Juno Ludovisi

Last updated
Juno Ludovisi
Hera Ludovisi Altemps Inv8631.jpg
Created1st century A.D.
Place Palazzo Altemps
Present location Rome
Identificationinv. 8631
Landscape with Roman Ruins by Herman Posthumus (1536), a collage of Roman ruins with the bust at the forefront (Collection: Liechtenstein Museum) Herman Posthumus 001.jpg
Landscape with Roman Ruins by Herman Posthumus (1536), a collage of Roman ruins with the bust at the forefront (Collection: Liechtenstein Museum)
3D model, click to interact. Scan the World - Juno Ludovisi.stl
3D model, click to interact.

The Juno Ludovisi (also called Hera Ludovisi) is a colossal Roman marble head of the 1st century CE from an acrolithic statue of an idealized and youthful [3] Antonia Minor as the goddess Juno. [4] Added to the Ludovisi collection formed by Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, it is now in the Palazzo Altemps, Museo Nazionale Romano, Rome.

Contents

Casts of it are in the University of Cambridge Classics Department Casts Gallery, UK; [5] Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, USA; [6] the Goethehaus in Weimar, Germany; George Mason University, Johnson Center, Fairfax, USA; [7] the University of Helsinki, Department of Art History, Finland; [8] and the University of Tartu Art Museum, Estonia. [9]

Description

The sculpture was made of Parian marble, and is generally considered to be a posthumous and deified portrait of Antonia Minor, mother of Claudius. [10] [11]

The bust was probably found in Rome, and prior to joining the Ludovisi Collection, was owned by Cardinal Federico Cesi. [12]

There is debate over whether in addition to Antonia Minor the bust could represent Livia. [13]

As early as 1536, the presence of the sculpture was known to the general public prior to the ownership by Ludovisi. [1] The painting, Landscape with Roman Ruins by painter Herman Posthumus depicts the bust at forefront, surrounded by Egyptian and Roman sculpture fragments with a quote from Ovid's Metamorphoses: "TEMPVS EDAX RERVM TVQVE INVIDIOSA VESTVSTAS O[MN]IA DESTRVITIS" (Translated: Oh, most voracious time, and you, envious Age, you destroy everything). [1]

The sculpture is known to have been greatly admired by Goethe, who bought a cast of it, soon after seeing it in Rome. [14]

The American-British novelist Henry James mentions the Ludovisi Juno several times including in his first long form novel Roderick Hudson . He described it in its surround as follows..."One warm, still day, late in the Roman autumn, our two young men were seated beneath one of the high-stemmed pines of the Villa Ludovisi. They had been spending an hour in the mouldy little garden-house where the colossal mask of the famous Juno looks out with blank eyes from that dusky corner which must seem to her the last possible stage of a lapse from Olympus"... [15]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Curran, Brian A. (2018-07-24), Holleran, Claire; Claridge, Amanda (eds.), "The Renaissance: The "Discovery" of Ancient Rome", A Companion to the City of Rome, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 643–671, doi:10.1002/9781118300664.ch32, ISBN   978-1-118-30066-4, S2CID   194866882 , retrieved 2023-08-07
  2. "Herman Posthumus". Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections, Vaduz–Vienna. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  3. "The coiffure of Antonia's youth is characterized by a central part and round, braided hairknot" (K. Patricia Erhart, "A Portrait of Antonia Minor in the Fogg Art Museum and Its Iconographical Tradition", American Journal of Archaeology82.2 (Spring 1978:193-212) (online abstract).
  4. R. Tölle-Kasterbein, "Juno Ludovisi: Hera oder Antonia Minor?" Mitteilungen dI (A), 89 1974.
  5. Museum of Classical Archaeology
  6. Susan Wood, "Goddess or woman?"
  7. Klassikstiftung Weimar, Goethes Wohnhaus,
  8. Virpi Huhtala, "Taidetta kirjastossa" [Art in the Library],
  9. University of Tartu Art Museum
  10. Tölle-Kastenbein, Renate. "Juno Ludovisi: Hera oder Antonia Minor?". Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archàologischen Instituts. Atenische Abteilung. 89 (1974): 241–253.
  11. Watkins, Thomas H.; Kokkinos, Nikos (1994). "Antonia Augusta: Portrait of a Great Roman Lady". The Classical World. 88 (2): 144. doi:10.2307/4351669. ISSN   0009-8418. JSTOR   4351669.
  12. Giustozzi 2005 - cited in Bibliography p.140
  13. Jongkees, Jan Hendrik (1942). "De Hera Ludovisi en Livia". Bulletin Antieke Beschaving. 17: 13–16.
  14. "Hera Ludovisi". ringlingdocents.org. Retrieved 2023-08-07.
  15. "The Novels and Tales of Henry James/Volume 1/Roderick Hudson/Chapter 5 - Wikisource, the free online library".

Bibliography


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alessandro Algardi</span> Italian sculptor (1598–1654)

Alessandro Algardi was an Italian high-Baroque sculptor active almost exclusively in Rome. In the latter decades of his life, he was, along with Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona, one of the major rivals of Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in Rome. He is now most admired for his portrait busts that have great vivacity and dignity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galleria Borghese</span> Art gallery in Rome, Italy

The Galleria Borghese is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate tourist attraction. The Galleria Borghese houses a substantial part of the Borghese Collection of paintings, sculpture and antiquities, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, the nephew of Pope Paul V. The building was constructed by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, developing sketches by Scipione Borghese himself, who used it as a villa suburbana, a country villa at the edge of Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman sculpture</span> Sculpture of ancient Rome

The study of Roman sculpture is complicated by its relation to Greek sculpture. Many examples of even the most famous Greek sculptures, such as the Apollo Belvedere and Barberini Faun, are known only from Roman Imperial or Hellenistic "copies". At one time, this imitation was taken by art historians as indicating a narrowness of the Roman artistic imagination, but, in the late 20th century, Roman art began to be reevaluated on its own terms: some impressions of the nature of Greek sculpture may in fact be based on Roman artistry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gardens of Sallust</span> Ancient Roman estate

The Gardens of Sallust was an ancient Roman estate including a landscaped pleasure garden developed by the historian Sallust in the 1st century BC. It occupied a large area in the northeastern sector of Rome, in what would become Region VI, between the Pincian and Quirinal hills, near the Via Salaria and later Porta Salaria. The modern rione is now known as Sallustiano.

