Louvre Museum, Paris, 26 June-11 November 2024
The Torlonia marbles, the most extensive private collection of Roman antique sculpture ever assembled, were acquired by the Principi Torlonia in the 19th century in Rome. Now, for the first time since the mid-20th century, they are being displayed to the public in a series of special exhibitions. The exhibition in Rome at the Capitoline Museums in 2020 was the first to show the extraordinary antique marbles, followed by an exhibition in Milan at the Gallerie d’Italia. Now, the Louvre Museum is hosting the Torlonia marbles for their first exhibition outside Italy, showcasing them in the renovated summer apartments of Anne of Austria. This exhibition creates a rich dialogue with the Louvre’s collections of antiquities and explores the origins of museums during the Enlightenment and the 19th century in Europe.
The Census participated in this exhibition with an essay for the catalogue by Kathleen Christian, ‘Le Louvre et les Torlonia: une histoire commune des collections d’antiques à Rome’. The Torlonia collection and the Louvre, like other European national museums, inherited antique sculptures assembled by Roman aristocracy between the 15th and 18th centuries, and many works in both collections were originally part of early modern collections displayed in Roman palaces and gardens. During the Napoleonic era Napoleon’s armies and his agent Dominique-Vivant Denon seized many antiques from Rome’s pontifical and private collections; though most were returned, some remained in France. Added to these were the extraordinary wealth of antiquities Napoleon purchased in 1807 from his brother-in-law Camillo Borghese, as well as the smaller selection Louis XVIII bought in 1815 from the Albani. It was also around this time that the Torlonia, a family of French origins who were bankers to the Bonaparte, rose to prominence and began collecting from similar sources in Rome, acquiring significant antiques from collections such as those of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, the Giustiniani family, and the Villa Albani. The essay explores how the Torlonia collection and the Louvre have intertwined histories, whose comparison sheds light in new developments in museum practices influenced by Rome’s centuries-long history of collecting.
