Palazzo Massimo alle Terme: A Neoclassical Palace and Roman Archaeological Museum
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Italy
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Italian
- Site type
- Civic
On this page29 sections
History
Palazzo Massimo alle Terme is a nineteenth-century palace in Rome, Italy, built in an Italian Neoclassical style between 1883 and 1886 for a Jesuit educational institution. It stands in the Castro Pretorio district, near Piazza dei Cinquecento and the Baths of Diocletian. Its name recalls the Massimo family, owners of the property from 1789, and its position near the ancient baths.
From the Villa Peretti to the Massimo Property
The palace occupies land formerly belonging to the Villa Peretti-Montalto and the earlier Palazzo Peretti. Cardinal Felice Peretti, who later became Pope Sixtus V, owned the villa before it passed to the Negroni family. The Massimo family acquired the property in 1789. During the nineteenth century, the villa and older palace were progressively demolished, while the estate was substantially reduced in 1860 during the construction of Termini railway station.
The earlier Palazzo Peretti had been designed by Domenico Fontana in the late sixteenth century. Between 1883 and 1886, the Jesuit priest Massimiliano Massimo commissioned Camillo Pistrucci to construct the present building on the remaining family land. Although the new palace broadly recalled its predecessor, it differed in its number of storeys and overall volume.
The Jesuit College
The new building was intended for a Jesuit college. The Jesuits, formally the Society of Jesus, are a Catholic religious order that also operated educational institutions. Their former premises at the Collegio Romano had been seized after the capture of Rome and transferred to the Ennio Quirino Visconti school, described as the first state secondary school of unified Italy.
Known as the Palazzo di Termini, the new palace housed the Jesuit college and later the Istituto Massimiliano Massimo. The institute remained there until 8 December 1960, when it moved to a new building in Rome’s EUR district.
State Acquisition and the National Museum
The Italian state acquired the palace in 1981 with funds provided under Law 92/81 for the enhancement of Rome’s archaeological heritage. After restoration directed by the architect Costantino Dardi, the building was incorporated into the Museo Nazionale Romano. The museum had been founded in 1889 from numerous private collections and opened as a unified Roman National Museum in 1890. Its original premises in the former monastery at the Baths of Diocletian could not contain the whole collection.
A reorganization in 1911 accompanied an archaeological exhibition, and a further reform in 1990 distributed the collections among several historic buildings. Palazzo Massimo became the principal of the museum’s four locations. Its installation was inaugurated in 1995 and completed in 1998. Since then, the palace has housed the principal branch of the Museo Nazionale Romano, a national museum of ancient Roman and related archaeological material, together with the central offices of Rome’s Special Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape. The museum’s collections cover Greek and Roman art from the fifth century BC to the fourth century AD.
The palace also preserves a history of study and documentation. In 1871 and 1872, Professor Annibale Angeli measured the villa and palace and recorded frescoes that were later lost. During the 1950s, ancient artworks formerly held in the building were studied by the architect Clemente Busiri Vici, the archaeologist Enrico Paribeni, and the writer Ignazio Silone. Palazzo Massimo retains Italian cultural-property status, while its museum and administrative functions followed the state acquisition, restoration, and incorporation into the national museum system.
Remains
Palazzo Massimo is a large nineteenth-century palace arranged around a central courtyard. The museum occupies the basement, ground floor, and two upper floors, with the entrance reached from Largo di Villa Peretti. Five basement rooms house the coin collection, while the ground floor contains eight rooms and three galleries. The first floor has fourteen rooms and two galleries, and the second floor presents Roman wall paintings, mosaics, and inlaid stone panels from villas, tombs, religious buildings, and other sites around Rome.
Basement Collections
Coins, Jewellery, and Imperial Insignia
The basement contains the Medagliere, described as Italy’s largest coin collection, with approximately 120,000 coins. It brings together the former medal collection of the Kircher Museum, Francesco Gnecchi’s collection acquired in 1929, and the collection of King Victor Emmanuel III, purchased by the Italian state in 1946. Nearby displays include Roman women’s jewellery and three imperial sceptres. Among the objects are a coin of Basiliscus dated 475–476, a fourth-century hairpin decorated with busts, a bronze and coloured-glass imperial insignia, a first-century BC jasper jewel showing Athena Parthenos, and a gold bulla.
