Palazzo Massimo

The Palazzo Massimo museum is located right by Termini, the main train station in Rome, and is one of four run by the Co-op group that also manages the Colosseum. The Co-op doesn’t have the friendliest group of staffers, but they do an excellent job curating and presenting the artifacts that they collect and protect, so I highly recommend their museums. The Palazzo has four floors of exhibits, mostly focusing on Greek and Roman sculpture and restored murals and mosaics. There’s also a hefty coin collection that goes from pre-Rome days through the switch to EU currency, if you dig that.

But for me? Greek and Roman sculptures, please.

Sappho made another appearances, her third in our three days here.

Much of Roman art is an adapted copy of Greek art, and these two guys are perfect examples. Both are duplicates of the original Greek bronze discobolus that is more famous, and the one on the right is the only one we know of that has survived mostly intact.

And there was Caesar Augustus:

And along with Augustus, busts of so many emperors, their sons, their daughters, and their wives. So many!

I liked this statue. What it is actually of is disputed, according to the sign accompanying it: it could be a female deity, possibly the wife of Neptune given the Triton next to her, she could represent a city… lots of possibilities.

The Palazzo has a number of fantastic reliefs as well. I find this one both impressive and creepy:

This relief depicts part of a victorious Roman battle against some barbarians. Close-up and then full view, pardon the fish eye.

Plus, they have on display some of the remains from the Roman ships found in Nemi Lake. These ships were built by Caligula and were essentially floating palaces. The arms and hands shown below would have been towards the front of the ship to ward off evil. Perhaps its the way they look now, apart from the ship, or perhaps it’s the fact that they were created for Caligula — either way, they look rather unsettling now. Exquisite, though.