Fondazione Torlonia Unveils a Striking Sculpture Exhibition in Villa Albani’s Newly Expanded Space
In the storied Antiquarium, “Marmora Romana” celebrates the exuberance of colored stone
A selection of newly restored sculptures from the Torlonia Collection are on public display in the Antiquarium of Villa Albani. Curated by antiquities scholar Carlo Gasparri, “Marmora Romana”—an exhibition celebrating the exuberance of colored stone—opened this week with a lavish party in the garden of the neoclassical villa.
Formerly a stable block, the Antiquarium is located on the perimeter of the villa that Cardinal Albani built to display his unparalleled collection of antiquities in the mid-18th century. Albani is said to have found comfort in caressing ancient stone as his eyes were failing him.
When Alessandro Torlonia acquired the villa in 1866, he put enormous effort into expanding the collection by sourcing pieces with extraordinary provenances. Many of the marbles on display in the Antiquarium belonged to the Marquess Giustiniani and carry his taste in their current manifestations.
Under his direction, a fragment of a female face carved out of black stone was recast as Cleopatra’s son, Tolomeus II, by adding a helmet and cuirass of cream colored alabaster. The carving of the facial hair that indicates the transformation is very moving. Old inventories uncover that the fragment had a life as Alexander the Great as well as Achilles, before it became a manifestation of Roman Egyptomania.
Alongside horse mangers inscribed with the Torlonia crest, a blaze of color fills the room. An outstanding basin made of the exceptionally rare green breccia contains coasts of so many different rock types, filling the most insatiable eyes. A female bust nearby carries a “modern” head on top of an exquisitely draped translucent alabaster dress. So many shades of white pop out of this piece that one wonders whether white in antiquity was a synonym for light or a true color. The stories of stone that these pieces tell are layered, deeply intertwined with their provenances, archetypes, and the grains of their patina.
The installation is superb. The colorful shades gleam in the light of a late Roman afternoon. There is real synergy between the pieces: the busts are all placed on beautiful polychrome columns set against a deep purple background the same way they were originally displayed in the Museo Torlonia that operated from 1876 until the outbreak of World War II. Returning the collection to the public through the creation of a museum is the grand plan of the foundation.
In announcing this exciting step towards the larger goal, the president of the foundation, Alessandro Poma, also promoted a seminar that will take place at the American Academy in Rome next March. The mission, he says, is to promote antiquity, share the research produced in the conservation labs, and to enable public enjoyment.
The creation of this permanent exhibition space is a signal that leadership at the foundation is exploring with ways of “opening up” to people. Communicating the resilience of classical antiquity through the ages, adds the foundation’s director, Carlotta Loverini, is an essential element of its mission—and this is part of the colorful story that these figures of stone will tell to future generations.
“Marmora Romana,” funded in part by Bulgari, is free and open to the public from Tuesday—Sunday during select hours