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The Barracco Museum in Rome: the Collection of a Calabrian Baron in the Piccola Farnesina
The Museo di Scultura Antica Giovanni Barracco is situated in Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, a short distance from Campo de' Fiori square. It is one of the most refined collections of ancient sculpture in Rome, comprising approximately 400 pieces, spanning Egyptian, Assyrian, Cypriot, Phoenician, Etruscan, Greek and Roman art. It was donated to the municipality in 1902 by Baron Giovanni Barracco, a Calabrian gentleman who had devoted his life to acquiring pieces in the antiquarian market and from the excavations of post-Unification Rome.
Two Museums, Two Lives
To house the collection, architect Gaetano Koch built a small Neoclassical temple, one of the first buildings in Rome to be fitted with central heating. It was however demolished in 1938 during works performed on Corso Vittorio. In 1948, the collection found a home in the Farnesina ai Baullari, a small 16th-century palace built in 1523 for the Breton prelate Thomas Le Roy. The fleurs-de-lis of France on the façade, mistaken for those of the Farnese, earned it the nickname of "Piccola Farnesina".
What to See
The itinerary begins with Egypt and the early dynasties (3000 BC), and concludes with a polychrome mosaic from the first Basilica of St Peter, dated to the 12th century. The rarest pieces include Assyrian relief slabs from the palaces of Nineveh and Nimrud, a sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut, Greek originals by Polyclitus, and a Cypriot art section — an absolute rarity in Italian museums — featuring the celebrated polychrome votive cart from Amathus.
