Second Floor, Giovanni Barracco Museum of Ancient Sculpture

The second floor is dedicated to classical art: Room V presents an impressive gallery of illustrated works, with original sculptures and precious copies of the Roman period, the major schools of Greek sculpture of the fifth century BC. Room VI displays valuable Roman copies of classic and late classic artworks, along with some fine funerary sculptures from Greece.

Rooms VII and VIII, besides an important collection of Greek and Italic ceramics, presents other Greek artworks ranging from the period of Alexander the Great to the latest manifestations of Hellenistic art and copies of Roman times.

The last room is the IX, which displays some examples of decorative art and works from public monuments of the Roman period, and a few specimens of medieval art.

Room 5
Greek Art
Room 5, devoted to Greek art, it displays a notable series of sculptures created between the late 6th century BC and the end of the 5th, plus fine Roman copies of Greek works from that period.

In the first room there are numerous testimonies of Greek art: two heads of Athena belonging to the severe style (5th century BC), and a Hermes Kriophoros from the first half of the same century; the oval shape of the face, the enlarged eyelids and the large fleshy lips highlight the first stylistic features of this new artistic period. On the side is the bust of the Silenus Marsyas of Mirone, who together with a statue of Athena made up a dedicated statuary group inside the Athenian Acropolis around 450 BC; however, it is a Roman copy in marbleparian, dating from the second century. Other examples of Greek statuary are the Apollonian head (Kassel type) depicting Apollo Parnopios, and another protome of the same god but attributed to Praxiteles. In the first case it is a copy of a bronze original, most likely dedicated by the inhabitants of Athens to have escaped an invasion of grasshoppers: the forms, greater than the reality, would suggest a dating around 460 BC, although it is a copy of the Flavian age (1st century). The statue of Praxitelesinstead it dates back to 350 BC and depicts the god without clothes while resting, with his right hand on his head.

Highlights works
Apollo head Kassel type, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original by Phidias (mid-5th century BC)
Head of the Silenus Marsyas, Sculpture, 2nd century AD copy of the Greek original by Myron (mid-5th century BC)
Funeral stele with knight, Funerary monument and ornaments, Attic original, 525-510 BC
Head of a young man, Sculpture, Original from Magna Graecia, late 6th – early 5th century BC
Discobolus fragment, Sculpture, Roman copy of the Greek original by Myron (mid-5th century BC)
Head of a young man, Sculpture, Roman work inspired by a Greek original from the mid-5th century BC
Head of Homer type Epimenide, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the mid-5th century BC
Head of Doryphoros (spear bearer), Sculpture, Late Hellenistic copy of a Greek original by Polyclitus (second half of the 5th century BC)
Athlete’s head (Diadumeno), Sculpture, Late Hellenistic copy of a Greek original by Polyclitus (second half of the 5th century BC)
Statuette of Herakles, Sculpture, 1st-century AD Roman copy of a Greek original by Polyclitus (second half of the 5th century BC)
Torso di Narciso, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the school of Polyclitus (late 5th century B.C.)
Wounded Amazon fragment, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the second half of the 5th century B.C.
Wounded Amazon Torso, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the second half of the 5th century B.C.
Statue of ephebe (Westmacott type), Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the school of Polyclitus (late 5th century B.C.)

Room 6
Greek Art
Room 6 displays numerous original Greek reliefs and sculptures, some votive works and others funerary. Alongside them are fine Roman copies of famous originals, which enrich the Barracco collection’s panorama of Greek sculpture in the 5th and 4th centuries BC and its reception by the Roman world. The showcases also display a collection of Greek vases and one of votive pottery from the Taranto area.

