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Aula Isiaca con la Loggia Mattei

Contacts

Telephone: 06 39967700 Coopculture (tutti i giorni dalle 10.00 alle 15.00)

Opening times

1-26 March and 1-29 October 9.30-16.45 (last admission at 16.00)
27 March - 30 September 9.30-18.00 (last admission at 17.30)
30 October - 28 February 9.30-15.30 (last admission at 15.00)

Description

The Aula Isiaca, discovered in 1912 below the Basilica of the Domus Flavia, was part of the vast residence of Augustus. The chamber is decorated with frescoes that can be dated around 30 B.C., with numerous references to Egypt and the goddess Isis, such as lotus flowers, snakes, ritual vases and garlands of roses, which justify its current name.

The Loggia Mattei, on the other hand, was frescoed in the 1620s by the workshop of Baldassarre Peruzzi, and is all that remains of the villa built by the Stati family, which then passed to the Mattei family in 1561. The vault, decorated with grotesques, is framed by a yellow frieze with masks inside which are the Mattei coat of arms and two mythological panels: the Marriage of Hercules and Hebe and Venus between Cupid and the Muses. The sails are decorated with blue background roundels with the signs of the zodiac. The wall frescoes with scenes from the myth of Venus and Adonis were removed in 1846 and transferred to the Hermitage Museum, where they remain today. A few years later, the mythological representations and the tondos with the signs of the zodiac were also detached and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; a loan agreement in the 1990s allowed them to be returned to their original site.

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Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Archaeological heritage
Last checked: 2023-03-15 15:16