Friday 11/28 Rome, Palazzo Massimo

Last Friday, a school trip by bus to Rome, to see Palazzo Massimo and Palazzo Altemps. These are part of the Museo Nazionale Romano, which has four locations. Palazzo Massimo is a fairly new addition (1998), a very pleasant state-of-the-art museum with a great collection of statues, some Roman, some Roman copies of Greek originals. This is Augustus with a toga covering his head (symbolizing, in fake humility, his role as the head priest).



Striking Dying Niobid is an original from 440 BC. The students had an assignment to compete in groups trying to "sell" "their" statue. The Niobid (adding insult to injury!) was one of the few subjected to this treatment:



(See a better picture of the Niobid here.) Other statues "to sell": Sleeping Hermaphrodite...



... and Resting Boxer:



We had, for a while, silly "advertising" posters hanging all over the school building. For example: "Penis and vagina? Pagina? No, Hermaphodite."

Palazzo Altemps seems a little "tired" by comparison: worn down, dark -- not a happy place.