Ludovisi can refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museo Nazionale Romano</span> Museum in Rome, Italy

The National Roman Museum is a museum, with several branches in separate buildings throughout the city of Rome, Italy. It shows exhibits from the pre- and early history of Rome, with a focus on archaeological findings from the period of Ancient Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna</span> Museum of 19th–20th-century art in Rome

The Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, also known as La Galleria Nazionale, is an art museum in Rome. It was founded in 1883 on the initiative of the then minister Guido Baccelli and is dedicated to modern and contemporary art.

<i>Ludovisi Throne</i> Ancient sculpture from Locri, Italy

The Ludovisi Throne is an exceptional ancient sculpture from Locri, Southern Italy. Not an actual throne, the sculpture is white marble block intricately carved with bas-reliefs on its three visible sides, with its primary depiction considered by many as depicting Aphrodite rising from the sea. It originates from the transitional phase between the Archaic and Early Classical styles, circa 460 BC. Currently, it resides in the Museo Nazionale Romano of Palazzo Altemps in Rome, having been acquired by Italy in 1894.

<i>Ludovisi Gaul</i> Sculpture by Epigonus of Pergamum

The Ludovisi Gaul is an ancient Roman statue depicting a Gallic man plunging a sword into his breast as he holds up the dead body of his wife. This sculpture is a marble copy of a now lost Greek bronze original. The Ludovisi Gaul can be found today in the Palazzo Altemps in Rome. This statue is unique for its time because it was common to depict the victor but instead, the Ludovisi Gaul depicts the defeated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giuseppe Ceracchi</span> Italian sculptor

Giuseppe Ceracchi, also known as Giuseppe Cirachi, was an Italian sculptor active in a Neoclassic style. He worked in Italy, England, and in the United States following the nation's emergence following the American Revolutionary War.

<i>Castor and Pollux</i> (Prado) Ancient Roman sculptural group

The Castor and Pollux group is an ancient Roman sculptural group of the 1st century AD, now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

<i>Pseudo-Seneca</i> Roman bronze bust

The Pseudo-Seneca is a Roman bronze bust of the late 1st century BC that was discovered in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum in 1754, the finest example of about two dozen examples depicting the same face. It was originally believed to depict Seneca the Younger, the notable Roman philosopher, because its emaciated features were supposed to reflect his Stoic philosophy. However, modern scholars agree it is likely a fictitious portrait, probably intended for either Hesiod or Aristophanes. It is thought that the original example was a lost Greek bronze of c. 200 BC. The bust is conserved in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hera Farnese</span>

The Hera Farnese is a type of sculpture of Hera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernardino Ludovisi</span> Italian sculptor

Bernardino Ludovisi, also called Bernardo, was an Italian sculptor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portonaccio sarcophagus</span> Sarcophagus from 2nd century (CE) Rome

The Portonaccio sarcophagus is a 2nd-century ancient Roman sarcophagus found in the Portonaccio section of Rome and now held at the Museo Nazionale Romano. Dating to around 180 AD, the sarcophagus was likely used to bury a Roman general killed in the 172–175 AD German-Sarmatic campaign of Marcus Aurelius during the Marcomannic Wars. It is an example of private sculpture of art in the age of Commodus, with visible influences from the design of the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

<i>Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus</i> 3rd-century Roman sarcophagus

The Ludovisi Battle sarcophagus or "Great" Ludovisi sarcophagus is an ancient Roman sarcophagus dating to around AD 250–260, found in 1621 in the Vigna Bernusconi, a tomb near the Porta Tiburtina. It is also known as the Via Tiburtina Sarcophagus, though other sarcophagi have been found there. It is known for its densely populated, anti-classical composition of "writhing and highly emotive" Romans and Goths, and is an example of the battle scenes favored in Roman art during the Crisis of the Third Century. Discovered in 1621 and named for its first modern owner, Ludovico Ludovisi, the sarcophagus is now displayed at the Palazzo Altemps in Rome, part of the National Museum of Rome as of 1901.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boncompagni Ludovisi Decorative Art Museum</span> Museum of 19th and 20th century art in Rome

Boncompagni Ludovisi Decorative Arts Museum, Rome, is the Decorative Arts Museum of the National Gallery of Modern Art of Rome. The Museum is located at Via Boncompagni, 18, near the elegant and historical Via Veneto.

<i>Self-Portrait</i> (Annibale Carracci) Painting by Annibale Carracci

Self-Portrait is a 1593 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. It is dated 17 April 1593 on the top left of the canvas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Roman Museum of Palazzo Massimo</span> Museum in Rome, Italy

The Palazzo Massimo alle Terme is the main of the four sites of the Roman National Museum, along with the original site of the Baths of Diocletian, which currently houses the epigraphic and protohistoric section, Palazzo Altemps, home to the Renaissance collections of ancient sculpture, and the Crypta Balbi, home to the early medieval collection.