This month's sculptures from Hadrian's Villa are a pair of dark-grey marble statues of centaurs. The sculptures became famous due to their sculptors' outstanding workmanship and the rarity and high quality of their materials. The group was carved in bigio morato marble from the quarries of Göktepe near Aphrodisias in Caria (modern-day Turkey). The statues… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: The Furietti Centaurs
This month's sculpture from Hadrian's Villa is a marble head of a companion of Odysseus, copied after a famous work of the Hellenistic period. This head shows the face of a man who probably belonged to a multi-figure group depicting Odysseus with his twelve companions blinding the one-eyed giant and the most famous Cyclopes, Polyphemus,… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Marble head of a companion of Odysseus
This month's masterpiece from Hadrian's Villa is a mosaic depicting a group of doves drinking from an ornate bowl, known as the Capitoline Doves. The mosaic is made of thousands of tiny tesserae in a dazzling range of colours called opus vermiculatum, by far the most sophisticated mosaic technique. It depicts four doves on the… Continue reading Art and sculptures from Hadrian’s Villa: Mosaic of the Doves
From today, the Villa Adriana's Antiquarium is hosting an important new exhibition: "Hadrian and Greece. Hadrian's Villa between Classicism and Hellenism". Fifty masterpieces have arrived at Villa Adriana on loan from Greek museums (from Athens, Marathon, Piraeus and Corinth and Villa of Herodes Atticus in Loukou), many of them never exhibited in Italy before. The… Continue reading Exhibition: ‘Hadrian and Greece’ at Villa Adriana, from 9 April to 2 November 2014
