Busts of Roman emperors, intricate sarcophagi
and an ancient Greek relief carved 2,500 years ago are just some
of the 92 pieces on display in the city's Palazzo Caffarelli.
The marbles belong to the aristocratic Torlonia family and
represent a fraction of their 620 sculptures, believed to be the
largest such private collection in the world.
"We could do seven, eight, 15 more exhibitions," said art
historian Salvatore Settis, who was picked by the family to help
curate the show and had the difficult task of deciding which
works should see the light of day.
Like many leading Rome families, the Torlonias initially put
their huge collection on display in a museum. But after 101
years, they locked its doors in 1976, looking to convert the
building into private apartments.
"The reappearance of such a legendary collection is a very
important event," said Settis. "When I saw them for the first
time it was very emotional because I knew most of those pieces
from books, but I had never seen them."
The Torlonias, who built their wealth off the back of papal
contracts, snapped up established collections, some dating back
to the 15th century, and built up a collection of collections.
Among the pieces on view is a fountain basin carved in ancient
Greece that was believed to have stood in the garden of Julius
Caesar when it was already considered an antiquity.
Many of the works have undergone substantial restoration over
the years, including a statue of a goat whose body dates to the
first century AD but whose head is believed to have been created
by the famed 17th century Italian sculptor Bernini.
Anna Maria Carruba helped prepare the statues for the
exhibition.
"Many of these pieces were already restored from 1600 onwards.
We didn't need to work on the structure of the statues but only
on the surfaces, cleaning them, removing the dust that had
accumulated over the years and materials used in previous
restorations," she said.
The "Torlonia Marbles" show had been due to open in April, but
was pushed back because of the coronavirus. It runs in Rome
until June 2021 and is expected to move on to at least one other
European country and the United States before returning to Italy
where it will be given a permanent home.
(Editing by Andrew Heavens)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](column_spacer.png)
|
|