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Piazza del Campidoglio
Tel. 06- 3996 7800
Bus: 63, 70, 75,
81, 87, 95, 160, 170, 204, 628, 716
Open: 9am- 8pm Tue- Sun
Closed: Jan 1, May 1, Dec 25
Palazzo Nuovo or Palazzo Nuovo in Italian is located on the north side of Piazza del Campidoglio. The palace was turned into one of the best museums in Capitol Hill during the Renaissance. Many works of ancient art are kept here. The ticket that you buy here is also valid for another Capitoline Museum - Palazzo dei Conservatori. The first group of bronze sculptures was given to the city by Pope Sixtus IV in 1471, and additions were made by Pope Pius V in 1566. Palazzo Nuovo was designed by Michelangelo as part of the reconstruction of Piazza del Campidogli and after in 1655 a collection of beautiful antique statues was collected here. In 1734, Pope Clement XII Corsini decided that the Palazzo Nuovo building would be turned into the first public museum in the world.
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The palace was built only in the 17th century,
probably in two phases, under the direction of Girolamo Rainaldi and
then of his son Carlo Rainaldi who completed it in 1663. However, the
project, at least of the body of the facade, must be attributed to
Michelangelo Buonarroti.
The palace was built, in fact, right in
front of the Palazzo dei Conservatori (closing the view of the basilica
of Santa Maria in Aracoeli from the square) of which it faithfully
reproduces the facade designed by Michelangelo with the portico on the
ground floor and the slightly oblique orientation, compared to the
Palazzo Senatorio, in order to complete the symmetrical design of the
square characterized by a trapezoidal shape.
During the first
phase of the works, the façade with the portico span behind it was
erected. During the second phase of the works to build the rest of the
building, an excavation was carried out towards the Aracoeli,
demolishing an embankment on which the Marforio fountain was supported,
which was dismantled and then installed in the internal courtyard of the
Palazzo Nuovo. Since the nineteenth century it was used for museum
purposes. The internal decorations in wood and gilded stucco are still
the original ones.
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Courtyard
In 1603 Clement VIII provided to ensure a loan for the
construction of Palazzo Nuovo and laid the first stone. The
construction site ended in 1654, under the pontificate of Innocent
X.
Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the
collections of Roman antiquities are gradually enriched through the
discovery of new masterpieces of the past; the semi-external areas
of the palaces become the privileged places of exposure for the
large ancient sculptures that are piled up in the atriums and
courtyards. Niches, columns, pillars and pilasters with shelves at
various heights, reliefs, busts and ancient heads, the taste for
scenography manifests itself in its best forms. The courtyard is the
focal point of the entrance, it is often visible from the square on
which the buildings open, the lithographs of the period give us an
idea of this desire for "spectacle".
In the middle of the
atrium of Palazzo Nuovo, crossing the external passage, the door and
the gate, you enter a very suggestive interior space, the courtyard.
It looks like a small internal square with brick curtain walls,
which curves to house the basin of the fountain and the niche in
which the statue of Marforio is inserted. The scenographic fountain
of Marforio was perhaps so appealed following its discovery in the
sixteenth century, in the Forum of Mars (Martis Forum, a name that
the ancients attributed to the Forum of Augustus). The statue, of
colossal dimensions, was restored with the typical attributes of
Ocean by Ruggero Bescapè in 1594 and placed on the Capitoline Hill
close to an embankment of the Aracoeli and in a symmetrical position
with respect to the similar statues of the two rivers (Tiber and
Nile), placed in front of the facade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori
since 1513.
Many scholars identify in the Marforio the
representation of the Tiber, or of another fluvial divinity
pertinent also in ancient times to a fountain. The figure is lying
on the left side with a reclined face and characterized by long
hair, a very thick beard and mustache. The piece is stylistically
attributed to the Flavian age (1st century AD) and had particular
notoriety from the Renaissance as it was used to post "pasquinate",
defamatory writings against the government, which the Romans signed
with the name of Pasquino.
On the new fountain in the
background of the courtyard, Clement XII affixed, in 1734, a
commemorative plaque for the inauguration of the Capitoline Museum,
surmounting it with his own coat of arms. Four statues were placed
on the terminal balustrade overlooking the fountain, now replaced by
four busts. Later, a valuable portrait of Pope Corsini was placed in
the center of the fountain; its dimensions appear out of scale
compared to the colossal ones of the Marforio.
The Marforio
was placed in the courtyard with an outline of ancient statues; two
rectangular niches framed in travertine welcomed, after various
alterations, the two statues of Satyrs bearing a basket of fruit on
their heads. The two sculptures were found in Rome near the Theater
of Pompey and kept for a long period not far from the place of
discovery, in the courtyard of the Palazzo della Valle (not
surprisingly they are called Satyrs of the Valley). They are two
mirror statues depicting the god Pan, probably used as telamons in
the architectural structure of the theater. The treatment of the
marble and the rendering of the modeling allow us to date them to
the late Hellenistic period.