In the museum there are also some clay artefacts, such as a funerary relief with two male figures, in all probability an original attic of the fifth century BC; there is also a votive representation for Apollo (the dedication is made along the upper and lower edge) of the mid- fourth century BC, with four children and an elderly man, with the three divinities of Delphi: Leto, Apollo and Diana on the side. Finally, there are also numerous ceramics, represented by an Attic funeral lekythos and some Athenian black-figure amphoras from the first half of the5th century BC

Highlights works
Vase (lekythos) funerary inscribed, Funerary monument and ornaments, Attic original from the first half of the 4th century BC
Votive relief with dedication to Apollo, Sculpture, Attic original from the first half of the 4th century BC
Head of Apollo High School, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original attributed to Euphranor (second half of the 4th century BC)
Attic red-figure amphora with Vittoria and citaredo, ceramics, Attributed to the Berlin Painter (early 5th century BC)
Italo-geometric bowl, ceramics, Early 7th century BC
Bucchero pitcher (oinochoe), ceramics, Early 6th century BC
Small amphora (amphoriskos) Corinthian, ceramics, First half of the 6th century BC
Red-figure Paestum water vase (hydria), ceramics, 4th century BC
Cycladic female statuette, Sculpture, 3rd millennium BC
Bearded male head, Sculpture, 6th-5th century BC
Bearded male head, Sculpture, Late 5th – early 4th century BC
Barracco-Budapest type female head, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the first half of the 5th century BC
Fragmentary male head, Sculpture, Magna-Graecia original from the second half of the 5th century BC
Water bearer figurine (hydrophora), Sculpture, Roman work inspired by a Greek original from the early 5th century BC
Fragmentary male head, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the 4th century BC
Female figurine (kore), Sculpture, Magna-Graecia original from the first half of the 5th century BC
Hermes head, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the 4th century BC
Relief with dancing maenads, Sculpture, Neo-Attic creation based on models of Callimachos (late 5th century BC)
Inscribed funeral vase (lekythos), Funerary monument and ornaments, Attic original from the first half of the 4th century BC
Funeral relief with knight, Funerary monument and ornaments, Attic original from the early 4th century BC
Funerary relief with banquet scene, Funerary monument and ornaments, Attic original from the second half of the 4th century BC
Votive relief, Sculpture, Attic original from the second half of the 4th century BC
Head of an old bearded man, Sculpture, Augustan replica of an original from the early 3rd century BC

Rooms 7-8
Hellenistic Art
These two little rooms display fine copies of Greek sculptures from the early Hellenistic period, together with a number of archaic works. Two showcases contain small artifacts in limestone and marble, and a collection of Greek and Italic pottery.

Among the works of the Hellenistic age there is a male head, a Roman reproduction of the second century, perhaps depicting Alexander the Great. Of great relevance is the representation of a wounded bitch replica in Pentelic marble of a bronze original by the copyist Sopatro, whose name is indicated with three letters on the basis of the work; at the time of Pliny the original work was still found at the Jupiter Capitoline temple in Rome.

Highlights works
Wounded bitch, Sculpture, Roman copy, signed by Sopatros, of a Greek original by Lysippus (late 4th century BC)
Male head (Alexander the Great, Sculpture, Roman work from the 2nd century AD, after a Greek original from the late 4th century BC
Portrait of Euripides, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Greek original from the late 4th century BC
Portrait of Demosthenes, Sculpture, Roman copy of an original by Polyeuktos (first half of the 3rd century BC)
Centaur head, Sculpture, Roman copy of an original from the 2nd century BC
Female head of parchment style, Sculpture, Work inspired by the style of Pergamum in the 2nd century BC
Apulian volute crater, ceramics, Attributed to the Lycurgus Painter, mid-4th century BC
Attic kylix with black paint, ceramics, Late 6th – early 5th century BC
Fragment of human head balm, ceramics, 2nd-3rd century AD
Female torso, Sculpture, Late 4th – early 3rd century BC
Male torso, Sculpture, Late 4th century BC
Fragment of a funerary frieze, Sculpture, Late 4th – early 3rd century BC
Male head figured vase handle, ceramics, 3rd-2nd century BC
Satyr head, Sculpture, Roman copy of a Hellenistic model
Relief fragment, Sculpture, Archaistic work from the 1st century AD
Double comic mask, Sculpture, 2nd century AD
Attic sarcophagus fragment, Funerary monument and ornaments, 3rd century AD
Head of Priapus, Sculpture, Archaistic work from the Augustan age
Head of Dionysus, Sculpture, Archaistic work from the Augustan age
Head of a Young Man (Ephebe), Sculpture, Eclectic work from the Flavian period
Headless statuettes of divinity, Sculpture, Roman copy of an archaistic original

