The Gallerie d’Italia in Piazza Scala in Milan, Intesa Sanpaolo museum, presents the exhibition “I Marmi Torlonia. Collecting Masterpieces” from 25 May to 18 September: 96 marbles from the Torlonia Collection, the most important private collection of classical statuary, in a large exhibition which, with five new restored works, inaugurates the collection’s world exhibition program.
The majestic consular sarcophagus from via Ardeatina will welcome visitors, with a group of Roman togates, in the wide-ranging spaces of the Galleries, where the colossal prisoner Dace similar to the examples of the Forum of Trajan will find its ideal location, next to the portraits of Domitian and of Antinous, recently restored, part of the famous gallery of the 122 busts of the Collection.
The exhibition itinerary ends with a section entirely dedicated to restorations where the Hercules composed of 112 pieces, already exhibited in Rome, will dialogue with the sculpture of the Leda with the swan: in both works different phases of the cleaning intervention will be visible, to tell the challenges facing contemporary restoration.
The exhibition ” I Marmi Torlonia. Collecting Masterpieces. The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces “was born from an agreement between the Torlonia Foundation and the Ministry of Culture – with the Directorate General for Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape and the Special Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Rome – an authentic example of collaboration between public and private The May 2022 appointment is the first stage, after the successful Roman inauguration, of a tour of important international museums which will end with the identification of a permanent exhibition site for the new Torlonia Museum; Torlonia laboratories in via della Lungara, the restoration of the sculptures of the Collection continues.
The scientific project curated by Salvatore Settis and Carlo Gasparri is revealed in an exhibition itinerary that, maintaining the fil-rouge of a chronology backwards on the history of collecting, highlights the exceptional relevance of the history of the Torlonia Museum at Lungara, founded by Prince Alessandro Torlonia in 1875.
The works – busts, reliefs, statues, sarcophagi and decorative elements – more than 620 pieces described in the catalog of the Torlonia Museum of ancient sculptures (1884-85) published by Carlo Ludovico Visconti, the first fully illustrated in phototype – are not only outstanding examples of ancient sculpture, but witnesses of a highly representative cross-section of the history of antiquity collecting in Rome from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.
Collection of collections, this collection is the result of a long series of acquisitions and some significant movements of sculptures between the various residences of the family up to the creation of the Torlonia Museum, representing – the beginnings of collecting antiquities and the transition to the great patrician collections – a cultural process of fundamental importance in which Italy and Rome have had an indisputable primacy.
The genesis of the Torlonia Collection is due to the Torlonia Family’s passion for collecting antiques which finds its fulfillment in the Torlonia Foundation established with the aim of preserving and promoting “ the cultural heritage of the Family for humanity ” to be handed down to future generations. Thanks to an agreement signed with the Foundation, and by virtue of the Greco-Roman roots of the brand, Bulgari has contributed as main sponsor to the restoration of the works already exhibited in the Capitoline Exhibition, which have been restored to their original splendor after a scrupulous study. at the Torlonia Laboratories. The moment of restoration is a moment of knowledge in which new light is shed on the history of the works.
During the works some interesting discoveries emerged such as the traces of color present on the Port Relief of the III century. AD Gallerie d’Italia wanted to support this fundamental conservation work by contributing to the restoration of the Consular Sarcophagus and the sculpture of the Leda which will significantly open and close the exhibition.