Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome

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The traveler who leaves the station of the Termini has only to cross the piazza dei Cinquencento, with the terminal of the buses, to find himself plunged in the baths of Diocletian. These are part of the Museo Nazionale Romano.

The Diocletian's Baths - Terme di Diocleziano, build around 300 AD, were the largest and most sumptuous of the imperial baths and remained in use until the aqueducts that fed them were cut by the Goths in 537. They were the grandest of the public baths and are similar in size and plan to those of Caracalla. The Baths of Diocletian accommodated 3,000 bathers; they are well preserved because various parts were converted later to ecclesiastical or other use.
The basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli was built in the tepidarium of the baths and the church of San Bernardo alle Terme is located in an old circular tower of the perimeter wall of the baths.
In the main hall and the octagonal aula, was installed the Museo Nazionale Romano in 1889.

Important changes happened at the Diocletian's Baths these last ten years. The Terme are closed for restoration works but can be seen from outside.
The collections of the Museo Nazionale Romano have been distributed over 4 places:
Museo dei Terme di Diocleziano, next to the baths and including the Michelangelo Cloister (Proto history of the Latium and epigraphy).
Museo Palazzo Massimo (on the other side of the street) Ancient Roman art (sculptures and fresco's),
Museo Palazzo Altemps (near piazza Navona, ref. my tip)
Crypta Balbi (near piazza Venezia)

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After the military conquest of Greece and the import of works of art, the Greek statuary became much appreciated in Rome. Collectors first competed for the originals and in a second stage (2nd - 1st c. BC) centres of artistic production were developed in Greece to respond to the demands of the Roman upper class. These workshops are called "Neo-Attic" and copied the celebrated classical art of the 5th - 4th c. BC. Later these workshops migrated to Italy.

It is thanks to this copying of Greek art that we have nowadays excellent copies of great art works of which the originals have disappeared.
The Palazzo Massimo has on show a number of ancient (2 c. B.C - 2 c. A.D) replicas of celebrated original Greek statues. Well known are the Aphrodite of Menophantos who declared it was a replica of the "Cnidian Aphrodite" from the sculptor Praxiteles. Famous are also the "Discobolos" a copy of the one of Mirone and the "Sleeping Hermaphrodite".

Open 9 - 19.45 h, closed on Monday, 1/01 & 25/12.
Price (2013): Combined ticket for Palazzo Massimo, Terme di Diocleziano, Palazzo Altemps, Crypta Balbi, valid during 3 days: 7 €, reduced 3,50 €, free for EU citizens less than 18 or more than 65 years old.
THIS COMBINED TICKET FOR 4 MUSEUMS VALID 3 DAYS IS A REAL BARGAIN.

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Round the right side and behind Santa Maria degli Angeli is the Baths of Diocletian (Terme di Diocleziano) branch of the National Roman Museum. We didn’t have time to see the collection housed inside but there is a small, pleasant garden of ancient sculpture, funeral monuments and stone sarcophagi near the entrance that you may knock about for free. Part of the bath’s ruins are visible on the short ramble down the street (Viale Luigi Einaudi) and around the corner from the church.

Visiting info for the museum:

http://archeoroma.beniculturali.it/en/museums/national-roman-museum-baths-diocletian

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This palace close to the Diocletian's Baths was built in 1887 for Cardinal/Prince Massimiliano Massimo and housed a college run by the Jesuits. It was bought by the Italian Government and transformed in a museum which opened in 1998 as the seat of the Museo Nationale Romano, which formerly was headquartered in the nearby Baths of Diocletian.
The PALAZZO MASSIMO ALLE TERME is the most important of the 4 sites among which are split the various buildings who constitute the Museo Nazionale Romano.
It is also the best and I really do recommend the visit to all who have some taste for antics. It is very comfortable museum with no lines, at least when I was there in December.

Palazzo Massimo holds Ancient Roman art (sculpture, frescos and mosaics) distributed over three floors. This collection contains celebrated examples of Roman art dating from the Republic to the late Empire, as well as several original Greek works discovered during excavations in the Gardens of Sallust. Very famous are the bronze statues of the "Boxer" (pic. 1) and the "Prince" and the statue (pic. 2) of Emperor August Pontifex (in all schoolbooks when I was a kid). I will come back on some of the highlights of this museum.
Impressive is the head of Socrate (pic. 3) found during the construction of the Victor Emmanuel II monument.

In the basement are the numismatic and jewellery collections (pic.4). The numismatic collection is rated as the best Roman coin collection in the world.

Open 9 - 19.45 h. Closed Monday, 1/01 and 25/12. Tickets office closes 1 hour before.

Price (2013): Combined ticket for Palazzo Massimo, Terme di Diocleziano, Palazzo Altemps, Crypta Balbi, valid during 3 days: 7 €, reduced 3,50 €, free for EU citizens less than 18 or more than 65 years old.
THIS COMBINED TICKET FOR 4 MUSEUMS VALID 3 DAYS IS A REAL BARGAIN.

