Museo Barracco

The Museum of Ancient Sculpture Barraco consists of a prestigious collection of antique sculpture - art Assyrian, Egyptian, Cypriot, Phoenician, Etruscan, Greek and Roman - that Barraco, rich gentleman from Calabria, donated to the City of Rome in 1904. Baron barracco had dedicated his life to the collection of artifacts, both by purchasing them on the antiques market recovered from the excavations that the late nineteenth century marked the urban transformation of Rome Capital. To house the collection was built neoclassical palazzo which unfortunately was destroyed during the works for the enlargement of Corso Vittorio. Only in 1948 that the collection could be resettled in the "Farnesina ai Baullari", built in 1516 and designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. Egyptian art is represented from the earliest dynasty (3000 B.C.) to the Roman era. From Mesopotamia come the precious Assyrian slabs, wall ornament palaces of Assurbanipal at Nineveh and Sennacherib at Nirmud, the seventh and sixth century BC. C. A rarity for Italian museums is the section devoted to Cyprus, which are exhibited some rare workmanship objects, such as the multicolored votive cart and the head of Heracles from the VII-VI centuries. to. C. The museum boasts numerous Greek originals, including works that make up a complete picture of the great artist Policleto (V sec. A. C.) and his school. For the Roman art is represented by the head of a boy from the Julian family, elegant example of private portraiture from the early imperial period (first century. D. C.). Finally provincial art is included with three slabs from Palmyra, a caravan city that had its peak in the second century. d. C. It closes with a polychrome mosaic from the first church of San Pietro in Rome, dating back to the twelfth century. d. C.