergamos. There is another mosaic of a Tragic and Comic Mask; a child’s sarcophagus with the myth of Prometheus, a Roman work; a series of Roman busts dating from the end of the Republic or the beginning of the Empire; a statuette of a girl defending a dove from a serpent, a copy of a Greek original of the third to second century B.C. The lIiac Tablet with reliefs representing the story of the destruction of Troy and the flight of Aeneas, and Greek inscription, is also here in a show case.
This is followed by the room containing the Capitoline Venus, a Roman copy of an early Greek original.
THE HALL OF THE EMPERORS is named after the 65 busts of Roman Emperors, almost all of which come from the collection of Cardinal Albani. There are two fine busts of Augustus, one as a young man, the other crowned with myrtle leaves. One should also note: Commodus as a young man; Julia, daughter of Titus; Plotina, wife of Trajan; Heliogabalus. In the centre of the room there is the seated figure of Helena, the mother of Constantine , with a body deriving from Phidian type statuary.
THE HALL OF PHILOSOPHERS contains the busts of 79 photospheres, poets and orators, some of which are of uncertain identity. In the centre of the room there is a seated male figure, a copy of a fourth century Greek original.
The statues of the Young and Old Centaurs from Hadrian’s Villa are placed in the centre of the following HALL. Amongst others of particular interest are the Athlete, a copy of the Diadumenus by Policletus, with a head which is not its own; two copies of Amazon, one of which is considered to be better than Cresila’s fourth-century B.C. original; Pothos from an original Scopas; Old Woman from a Hellenistic original.
THE HALL OF THE FAUN contains the famous laughing Faun holding a bunch of grapes to his mouth; this is a copy dating from Hadrian’s time, of an Hellenistic original; the boy with a mask of Silenus from the beginning of the Imperial period; the boy with a goose, from a second century B.C. original. Set into the hall in this room is a bronze tablet the Lex de imperio Vespasiani in which the “Senate and the Roman People” conferred imperial power on Vespasian in 69.
THE HALL OF THE GLADIATOR or the Dying Gaul is named after the statue of the Dying Gaul, also known as the Dying Gladiator, which came from the Gardens of Sallust in the sixteenth century together with the group of the Gaul killing himself and his wife, now in the National Museum of Rome. Both copies are in marble from the original bronzes which Attalus I had made for the temple of Athena at Pergamus after the victory over the Gauls. In the same room there is also the Amazon from the famous Phydian original; this figure has a head of the Cresila type and not its own and was restored quite arbitrarily so that it is carrying a bow instead of leaning on a lance; a Roman bust formerly identified as Brutus; a faun in re pose (the Faun of Praxiteles) - the best existing copy - from Hadrian’s Villa; a group of Eros and Psyche, from an Hellenistic original of the third to second Century B.C.
Tags: Attalus I, Capitoline Museum, Dying Gaul, Eros and Psyche, National Museum of Rome, Roman Emperors, Sosias of Pergamos