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There are in the Museum Palazzo Massimo alle Terme two large bronze statues, among the most beautiful of the antiquity.
The "Pugilatore" resting pugilist or "boxer" is the ancient, most extraordinary, most attractive statue I saw these ten last years.
I turned and turned around the resting boxer who expresses in such realistic way the tiredness and the suffering of the fight. The wounds of his face are distinctively shown on the bronze. I noted the protection of hands and forearms by leather gloves made of straps binding the four fingers and leaving the thumb free. They are of a clearer colour because they had been rubbed in the past by people who considered this statue as a good-luck charm "portafortuna".
Don't try that now; there is an alarm system on the statue.

Some steps further stands another remarkable bronze statue “the Hellenistic Prince" (pic.4). This is maybe king Attalus II of Pergamon or could also be a Roman wishing to be presented as a Greek prince.

The two statues of the Hellenistic period (2nd c. before J.C.) were found in 1885 at the Terme of Constantine. The boxer was well preserved because buried in fine sand. An old photograph shows the statue being digged out (pic.3). It is told that the assistants were struck when this somewhat frightening athlete appeared after a rest of almost thousand years.
These two bronzes are an assemblage of different parts produced by the lost wax technique, fused separately and subsequently welded together.
DON’T LEAVE ROME WITHOUT HAVING SEEN THESE STATUES.

Open 9 - 19.45 h, closed on Monday.
Price: Combined ticket for Palazzo Massimo, Terme di Diocleziano, Palazzo Altemps, Crypta Balbi, valid during 3 days: 7 €, reduced 3,50 €, free for EU citizens less than 18 or more than 65 years old.
This combined ticket is a real bargain!

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After an absence of a few years we went back to the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Palazzo Massimo, not only to escape the rain (April 2012 is the coldest month in Rome since 30 years) but to admire again extraordinary works of art from the 2nd c. BC - 4th c. AD. We started with the second floor "mosaics and frescoes" which I did already describe in a previous review.

We stood in admiration for this mosaic with a portrait of Dionysos from the 3rd c. AD found on the Via Flaminia.
The mosaic measures about 50 x 50 cm so that the small pieces of mosaic of the portrait are only a few millimeters wide!

(PS. I saw that VT member Iblat also admired this mosaic!)

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No doubt, one of the highlights of the museum in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme is the rich collection of original frescos from ancient Roman villas, on display on the second floor.

This was the first time I saw whole rooms decorated wall-to-wall with well preserved colorful frescos from ancient Roman times, such as the summer triclinium of Livia's villa (see photo). This splendid fresco, discovered in 1863 in a semi-subterranean room of the villa, shows flowers, fruit trees and birds on a sky-blue background spreading continuously along the four walls of the room. Other excellently preserved frescos were recovered from the Villa Farnesina (see photos).

Spending some time in these rooms to take in all this beauty all around me really succeeded in recreating the ambience of a Roman aristocrat's villa.

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The visit to this museum was one of the highlights of my last visit to Rome. This is the main building of the Rome archaeological museum, and encompasses the periods from the 2nd century BC (late Republican) to 5th century AD. The objects are arranged in a very clear and didactic order, and are displayed in the best viewing conditions, lighting etc. There are interesting explanations in English (and in Italian), telling the story of the artwork and the period.

The archaeological museum of Rome was founded in 1889, intended to house the important ancient items found while constructing new roads and neighborhoods in the city of Rome. It used to be in the Baths of Diocletianus and the cloisters of Santa Maria degli Angeli, across the road from Termini, but space there got too small to house the newer additions to the museum's collection: Items discovered underground, which the Italian State got possession of according to new legislation, and also a few important private collections. The museum holdings were arranged in four historical buildings in Rome, and for headquarters the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme was chosen, a 19th century palazzo once used as training college for Jesuit priests, built by priest Massimiliano Massimo.

The display in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme comprises four floors. The ground floor and 1st floor contain sculptures, busts and bas-reliefs; the second floor is dedicated to frescoes and mosaics, and the basement contains the coin collection, jewels and artifacts of daily life.

Admission: € 7,00 (adults), valid 3 days for Palazzo Massimo, Palazzo Altemps, Crypta Balbi, Terme di Diocleziano.

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On the ground floor of Palazzo Massimo alle Terme there are statues, portraits and bas-reliefs from the Republican, Augustean and Giulio-Claudia eras. There are also some ancient Greek masterpieces discovered in Rome.

The busts of the Roman emperors are some of the best of their kind, and bring out the character and special attributes of the individual emperors.

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On the first floor of the museum there are sculptures from Flavia to the Late Imperial periods.

Some of the sculptures are really stunning, and I kept coming back to look at then again from different angles, such as the famous wrestler resting after a fight, the discus thrower (Roman copy of the Greek statue), and others.
The sarcophagi are also truly amazing in detail and workmanship.