Description
The group of Roman sculptures comes from the collections of the Gonzaga family of Guastalla and the Farnese family of Rome.
On display in the vestibule of the Palazzo della Pilotta and in the Gallery are respectively the head of Zeus in Greek marble and the colossi in basanite, found on the Palatine, perhaps in the imperial palace of Domitian, which belonged to the Farnese collections. The splendid Roman marble copy of Praxiteles’ Eros also belonged to the same owner.
The Satyr flutist by Lysippus and the colossal head of the god Serapis, Roman copies of Greek and Hellenistic originals, were part of the Gonzaga collection, as were the portrait of the emperor Lucius Verus and that of a young man from the Julio-Claudian period.
Some busts dated to the end of the 2nd century AD were purchased on the antiques market in the 19th century.
The basin bottom in “flowered alabaster” (yellow-pink marble from Morocco) with the head of a river deity in relief arrived in the museum, without indications of provenance, with the acquisition of the Canonici Collection.
Bibliography
Guida al Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Parma, a cura di Mirella Marini Calvani, Ravenna, Essegi, 2001
Artworks and Collections
