Palazzo Altemps

The Palazzo Altemps branch of Rome's Museo Nazionale Romano has sculptures and other ancient art installed in the frescoed rooms of a 16th-century palace

* Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Altemps
Piazza di Sant'Apollinare 46 (two blocks north of Piazza Navona)
tel. +39-06-3996-7700
archeoroma.beniculturali.it
Open Tues–Sun 9am–7:45pm
Adm

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 • Private Tour: Classical Rome Art History Walking Tour

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The statue of Athena of the Parthenon, signed by Antiochos (1st century BC), copied from the original by Phidias (5th century BC) in Rome's Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Altemps
The Athena of the Parthenon, a 1st century BC copy of Phidias' 5th century BC)  original.The new home to the famed Ludovisi and Mattei collections of ancient sculpture is a crown jewel in Rome's touristic renaissance, and a prime example of Italy's seemingly newfound ability to craft a 21st-century museum that respects both the gorgeous architecture and frescoes of the Renaissance space in which it is installed, and the aesthetic and historic value of the classical collection it contains.

MNR Branches
 Palazzo Massimo
 Palazzo Altemps
 Baths of Diocletian
 Aula OttagonaRather than stuff lots of statues into every nook and cranny of this Altemps space, they've placed just a few choice pieces in each room, allowing and encouraging you to examine each statue carefully, walk around it, and read the accompanying placard in English and Italian that explains its significance and shows which bits are original and which were "restored" in the 17th century.

Palazzo Altemps

The statue of Dionysus and a satyr, an AD 2nd century Roman copy of a Hellenistic original in Rome's Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Altemps
The statue of Dionysus and a satyr, an AD 2nd century Roman copy of a Hellenistic original.

The 16th- to 18th-century palazzo itself is gorgeous, with a grand central courtyard and many surviving frescoes and original painted wood ceilings, especially upstairs, where you can wander onto a bust-lined, Alberti-inspired loggia frescoed as a "Garden of Delights" in the 1590s.

Best of the museum collections

Among the collections, be on the lookout for an AD 2nd-century giant Dionysus with Satyr; 2nd-century BC Ptolemaic Egyptian statuary; a pair of lute-playing Apollos; and plenty of Imperial busts.

There's also a 1st-century BC copy of master Greek sculptor Phidias' most famous statue (now lost): the 5th-century BC Athena that once held the place of honor in Athens' Parthenon (pictured above).

The "Grande Ludovisi" sarcophagus

The Grande Ludovisi sarcophagus (AD 251/252) in Rome's Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Altemps.
The Grande Ludovisi sarcophagus (AD 251/252) in Rome's Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Altemps.My favorite piece is an AD 3rd-century sarcophagus carved from a single block of marble and depicting in incredible—and, incredibly, un-restored—detail the Roman legions fighting off invading Ostrogoth Barbarians.

The royal guy in the middle of the top row, directing the battle, probably represents Hostilian, son of Emperor Decius.

This is both ironic and sad, since is was his father and older brother Herennius Etruscus (already named co-emperor with their dad) who actually fought the barbarian armies at the Danube frontier—and earned themselves the distinction of being, in AD 251, the first Roman emperors to be killed in battle by a foreign enemy (on the same day, no less).

Hostilian had been left at home as he as too young to go to war. He enjoyed the imperial throne he inherited for only a few months before succumbing to a plague that swept Rome. He was probably only 20 or 21 at the time.

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This material was last updated February 2011. All information was accurate at the time.

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