The Torlonia Museum ( it, Museo Torlonia; not identical with the Villa Torlonia on the

Via Nomentana Via Nomentana is an ancient road of Italy, leading North-East from Rome to Nomentum (modern Mentana), a distance of . It originally bore the name "Via Ficulensis", from the old Latin village of Ficulea, about from Rome. It was subsequently extend ...

) was a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, which housed the

Torlonia Collection The Torlonia Collection (Italian: ''Collezione Torlonia'') is a private art collection of 620 Ancient Greek and Roman art works assembled by the noble Torlonia family of Rome, Italy. It has been called "the greatest private collection of ancient Rom ...

(''Collezione Torlonia'') of ancient sculptures.

History

The collection of 620

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

and

alabaster Alabaster is a mineral or rock that is soft, often used for carving, and is processed for plaster powder. Archaeologists and the stone processing industry use the word differently from geologists. The former use it in a wider sense that includes ...

statues and

sarcophagi A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a cadaver, corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from ...

dating to the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

periodBruce Johnston (23 May, 2005). Roman statues go on show after 40 years in store.
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' (retrieved February 28, 2011) has been described as the "most important private museum of sculpture in the world" by Italian art critic

Federico Zeri Federico Zeri (12 August 1921 – 5 October 1998) was an Italian art historian specialised in Italian Renaissance painting. He wrote for the Italian newspaper '' La Stampa'', and was a well known television-personality in Italy. Zeri was born i ...

and, according to

, has been "said to rival he ancient sculpturesof the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

." The

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

considers the most significant of the works a

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

Heracles Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive ...

freeing

Theseus Theseus (, ; grc-gre, Θησεύς ) was the mythical king and founder-hero of Athens. The myths surrounding Theseus his journeys, exploits, and friends have provided material for fiction throughout the ages. Theseus is sometimes describe ...

and

Peirithoos Pirithous (; grc-gre, Πειρίθοος or , derived from ; also transliterated as Perithous), in Greek mythology, was the King of the Lapiths of Larissa in Thessaly, as well as best friend to Theseus. Biography Pirithous was a son of "he ...

(4th century BC, attributed to the school of

Phidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the stat ...

) and a sculpture of " Hestia Giustiniani" (5th century BC, attributed to Kalamis)."Torlonia Museum." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011.
(retrieved 28 February 2011) Overall, the collection contains 20 statues of

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

, about 30 of

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, and 100 of the Caesars and their families,Bruce Johnston (2 September, 2004). Roman statues back on show.
''

'' (retrieved 28 February 2011) among them a

bust Bust commonly refers to: * A woman's breasts * Bust (sculpture), of head and shoulders * An arrest Bust may also refer to: Places *Bust, Bas-Rhin, a city in France *Lashkargah, Afghanistan, known as Bust historically Media * ''Bust'' (magazine ...

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

. Besides, it includes sculptures of the gods from

Roman mythology Roman mythology is the body of myths of ancient Rome as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans. One of a wide variety of genres of Roman folklore, ''Roman mythology'' may also refer to the modern study of these representat ...

and Roman copies of Greek statues. According to the newspaper

, the namesake of the collection and then the museum, the Roman

Torlonia family 200px, Coat of arms of the House of Torlonia. The House of Torlonia is the name of an Italian princely family from Rome, which acquired a huge fortune in the 18th and 19th centuries through administering the finances of the Vatican. The first influ ...

, received ownership of the collection around 1800 or in the early 19th century. The previous owners, the

Giustiniani The House of Giustiniani is the name of a prominent Italy, Italian family which originally belonged to Venice, but also established itself in Genoa, and at various times had representatives in Naples, Corsica and in the islands of the Aegean Sea, A ...

family, had taken out a loan from the Torlonia dynasty and secured it with the collection, but then defaulted on paying back the loan. (According to earlier information by the same newspaper, however, Prince

Giovanni Torlonia Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

himself was the founder of the collection when, in 1810, "he bought some works and unearthed others on his land in

Portus Portus was a large artificial harbour of Ancient Rome. Sited on the north bank of the north mouth of the Tiber, on the Tyrrhenian coast, it was established by Claudius and enlarged by Trajan to supplement the nearby port of Ostia. The archae ...

".) Alessandro Torlonia, heir to Giovanni, opened the collection to visitors in their family palace on

Via della Lungara Via della Lungara is a street that links Via di Porta Settimiana to Piazza della Rovere in Rome (Italy), in the Rioni of Rome, Rione Trastevere. History and name In the 16th century, Pope Julius II opened the new ''via recta'' ("straight road") t ...

, close to the

Tiber River The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Riv ...

, in 1893. In the 1960s, the museum was dismantled and the 77-room palace was illegally converted into a 93-unit apartment building. The collection was put into storage and has not been publicly displayed. In May 2005 the government attempted to buy the collection for 1.2 billion but the offer was declined.

References

External links

* Pietro Ercole Visconti: ''Catalogo del Museo Torlonia di Sculture Antiche.'' Roma 1876. 2.Edizione 1881 3.Edizione 1883
Scanned text - the website archive.org
* Carlo Lodovico Visconti: ''I monumenti del Museo Torlonia riprodotti con la fototipia. Testo, I'' Roma 1885
Scanned text - Arachne online database of German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Cologne.
* Carlo Lodovico Visconti: ''I monumenti del Museo Torlonia riprodotti con la fototipia. Tavole, II'' Roma 1885
Digitized photographs - Arachne online database of German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Cologne.
* Elisabetta Povoledo:

, ''The New York Times'', 28 October 2019. {{Authority control Museums in Rome Art museums and galleries in Rome Archaeological museums in Italy Museums of ancient Rome in Italy Museums established in 1859 Collections of classical sculpture