Museo di Scultura Antica Giovanni Barracco

Museum

The museum boasts a diverse collection of sculpture from across the Mediterranean, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Greece, and Rome. The nearly 400 works in the museum's collection are displayed in galleries organized by region, with the first floor exhibiting the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Cypriot, and Etruscan works and the second floor exhibiting Greek and Roman works. While the museum specializes in classical antiquity, a selection of medieval works and objects related to Barracco's lifelong interest in collecting antiquities are on display.

Upon entrance to the museum, visitors are greeted by a Roman sculpture of Apollo seated on a rock that was uncovered in the Horti Caesaris. In the reception atrium, visitors can enter a gallery displaying the personal belongings of Barracco, or enter into the archaeological site beneath the museum that displays an ancient Roman domus.

Original ceiling painting from the 17th century can be viewed from the first floor loggia. From here visitors can enter into a series of galleries that display works from the Near East, Cyprus, and Etruria. Egyptian works are presented in Rooms I and II. Room II includes works from Mesopotamia, including cuneiform tablets of the third millennium BCE and items from neo-Assyrian palaces dating from the ninth and seventh centuries BCE. The third room contains two important Phoenician items together with some Etruscan art, while the fourth displays works from Cyprus.

The second floor exhibits classical art. Room V presents original sculptures and copies from the Roman period as well as Greek sculpture of the fifth century BCE. Room VI displays copies of classical and late classical Roman work, along with funerary sculptures from Greece.

Rooms VII and VIII, show a collection of Greek and Italic ceramics, and other items, starting from the time of Alexander the Great. The final room shows examples of works from public monuments of the Roman period, together with specimens of medieval art.