Ground-Floor Sculpture and Republican Rome
Athena and Republican Portraiture
The entrance display includes a seated Athena made from Luna marble, basalt, and pink alabaster. Found at the foot of the Aventine, the statue probably came from a temple on the hill and dates to the late first century BC or early first century AD. The ground-floor galleries continue with republican portraits shaped by Etrusco-Italic realism and Hellenistic art. The so-called Tivoli General, dated to 75–50 BC, combines the realistic head of a mature man with an idealized Greek body.
Roman Calendars and Imperial Religion
The ground floor displays the Fasti Antiates maiores, the only surviving republican Roman calendar. Found in the ruins of Nero’s villa at Anzio and dated to the age of Sulla, it lists twelve months, an intercalary month after the festival of the Terminalia, and the consuls and censors for 173–67 BC. The Fasti Praenestini, a marble calendar of Roman festivals dated to AD 6–9, came from the forum of Praeneste, modern Palestrina.
The imperial-cult gallery contains a headless Antonine emperor in military dress and two altar inscriptions. One is dedicated to the Lares Augusti, guardian spirits associated with the emperor and imperial household; the other is dedicated to Augustus. These objects stand alongside original Greek and Hellenistic works and portraits connected with the early imperial period.
Julio-Claudian Portraits and Augustus
Rooms 4 and 5 contain portraits and inscribed statue bases associated with the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the ruling family descended from Augustus and the early imperial house. The group includes Augustus, Octavia, Livia, Germanicus, Drusus, Tiberius, Caligula, Agrippa, Agrippa Postumus, Agrippina the Younger, Poppaea, and Claudia Octavia.
Room 5 contains the statue of Augustus from the Via Labicana, made in 12 BC. Augustus appears as pontifex maximus, the highest priestly office in ancient Roman religion. Veiled and dressed in a toga and patrician boots, he extends his arm to pour a libation, a ritual offering of liquid to a deity. A document case lies at his feet. The statue is almost completely preserved except for both hands, and its separately carved Greek-marble head fits the veil and toga precisely.
Historical Frieze and Legendary Origins
Fragments of the historical frieze from the Basilica Aemilia in the Roman Forum are also displayed in Room 5. The frieze is 0.76 metres high and originally extended for more than 100 metres. It represented Roman history from its beginnings, although its date remains disputed between the age of Sulla and the time of Augustus. Surviving scenes include the foundation of a city, probably Rome, battles against the Sabines and Gauls, and the punishment of Tarpeia.
Frescoes from an Esquiline tomb show episodes linked with Rome’s legendary origins. The scenes include the Trojan and Rutulian war, Aeneas’s battle with Mezentius, the foundations of Lavinium and Alba Longa, Rhea Silvia’s consecration as a Vestal, her encounter with Mars, and the exposure of Romulus and Remus beside the Tiber. An altar from the Piazzale delle Corporazioni at Ostia, dating to Trajan’s reign and reused under Hadrian as a statue base for Silvanus, depicts Mars and Venus, the Lupercal with Romulus and Remus, the Tiber, the Palatine, and cupids playing with Mars’s weapons and Venus’s chariot.
Greek and Hellenistic Works
Bronzes, Portraits, and Classical Figures
The Greek and Hellenistic galleries include Roman copies of portraits of Solon, Herodotus, Socrates, Philip II of Macedon, and Alexander the Great. The Pugilist of the Baths is a Greek bronze from the second half of the fourth century BC, attributed to Lysippus or his circle. The Hellenistic Prince, a nude youth holding a spear, was found on the Quirinal.
The Niobid group includes the wounded Niobid, a Greek work of the early Classical period found in 1906, and the marble Peplophoros from Piazza Barberini, dated to around 470 BC. The so-called Pedagogue is a Hadrianic copy associated with the Niobids. The wounded Niobid probably belonged to a temple pediment, possibly that of Apollo Daphnephoros at Eretria.
Aphrodite and Marine Imagery
Room 8 contains a Neo-Attic Aphrodite derived from Praxiteles’ Aphrodite of Knidos and signed “work of Menophantos, after the Aphrodite of Troas.” It is identified as the only known example of a sculptor explicitly acknowledging that his work is a copy. The room also contains a base with dancing maenads and a marble basin decorated with Tritons and Nereids.
