20 Masterworks from the Family Museum

The purpose of the "throne" is unknown, but most likely it formed the parapet for a sacrificial pit at a Locrian temple. Here on its right side is depicted a veiled woman lighting an incense-burner.

On the left side of the Ludovisi "throne"', a naked young woman plays the aulos (a double flute with reed mouthpiece). The sculptural ensemble may have come to Rome in antiquity as war booty.

This huge sarcophagus (late 2nd / early 3rd century CE) shows a battle between Romans and barbarians. Found in Rome in 1621, it then was long exhibited outdoors in the Villa Ludovisi gardens.

Colossal bust of Athena (?) in a (restored) Phrygian cap; a Roman copy, perhaps of the early 2nd century CE, of a late 5th / early 4th century BCE Greek original. Originally in the Cesi collection.

Colossal statue of Apollo 'Citharode', originally from the Cesi or Cesarini collection. The torso likely dates to the first half of the 2nd century CE; the head (and much else) is restored.

Colossal bust of a divinity with diadem and veil—perhaps Demeter, or a historic person in her guise. Likely created in the mid-2nd century CE, it came from the Cesi to the Ludovisi collection.

From a Greek original by Praxiteles, this Roman copy of perhaps the mid-2nd century CE features restorations by Alessandro Algardi (1598-1654), including the satyr's right arm that holds grapes.

Also from Locris is this colossal head (mid 5th century BCE) of Aphrodite, found in Rome by 1733, probably in the Villa Ludovisi gardens. Originally it would have topped an enormous wooden statue.

Winckelmann called this sculpture “the most beautiful Mars from antiquity”. His shield, hands, and feet, and the head, arms and feet of the Eros at his right leg, saw restorations by Bernini in 1622.

This seated Greek warrior in Pentelic marble—except for the head, which is not original—probably was conceived as part of a larger sculptural group, and likely belongs to the later Hellenistic period.

It was Winckelmann who first identified these figures (ca. 100 BCE—100 CE) as Electra recognizing her brother Orestes. The group is signed by one Stephanos, and was in the Ludovisi collection by 1623.

This group of Dionysus flanked by a panther and a satyr was found on the Quirinal hill (site of the Quattro Fontane) in the late 1580s; it came as a gift from the Mattei to Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi.

Portrait of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenemhat III (reigned ca. 1860-1814 BCE), found in the area of the Pantheon, and so presumably from the Isis temple there. It is listed in a Ludovisi inventory of 1641.

This famous group, showing a Gaul committing suicide after killing (presumably) his wife, is a Roman copy of a Pergamene bronze original by the sculptor Epigonus, set up by Attalus I in 223 BCE.

This group, which came to the Ludovisi by 1623, was probably found on the grounds of the Villa Ludovisi itself. As such, it may have belonged to Julius Caesar, on whose property the Villa was built.

Caesar's villa later passed to the historian Sallust, and then to the imperial family. If Caesar commissioned this copy of a Hellenistic original, it illustrates his conception of Gauls as enemies.

A Roman imperial copy of the Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles. Only the torso is ancient; the rest belongs to the sculptor Ippolito Buzzi (1562-1634), a key restorer for Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi.

A much-reduced antique replica (perhaps late 1st century BCE) of the colossal (12 meters in height) Athena Parthenos (438 BCE) of Phidias, signed by an [An]tiochos [Athe]nian; this one stands 2m 35cm.

Roman copy of a Greek original of a beardless and youthful Hermes of the 'Loghios' ("orator") type. The sculptor Alessandro Algardi contributed extensive restorations, including the feet and the base.

Goethe admired this colossal head of "Juno"—probably Antonia Minor, the younger of two daughters of Mark Antony and Octavia, and mother of the emperor Claudius—so much that he made his own cast.

Henry James (1873) declared this "Juno", along with the Ares Ludovisi, the two great sculptures of the Museum: "These things it’s almost impossible to praise; we can only mark them well...”

Perhaps from the Cesi collection, this portrait (with bronze head and neck on marble bust), often held to be Julius Caesar (alternately, Scipio Africanus), is almost certainly 15th or 16th century.

Perhaps the most enigmatic sculptural piece in the Ludovisi collection is this Roman copy (2nd century CE?) of a lost Hellenistic bronze (?) original, conventionally regarded as a sleeping Fury.

Commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Bernini at age 23 executed this statue group in 1621-1622; on its completion it was gifted to Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, returning to the Borghese in 1908.