Description
Palazzo Altemps is one of the four museums of the Museo Nazionale Romano, a few steps from Piazza Navona: a Renaissance palace full of ancient sculpture, which is also one of the most pleasant and peaceful places in the center of Rome. Here the statues stand in frescoed rooms, as in the homes of the noblemen who collected them.
It was designed by Melozzo da Forlì, in the 1400s, for Girolamo Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, for his wedding to Caterina Sforza. In 1568 Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps bought it, made it the family residence and started the first collection of sculptures. Since 1982 it has belonged to the State.
The museum gathers the antiquities collections of great Roman families: Ludovisi Boncompagni, Mattei, Altemps, del Drago, Brancaccio, plus the Egyptian collection. They are mostly Roman copies of Greek originals, but there are also portraits, sarcophagi and two Greek originals.
The most important is the Ludovisi Throne, a marble relief from 460-450 BC found in 1887, when Cardinal Ludovisi's villa was divided into lots to build the new neighborhood. It shows a female figure held up by two Horai: according to the most accepted interpretation, the birth of Venus from the sea.
Then there is the Suicidal Gaul, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze: a Celtic warrior plunges his sword between his collarbones after killing his wife, who falls into his arms. At first it was mistaken for two Roman spouses told of by Tacitus.
Many statues were restored in the 1600s, also by Bernini and Algardi. Among the biggest pieces stand out the Great Ludovisi Sarcophagus and the Ludovisi Ares, and then the Egyptian section. The palace also includes the old private theater and the church of Sant'Aniceto, the family chapel, where the remains of Pope Anicetus have rested since 1604.
And the palace's history is less serene than its statues. Roberto, son of Cardinal Altemps, married an Orsini, sworn enemies of Pope Sixtus V, and in 1586, at twenty, was beheaded. His son took revenge in his own way: in 1617 he had the beheading of his father painted in the chapel.
The Accademia dell'Arcadia was founded here in 1690, and in the 1700s even Mozart played here. In the same chapel D'Annunzio married Maria Hardouin di Gallese, pregnant after the couple's flight to Florence: her father did not show up.
Don't miss
• The Ludovisi Throne.
• The Suicidal Gaul.
• The Great Ludovisi Sarcophagus.
• The church of Sant'Aniceto.
Did you know?
• The Ludovisi Throne has been debated since it was found: some scholars see in the relief Persephone rising from the Underworld, not Venus.
• Nearby, in Roman times, stood one of the two ports where the marbles destined for Rome arrived.
It was designed by Melozzo da Forlì, in the 1400s, for Girolamo Riario, nephew of Pope Sixtus IV, for his wedding to Caterina Sforza. In 1568 Cardinal Marco Sittico Altemps bought it, made it the family residence and started the first collection of sculptures. Since 1982 it has belonged to the State.
The museum gathers the antiquities collections of great Roman families: Ludovisi Boncompagni, Mattei, Altemps, del Drago, Brancaccio, plus the Egyptian collection. They are mostly Roman copies of Greek originals, but there are also portraits, sarcophagi and two Greek originals.
The most important is the Ludovisi Throne, a marble relief from 460-450 BC found in 1887, when Cardinal Ludovisi's villa was divided into lots to build the new neighborhood. It shows a female figure held up by two Horai: according to the most accepted interpretation, the birth of Venus from the sea.
Then there is the Suicidal Gaul, a Roman copy of a Hellenistic bronze: a Celtic warrior plunges his sword between his collarbones after killing his wife, who falls into his arms. At first it was mistaken for two Roman spouses told of by Tacitus.
Many statues were restored in the 1600s, also by Bernini and Algardi. Among the biggest pieces stand out the Great Ludovisi Sarcophagus and the Ludovisi Ares, and then the Egyptian section. The palace also includes the old private theater and the church of Sant'Aniceto, the family chapel, where the remains of Pope Anicetus have rested since 1604.
And the palace's history is less serene than its statues. Roberto, son of Cardinal Altemps, married an Orsini, sworn enemies of Pope Sixtus V, and in 1586, at twenty, was beheaded. His son took revenge in his own way: in 1617 he had the beheading of his father painted in the chapel.
The Accademia dell'Arcadia was founded here in 1690, and in the 1700s even Mozart played here. In the same chapel D'Annunzio married Maria Hardouin di Gallese, pregnant after the couple's flight to Florence: her father did not show up.
Don't miss
• The Ludovisi Throne.
• The Suicidal Gaul.
• The Great Ludovisi Sarcophagus.
• The church of Sant'Aniceto.
Did you know?
• The Ludovisi Throne has been debated since it was found: some scholars see in the relief Persephone rising from the Underworld, not Venus.
• Nearby, in Roman times, stood one of the two ports where the marbles destined for Rome arrived.