The large basin, made of Pentelic marble and found at Lungotevere in Sassia in the area of the Horti Agrippinae, probably formed part of a monumental fountain. Wild-animal paws support it, while its decoration includes Eros on a winged swan, Nereids, and marine centaurs carrying the arms of Achilles. The figures date to the first decades of the first century BC.
First-Floor Imperial Sculpture
Imperial Portraits and Provincial Personifications
The first floor presents imperial portraits and sculpture from the Flavian, Antonine, Severan, and later imperial periods. Portraits of Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, and members of their families appear alongside portraits of imperial women including Julia Domna, Plautilla, Tranquillina, Otacilia Severa, Etruscilla, and Salonina.
The displays devoted to Trajan and Hadrian include Trajan represented as Hercules with a lion skin, portraits of Plotina, Hadrian, Vibia Sabina, and Antinous, and representations of Antinous as a priest of the Magna Mater, the Roman form of the Great Mother goddess cult, and as Silvanus. The head of a crowned Antinous came from the sanctuary of the Great Mother at Ostia.
Room 3 contains two marble panels from the Hadrianeum, dedicated by Antoninus Pius in AD 145. Each measures 1.64 by 1.44 metres and personifies a Roman province. One is an Amazon who may represent Thrace; the other, wearing a rosette diadem, may represent Egypt. The panels were found during excavations conducted under Pope Alexander VII and came from the Odescalchi collection.
Copies of Greek Masterpieces
The first floor includes the Apollo of Anzio, a Roman copy of a work associated with the school of Praxiteles, and the Apollo of the Tiber, a Roman copy of an early Classical original influenced by Phidias and Calamis. The Lancellotti Discobolus is a Roman copy of Myron’s bronze, while the Sleeping Hermaphrodite represents Hermaphroditus, the mythological figure associated with Hermes and Aphrodite.
The Lancellotti Discobolus was found during excavations on the Esquiline in 1781. It is a 1.55-metre-high marble copy made around AD 120 in the Hadrianic period, reproducing Myron’s original of about 450 BC. A headless version, the Discobolus of Castelporziano, is displayed alongside it.
Sculpture from Imperial Villas
Sculptures from the imperial villas at Subiaco, Anzio, and Hadrian’s Villa include the headless Ephēbe of Subiaco, the Young Girl of Anzio in Parian and Pentelic marble, dated to around 250–230 BC, and figures of Apollo, Hermes, a fighting Amazon, Dionysus, Athena, a dancing girl, Hypnos, and Antinous. A marble krater is decorated with cranes and snakes, while an Amazon’s head and a female head with a diadem add to the villa sculpture displays.
Two copies of Doidalsas’s Crouching Aphrodite are shown. The copy found on Via Palermo near the Viminal Palace is made of Parian marble and dates to the mid-second century. The second, from the baths of Hadrian’s Villa, is a Pentelic-marble copy of the Hadrianic period. The first originally included Eros and a swan.
Mythological and Theatrical Sculpture
Room 7 contains mythological works including the African Acrobat, the flute-playing Satyr, the nude Apollo of Castelporziano, another Apollo Citharoedus, a headless Artemis with a quiver from the Villa of the Quintilii, Dionysus Sardanapalus from the Via Appia, the bronze Dionysus of the Tiber, Athena, Pan, another Crouching Aphrodite, and two archery Erotes associated with Lysippus. Thetis with a Triton and another Roman copy of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite are also displayed.
The Sleeping Hermaphrodite shows a young figure asleep on a cloak, with the head resting on the right arm. Its rear view presents a conventionally feminine body, while the front reveals male sexual characteristics, expressing the mythological identity of Hermaphroditus. Room 8 adds a head of Hercules from Nemi, dated to the late second century BC, a torso of the Minotaur possibly belonging to a group with Theseus, and a torso of Odysseus from a group depicting the seizure of Troy’s Palladium with Diomedes.
Room 9 presents theatrical sculpture, including a double-headed Hermes representing Homer and Menander, theatre masks, Dionysus, and a masked actor as Papposilenus from the Villa of Torre Astura. The figure wears a mask, cloak, tunic, lambskin, and hairy leggings.
Nemi Ships and Roman Victory
Imperial Parade Vessels
Room 10 contains bronze fittings and decorations from the two flat-bottomed ships associated with the emperor Caligula. The vessels measured approximately 71.30 by 20 metres and 73 by 24 metres. They were recovered from Lake Nemi between 1895 and 1932 and destroyed at the end of the Second World War.