The right side is used as an
exhibition place for a strigilated sarcophagus decorated with
hunting scenes, for two busts (Ideal female head and Virile head on
togato bust) and two herms (Erma barbata 1 and Erma barbata 2) also
inserted in two small niches framed in travertine and obtained above
two access doors to the rooms (no longer used today). Above an
inscription of Pope Alexander VII.
In the courtyard there are
also three gray granite columns, found in the Temple of Isis at
Campo Marzio (Egyptian type 1 column, Egyptian type 2 column,
Egyptian type 3 column). The frieze is sculpted in relief around the
shaft, as in the columnae coelatae (columns partially incorporated
into the masonry), and represents, on each column, four couples of
priests standing on high stools. Some are caught in the moment of
offering to the divinity, others in that of the extension of sacred
objects. The priests have a shaved head encircled with laurel, they
wear clothes stopped at the height of the armpits that distinguish
them from the carriers of canopic jars with long high-necked robes
and veiled hands, according to the ritual.
On both sides of
the large fountain, four columns in cipollino (until the middle of
the last century surmounted by as many marble busts, now in the
museum for conservation reasons) and two leonine protome drips
(Gocciolatoio 1 and Gocciolatio 2) .
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During the pontificate of Clement XI, a series of statues found in
the area of the Villa Verospi Vitelleschi (Horti Sallustiani) were
acquired which in ancient times decorated the Egyptian pavilion
built by Hadrian inside the horti. The four statues were placed in
the Palazzo Nuovo.
During the eighteenth century the
collection was increased by new statues and in 1748 a "Canopus Room"
was even set up to collect the sculptures from Villa Adriana and the
Temple of Isis at Campo Marzio.
In 1838 most of the works
were transferred to the Vatican. In 1907 Orazio Marucchi partially
reconstituted this nucleus, giving life for the first time to an
Egyptian collection made up of finds not transferred from Egypt, but
all coming from the Roman excavations of the Iseo Campense, the
Villa Adriana and the Roman territory in general. The archaeologist
thus demonstrated the importance that Egyptian culture had in Roman
society.
The Hall of Egyptian Monuments is now accessed
through the courtyard; behind a large glass wall are the great works
in granite. Among the most representative works there is a large
bell-shaped crater from Villa Adriana and a series of animals
symbolizing the most important Egyptian gods: the crocodile, two
cynocephalics, a sparrow hawk, a sphinx, a scarab, etc.
Earthly rooms on the right
The name of "terrene rooms" identifies
the three rooms on the ground floor to the right of the atrium. At
the end of the construction of the Palazzo Nuovo every single room
was open onto the portico and only between the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries and in subsequent moments these rooms were also
used as a private seat.
These "earthly rooms" house
epigraphic monuments of notable interest; among all it is important
to mention the fragments of post-Caesarian Roman calendars showing
the new year, which Caesar defined as 365 days, and lists of
magistrates called Fasti Minori, in relation to the most famous
Fasti (Fasti consulares and modern Fasti) preserved in the Palazzo
dei Conservatori.
In the first room there are numerous
portraits of private Romans, among which perhaps the one of
Germanicus, son of Drusus Major or Drusus Major himself (mid 1st
century AD).
Among the most important works we must mention
the Cinerary by T. Statilius Aper and Orcivia Anthis; and the
Sarcophagus with reliefs depicting an episode from the life of
Achilles.
The Gallery
Proceeding from the ground floor you
arrive in front of a double flight of stairs at the end of which the
Gallery begins.
The long Gallery, which runs longitudinally
along the first floor of the Capitoline Museum, connects the various
exhibition rooms and offers the visitor a large and varied
collection of statues, portraits, reliefs and epigraphs arranged by
the eighteenth-century conservatories in a random manner, with one
eye turned. more to the architectural symmetry and the overall
ornamental effect than to the historical-artistic and archaeological
one.
On the walls, within panels, there are small epigraphs,
including a large group from the colombarium of Livia's freedmen and
freedmen.
In the Gallery, among other noteworthy works, are
preserved the fragment of the leg of Hercules fighting with the
Hydra (heavily reworked in the seventeenth-century restoration), the
statue of a wounded warrior (of which only the torso is ancient,
while the rest is the work of of the restoration carried out between
1658 and 1733), the statue of Leda with the swan, the small
statuette of Heracles as a child strangling the snake and Eros
stringing the bow.
The room, which largely retains its eighteenth-century layout, takes
its name from the famous floor mosaic: the mosaic of doves, found in
Tivoli at Hadrian's Villa.
It was originally called the "Room
of the Miscellaneous" due to the material diversity of the pieces it
contained; mostly works belonging to the collection of Cardinal
Alessandro Albani, whose acquisition is at the origin of the
Capitoline Museum. The arrangement of the male and female portraits,
along shelves that run along the entire perimeter of the wall of the
room, dates back to an eighteenth-century exhibition project and is
still visible, albeit with some imperceptible changes.
In
1817 the room took the name "del Vaso" because, inside, the large
marble crater with plant decoration was inserted inside it, today at
the bottom of the Capitoline Museum Gallery.
An arrangement
that has never been altered is that of the Roman sepulchral
inscriptions posted, in the mid-eighteenth century, in the upper
part of the walls. Acquisitions have been reported along the course
of the eighteenth century, among which we also remember the finds
visible in the display cases.