Room 9
Roman and Medieval Art
This room displays Roman artworks, plus some medieval pieces that wind up the long chronological itinerary through the Barracco collection.

Italic and Roman art
There are some Roman works, such as the statue of a young man of the Giulio-Claudia family, perhaps the emperor Nero himself, discovered in the Villa di Livia (nicknamed ad gallinas albas at Prima Porta) and dating back to the first century. Next to it are three funerary steles from Palmira (Syria), depicting two women and a man of the third century, made of limestone.

Medieval Art
Here there is the fragment of a polychrome mosaic with large tesserae from the XII century commissioned by Pope Innocenzo III for the ancient basilica of San Pietro in Vaticano, removed during the construction of the new basilica by Michelangelo.

Highlights works
Portrait of a boy from the Julio-Claudian family, Sculpture, 1st century AD
Palmyrene funerary high relief with male portrait, Funerary monument and ornaments, 3rd century AD
Mosaic with Ecclesia Romana, Mosaic / Intarsia, 12th century AD
Temple-shaped cinerary urn, Funerary monument and ornaments, Italic art of the 3rd century BC
Statuettes of Neptune, Sculpture, Roman copy of an eclectic work of the 1st century BC
Dancing satyr statuette, Sculpture, Roman copy, made in the 2nd century AD, of a Greek original from the Hellenistic period
Historical relief fragment with male head, Sculpture, 1st century AD
Fragment of clay slab with head of Ammon, Architectural element, 1st century AD
Athlete head, Sculpture, 1st-century AD copy of an original by Stephanos (1st century BC)
Female portrait, Sculpture, 2nd-3rd century AD
Mars head, Sculpture, Late 1st – early 2nd century AD
Fragment of statue of athlete, Sculpture, Eclectic work from the 1st century AD, attributable to Koblanòs of Aphrodisia
Palmyrene funerary high relief with female portrait, Funerary monument and ornaments, 3rd century AD

Giovanni Barracco Museum of Ancient Sculpture
The Giovanni Barracco Museum of Ancient Sculpture is part of the Museums system in the Municipality of Rome and is located in the Parione district, near Campo de ‘Fiori. It collects several works of classical and Near Eastern art, donated to the Municipality by Baron Giovanni Barracco in 1904.

Giovanni Barracco Museum of Ancient Sculpture is a museum in Rome, Italy, featuring a collection of works acquired by the collector Giovanni Barracco, who donated his collection to the City of Rome in 1902.

Among the works are Egyptian, Assyrian, and Phoenician art, as well as Greek sculptures of the classical period. The 400 works of the collection are divided according to the civilization and are displayed in nine rooms, on the first and second floors, while the ground floor contains a small reception area.

On the first floor Egyptian works are presented in Rooms I and II. Room II includes works from Mesopotamia, including cuneiform tablets of the third millennium BCE and items from neo-Assyrian palaces dating from the ninth and seventh centuries BCE. The third room contains two important Phoenician items together with some Etruscan art, while the fourth displays works from Cyprus.

The second floor exhibits classical art. Room V presents original sculptures and copies from the Roman period as well as Greek sculpture of the fifth century BCE. Room VI displays copies of classical and late classical Roman work, along with funerary sculptures from Greece. Rooms VII and VIII, show a collection of Greek and Italic ceramics, and other items, starting from the time of Alexander the Great. The final room shows examples of works from public monuments of the Roman period, together with specimens of medieval art.