The ships served as parade vessels for imperial festivals and banquets and were connected with a villa of Caligula that had previously belonged to Julius Caesar. Their decks were paved with marble and mosaics and decorated with bronze fittings and gilded tiles. Surviving pieces include a balustrade with Dionysiac herms, four wolves, three lions, a leopard, a Medusa head, and a hand-shaped fitting. A fibula inscribed “C CAESARIS AVG GERMANIC” confirms the association with Caligula.
Military Reliefs and the Portonaccio Sarcophagus
Room 11 presents reliefs celebrating Roman victories over peoples described as barbarian, particularly on the empire’s northern frontiers. Room 12 is organized around the Portonaccio Sarcophagus, discovered near the Via Tiburtina in 1931 and dated to around AD 180. Its reliefs show a Roman commander fighting barbarians. The lid presents the deceased as a newborn, receiving education among the Muses, marrying, and showing clemency toward defeated enemies.
The sarcophagus probably belonged to a Roman general involved in Marcus Aurelius’s Sarmatian campaigns of AD 172–175. It may have been made by the workshop responsible for the Column of Marcus Aurelius. The deceased’s facial features were left unfinished, perhaps because a portrait model or purchaser had not yet been selected.
Late Imperial and Christian Sculpture
Severan and Tetrarchic Periods
Rooms 13 and 14 cover the Severan dynasty, the third-century military crisis, the recovery under Diocletian’s tetrarchy, a system of shared imperial rule, and the consolidation of power under Constantine I. The displays include portraits of Septimius Severus, Caracalla, Geta, and Severus Alexander, together with sarcophagi and late-antique sculpture.
The Severan works include a Greek-marble bust of Septimius Severus from Ostia, a portrait of Caracalla from the Via Cassia found in 1948, a statue of Geta as a young Apollo from Via XX Settembre, and a colossal head of Severus Alexander from Ostia. After Geta’s assassination, his portraits were affected by damnatio memoriae, the posthumous condemnation of an individual that commonly involved removing or destroying public images and inscriptions.
Late-Antique Sarcophagi and Christian Works
Late-antique works include the Acilia Sarcophagus. Its central youth is usually identified as Gordian III, although other interpretations identify him as Nigrinian, son of Carinus, or as a personification of the consular process. The Sarcophagus of the Muses from Villa Celimontana dates to 280–290, while the Annona Sarcophagus, dated to 270–280, symbolizes the grain trade and distribution.
The fourth-century Christian displays include sarcophagi, a grey-marble krater, a slab depicting miracles, and a seated Christ teaching. Christ appears as a youthful figure who raises his right hand while explaining a partly opened scroll.
Second-Floor Painting and Decorative Arts
Villa Frescoes and Domestic Rooms
The second floor contains Roman frescoes, mosaics, and opus sectile panels. Opus sectile is a technique in which cut pieces of stone or other hard material are fitted together to create images or patterns. The material comes from suburban villas and other buildings, including the Villa of Livia, the Villa Farnesina, the nymphaeum at Anzio, the hypogeum at Aguzzano, and the Villa of Baccano.
The displays include four mosaics of charioteers representing the circus factions known as the Blues, Reds, Greens, and Whites. An opus sectile panel from the Basilica of Junius Bassus shows Hylas being abducted by nymphs. The garden fresco from the underground nymphaeum of the Villa of Livia is shown with bedroom frescoes from the Villa Farnesina.
The museum reconstructs a Roman cryptoporticus, a covered corridor often partly below ground, together with a cubiculum, a private room or bedroom, a triclinium, a dining room, and a vestibule, using original ancient frescoes. Early Christian catacomb paintings are also displayed, along with a reconstruction of a Helios head in inlaid decoration from the Mithraeum of Santa Prisca.
Mosaics of Myth and the Nile
A floor mosaic showing the abduction of Hylas by nymphs came from the triclinium of a villa along the Via Labicana near Tor Bella Monaca. Another late Republican mosaic, from a villa near Cecchignola and the Via Ardeatina, depicts a cat carrying a bird and ducks, including one holding a lotus flower. This imagery belongs to the tradition of Nile scenes, Hellenistic and Roman representations of animals and landscapes associated with the Nile Valley.
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