The Farnese Collection
The Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN) preserves and exhibits one of the largest collections of ancient sculpture that was formed during the Renaissance, linked to the family of Alessandro Farnese (1468-1549) who was Pope Paul III and his nephews, the dukes of Parma.
The origin of the collection dates back to the beginning of the works on St. Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican, and to the construction of the palaces of the Pope's family, since the Roman forums and the ruins of the Caracalla thermal baths were used as quarry. The excavations brought to light numerous marble statues, which, without any shame, became part of the Farnese family heritage in Rome, decorating the Farnese palace, next to the Campo di Fiori, that of the Madama - by Margaret of Austria -, Villa Angelina and the gardens of the Palatine Orchards, in the ancient Domus Tiberiana which had views over Maxentius Basilica and the old Roman forums, known in the 16th century as Campo Vaccino, the cow field. Donations and subsequent acquisitions expanded the collection already in the 16th century and even more in the following century at the hands of Cardinal Ranuccio. In the 18th century the collection passed to the Bourbons, to Charles III of Bourbon who had been on the throne of the Kingdom of Naples since 1734; The mansions and palaces of the Farnese were emptied of their statuary collections, the Roman marbles came to the king of Naples as an inheritance from his mother Elisabetta Farnese along with other diverse collections of numismatics, paintings, books and manuscripts, among other acquisitions. Today more than three hundred sculptures are in the MANN in addition to another hundred pieces that were scattered in other collections. It now forms the so-called Farnese Collection.
The collection occupies around thirty rooms of what was Palazzo degli Estudi, Palace of Studies in Naples, originally a 16th century stables that were adapted to house the university headquarters. When it was moved in 1777, the building was restored and modified to house the Museum and Royal Library. Since the middle of the 20th century it has been the Archaeological Museum, which houses many of the finds and paintings obtained in the excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum, plus other statuary collections from Capua, it has an epigraphic section, another on ancient Egyptian art and other dedicated to Magna Graecia.
As regards the Farnese Collection, in room I there are the reliefs from the Hadrianeum, the temple dedicated to the emperor Hadrian in the Campus Martius, the marbles from the Domus Flavia, the statues of the Dacian prisoners, those of Apollo with the lyre, one of them composed of two distinct types of marble: porphyry and white marble. This, the seated and two-coloured one, was known as Triumphant Rome; the other was sculpted in basalt. Between rooms II and IV, pieces from the Farnese Palace in Rome are exhibited: Dionysus as a child, Ganymede and the eagle, Eros, Antinous, Pan and Daphne and the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogiton, who, in the year 514 BC, murdered the pisistratida Hippias. The original statues - this is a copy from Roman times, from the second century -, work of the Greek sculptors Critias and Nesiotes, were stolen by the Persians during the sack of Athens in 480 BC.
In rooms V and VI the sculptures correspond to the theme of gods and mythical figures, where the pieces of the Artemis of Ephesus stand out, made of alabaster and with bronze hands, feet and head, and Eros with a dolphin, which decorated a fountain.
In the rooms that correspond to the findings of the Farnesian Gardens of the Palatine, which dominated the valley of the forums, you can admire the two-colour marble statues of Isis and Fortuna, also that of Asclepius and different pieces of Aphrodite-Venus in the versions modest, anadyomena or the doidalsa or crouching that dominated the Greek conception of the goddess.
From Caracalla Baths looting, on the Aventine Hill, some of the most outstanding monumental pieces appeared. The thermal baths, which had colossal dimensions, were decorated with polychrome marble coverings on the walls, the floors were paved with large mosaics and, of course, there were numerous statues, at least a hundred and a half, which adorned the thermal facilities. From here comes the monumental Farnese Hercules, a statue attributed to the Greek Glykon, although this is a Roman copy from the 2nd century, which shows him standing, naked in repose, leaning on his club and his lion's skin and, in his right hand, on his back, holding an apple, suggesting that he had already completed the work of the Hesperides apples; and the colossal sculptural set of the torment of Dirce, known simply as the Farnese Bull. Dirce, married to the usurper of the throne of Thebes, Lyco, dedicated time and effort to mistreating his niece, Antiope. Antiope managed to escape and gave birth to her two sons: Amphion and Zeto. When they were older, they avenged her mother by tying Dirce to a bull that dragged her to death. The sculptural ensemble weighs more than twenty-four tons and measures more than four meters high and three meters on each side.
Other rooms contain collections of Roman emperors portraits, including the colossal bust of Antoninus Pius, other busts of Greek philosophers and writers, full-length female and male sculptures that correspond to private figures, as well as some sculpted sarcophagi.
© J.L.Nicolas
