In equal parts, the museums of Rome offer and withhold their favors. There is wondrous beauty, and the sense of looking upon the same art as did those thousands of years before. But there also is frustrating disappointment. A gallery may be closed and a favorite sculpture or mosaic not to be seen. Or, if open, a particular piece may have been removed for restoration or loan, its place now bare. Even more distressing, one may discover, too late, that something simply has been overlooked or under appreciated. The museum, itself, may even be closed, no matter what the guidebooks say. But the effort always is worthwhile.
This is because, invariably, the art is more beautiful than its reproduction. Mosaics, in particular, can be like jewels in their delicacy, their size and color never as one remembers or expects from photographs. What seems so large and coarse in the catalog often is so much finer than imagined. And that which has been contained on a single page suddenly surprises by its actual size. This disparity is evident, too, in the ruins of Rome. So little is left that the Forum may seem a smaller stage than one thinks worthy of Caesar and Cicero. And the Baths of Caracalla can overwhelm the visitor with their soaring arches and massive walls. Photographs betray in another way, and the image pictured so perfectly on the page may disappoint in person. The dimly lit gallery, the relief high on the wall, the ruin entangled in scaffolding, the closed gate, the obstructed view--all may not be as expected.
And this is why one must see for oneself: to replace expectation with experience.
The links in these descriptions are to pictures taken on holiday in the summer of 1997. They, rather than illustrations from the literature, are included to represent what the visitor is likely to see and be permitted to photograph. That having been said, two illustrations are reproduced: the Apoxyomenos and the Doryphorus, both of which are important in the history of art, even though they did not seem very prepossessing at the time. Flash photography usually is not allowed; indeed, at the Borghese Museum, cameras cannot even be brought into the gallery. High-speed film is therefore a necessity. Often, too, the infrared focusing of many cameras can make it difficult to photograph objects behind the reflective glass of their cabinet, and manual focus may have to be used.
Museo Capitolino (Capitoline Museum)
Facing one another across Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio on the Capitoline Hill, the Palazzo Nuovo (New Palace) and the Palazzo dei Conservatori (Conservators' Palace) comprise the Musei Capitolini (Capitoline Museums) and together house some of the most well-known works of classical art.In the Capitoline Museum there is the gilded bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius that once stood in the center of the Piazza before being restored and rather incongruously placed behind glass off the courtyard of the Palazzo. The statue of Marcus is not likely to have survived had not the early Christians thought it to be of Constantine and not the persecutor of the martyred Blandina. In the courtyard is a huge second-century statue of a river god known as Marforio. On the first floor is the Dying Gaul, a Roman copy in marble of an earlier Greek bronze; the Capitoline Venus, a Roman work derived from the Aphrodite of Cnidus by Praxiteles; the Discobolus, a Greek statue of a discus thrower; the Faun in red marble from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli; and the Resting Satyr, copied from Praxiteles and immortalized by Hawthorne in his novel, The Marble Faun, "...a reminiscence of a period when man's affinity with nature was more strict, and his fellowship with every living thing more intimate and dear." In the Emperor's Room are busts of all the Roman emperors, as well as the exquisite portrait of a Flavian Lady, her curled hair piled high on her head. Here, too, is the beautiful Mosaic of the Doves, also from Hadrian's Villa, and the mosaic of theatrical masks.
Museo del Palazzo dei Conservatori (Conservators' Palace Museum)
In the courtyard on the other side of the piazza are pieces of a colossal statue of Constantine that once was in the Basilica of Maxentius (Constantine). At the top of the stairs are sculpted panels in low relief commemorating the victories of Marcus Aurelius. If the Capitoline is dimly lit, the Conservators' Palace is positively Stygian. Many of the galleries are closed, but one still can see the Spinario, a bronze of a young boy removing a thorn from his foot; the bronze bust of Junius Brutus; the Esquiline Venus in marble; and the polished figure of Commodus as Hercules. Barely visible in the gloom is the famous bronze statue of the She-Wolf suckling Romulus and Remus.Museo Pio-Clementino (Pius-Clementine Museum)
Here, arranged around the octagonal Belvedere Court in one of the Vatican Museums, is the famous Laocoön from the Golden House of Nero, which Pliny declared to be "a work superior to any painting and any bronze"; the Apollo Belvedere, which embodies the ideal of classical beauty; and a marble Hermes. There also is the Apoxyomenos, an athlete scraping his skin with a strigil; the unusually posed Sleeping Ariadne; the Apollo Sauroktonos, a Roman copy of a work by Praxiteles, showing Apollo about to kill a lizard; the Aphrodite of Cnidos, a Roman copy of the original by Praxiteles, which Pliny says was "superior to anything not merely by Praxiteles, but in the whole world"; a bust of Jupiter in all his majesty; and the powerful Belvedere Torso, which so influenced Michelangelo. In the Braccio Nuovo (New Wing) is the Augustus of Prima Porta, with its elaborately decorated breastplate, and in the Musei Gregoriano Profano (Gregorian Profane Museum), which may be closed, mosaics from the Baths of Caracalla; the Cancelleria Relief, showing Vespasian and his son Domitian; and fragments from a striking mosaic of very small tiles (tesserae) that shows an unswept floor (asaroton), scattered with debris after a banquet, which probably is a copy of a famous original mentioned by Pliny.(Since the Sistine Chapel is accessible only by the same entrance as the Vatican Museums, expect a wait, probably a long one. Yet, once admitted, there is less interest shown for classical antiquities and, unless one stumbles upon a tour group, the works of art can be viewed in peace. Given the size of the Museums, the obligation to follow a one-way itinerary, and the eagerness to begin after the time spent in line, it is important to have a map or guide.)