Toilet of Venus
This small
polygonal room, similar to a nymphaeum, is the perfect setting for
the statue called Capitoline Venus. The Venus was found during the
pontificate of Clement X (1670-1676) at the Basilica of San Vitale;
according to Pietro Santi Bartoli the statue was inside some ancient
rooms together with other sculptures. Pope Benedict XIV bought the
statue from the Stazi family in 1752 and donated it to the
Capitoline Museum. After various vicissitudes at the end of the
Treaty of Tolentino it returned definitively to the Museum in 1816.
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The Hall of the Emperors is one of the oldest rooms in the
Capitoline Museum. Since the opening of the exhibition areas to the
public in 1734, the curators wanted to arrange the portraits of the
emperors and the characters of their circle in a single room. The
current layout is the result of several reworkings implemented over
the last century. It consists of 67 busts-portraits, a seated female
statue (center), 8 reliefs and a modern honorary epigraph.
Among the most remarkable portraits, those of a young Augustus with
a crown of leaves and an adult Augustus of the "Azio type", of Nero,
of the emperors of the Flavian family (Vespasian, Tito, Nerva) or of
the emperors of the second century AD. (from Trajan to Commodus).
The Severan dynasty is also well represented. The series ends with
Honorius, son of Theodosius.
There is no shortage of female
portraits, with their complex hairstyles, their wigs and their
elaborate curls; we remember the consort of Augustus [Livia], that
of Germanico Agrippina Maggiore, Plotina, Faustina Maggiore and
Giulia Domna.
Through the series of portraits the visit path
winds in a helical way in a clockwise direction, starting from the
upper shelf entering on the left, to finish at the end of the lower
shelf on the right. The visitor will appreciate the evolution of
artistic taste in the representation of Roman portraits and fashion
(hairstyles, beards, etc.).
Hall of the Philosophers
As in
the case of the Hall of the Emperors, also the hall of the
philosophers was born, at the time of the foundation of the
Capitoline Museum, from the desire to collect the portraits, busts
and herms, of poets, philosophers and rhetoricians of antiquity. In
the room there are 79 of them. The itinerary begins with the most
famous poet of antiquity, Homer. Followed by Pindaro, Pythagoras,
Socrates and many others. Among the many characters of the Greek
world, some portraits of the Roman period are also exhibited,
including Marco Tullio Cicerone, a famous statesman and man of
letters.
lounge area
The hall of Palazzo Nuovo is
certainly the most monumental environment of the entire Capitoline
museum complex.
The four walls of the great hall were
decorated with a division into three vertical sections, with an
architecture that allows the space to be divided into three
different parts. A spectacular seventeenth-century coffered ceiling,
intertwined in a baroque way, octagons, rectangles and rosettes, all
finely carved. In the center, the coat of arms of Innocenzo X, the
architect of the completion of the building.
The large hall
has recently been restored and this has made it possible to recover
the ancient colors, highlighting the richness of the compositional
decorations.
It is worth mentioning the large portal that
opens into the long wall of communication with the Gallery, designed
by Filippo Barigioni in the first half of the eighteenth century,
arched, with two winged Victories of exquisite workmanship.
On the sides and in the center of the room, on high and ancient
bases, there are some of the most beautiful sculptures of the
Capitoline collection. Among these we remember the Apollo of the
Omphalos, a Harpocrat, the Apollo Citaredo, etc. In the center of
the room are the large bronze statues among which the sculptures of
the old Centaur and the young Centaur stand out. All around on a
second level, shelves with a series of busts; among these we
remember the bust of Caracalla or Geta, of Marcus Aurelius, of
Augustus and Hadrian.
Finally, a splendid sculpture of a
wounded Amazon deserves to be mentioned, also called "Sosikles
type", with the signature on this replica. Generally attributed to
Polykleitos, it has slightly larger dimensions than the real one.
Hall of the Faun
The room takes its name from the famous
sculpture present in the center of the room since 1817. The statue
of the Faun was found in 1736 and restored by Clemente Bianchi and
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi. It was bought by the museum in 1746 and very
quickly became one of the most popular works of visitors of that
century.
The walls are covered with inscriptions inserted in
the eighteenth century, divided into groups according to the content
and with a section created for brick stamps. Among the epigraphic
texts we remember the Lex de imperio Vespasiani of the first century
AD (decree which gives particular power to the emperor Vespasian),
on the right wall.
This room takes its name from the central sculpture, the Capitoline Galata, mistakenly considered a gladiator in the act of falling on his shield, at the time of its purchase by Alessandro Capponi, president of the Capitoline Museum, becoming perhaps the most famous work of the collected, repeatedly replicated on engravings and drawings. The Galata is surrounded by other copies of remarkable quality: the wounded Amazon, the statue of Hermes and the resting Satyr, while, against the window, the delightful Rococo group of Cupid and Psyche symbolizes the tender union of the human soul with the divine love, according to a theme dating back to Platonic philosophy which enjoyed great success in artistic production since early Hellenism.