Galleria Borghese (Borghese Museum and Gallery)
Famous for its statues by Bernini, it is the early fourth-century mosaics set in the floor of the entrance hall, depicting gladiatorial and animal combat in larger-than-life detail, that are of interest to the classicist. Regrettably, no photography is allowed.Museo Nazionale Romano (National Roman Museum)
Housed in a portion of the Baths of Diocletian (Museo Nazionale delle Terme), this is one of the great museums of classical art, ranking with the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. And yet, virtually all the galleries are closed to the public. At the time, only a single room was open, in which the Discobolos (Discus Thrower), a Roman copy of the original by Myron, is forlornly displayed. This, and funerary monuments in the garden and around the Great Cloisters, are all that is to be seen. One's disappointment would be complete if the bronze Boxer and monumental Terme Ruler, as well as the polished marble statue of Venus of Cyrene, were not to be found in another part of the baths around the corner at the Aula Ottagonale (Octagonal Hall). A sense of the arching splendor of the ancient baths can be seen in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which is built into the baths and preserves eight of the original columns.(The collection recently was reorganized and now includes two new venues. Across the street, at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, the Fasti Antiates, a Roman calendar; the statue of Augustus as Pontifex Maximus; the Dying Niobid, a Roman copy of an earlier Greek statue; as well as Roman mosaics, wall paintings, and busts. At the renovated Palazzo Altemps near the Piazza Navona is the Ludovisi collection, including the Ludovisi Throne, depicting the birth of Aphrodite; and the statue of a Celtic Gaul killing himself and his wife rather than surrendering. Rooms in the Terme di Diocleziano, itself, also have been opened to display the epigraphic collection.)
Museo della Civiltà Romana (Museum of Roman Civilization)
Located at the end of the Metro line, the Museum is housed in two buildings showing, by way of plaster reproductions, the history of ancient Rome. Unfortunately, the one containing the large-scale model of Rome, which is the principal reason to visit, was closed.
Museo Archeologico Nazionale (National Archaeological Museum of Naples)
One of the great museums of Greco-Roman art, a price must be paid to enjoy its treasures. The museum is closed on Tuesdays, despite guidebook assurances to the contrary; parking is almost impossible, and driving in Naples even more so. That having been said, here are all the riches of Pompeii and Herculaneum: the ornamental gladiator's helmet and greaves; the wonderfully complex Blue Vase; the bronzes of Seneca, Dancing Faun, and Hermes at Rest; the fresco of Spring and Hercules and Telefo; the monochrome Women Playing with Astragals on marble; the extraordinary mosaic of the Battle of Alexander that occupies an entire wall; the more delicate mosaics of marine fauna, itinerant musicians, and a portrait of a woman. Other famous fresco portraits, as well as the brawl in the amphitheater of Pompeii may still be in a closed gallery, and the mosaics of the Nile and a cat playing with a bird were being restored. There is the Artemis of Ephesus in alabaster and bronze; the Farnese Bull, excavated from the Baths of Caracalla and carved from a single block of marble, the largest piece of sculpture to have survived from antiquity; the massive Farnese Hercules, also from the Baths; the Venus Callipige, a Roman copy of a Greek original from the Golden House of Nero; and a Roman copy of the Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) by Polyclitus, the perfect embodiment of the contrapposto pose, in which the weight of the figure is asymmetrically balanced.