The first floor is reached by a wide staircase where statues (copies or reworkings from Greek originals) of the most important deities of the
Roman-
Greek religion from the villas of Latium are displayed in some niches:
Jupiter,
Apollo,
Dionysus, and
Athena. File:MNRPalMassimo-AtenaCelimontana.jpg|
Athena Celimontana along the entrance staircase to the upper and basement floors. File:Young girl Artemis Massimo.jpg|A young
Artemis On display are masterpieces of
Roman statuary, from the age of the
Flavians to
late antiquity, as well as numerous
sarcophagi, both pagan and Christian, including the
sarcophagus of Portonaccio. In a large hall, the ancient "hall of masterpieces" of the "Museum of the Baths" is repurposed, displaying some important works on "ideal" sculpture, used as valuable furnishings of villas of the Roman aristocracy, such as the
Crouching Venus, two copies of the
Discobolus and some Greek originals (including the
Maiden of Anzio). File:Antonino pio, da villa adriana di tivoli, 161 dc. circa 01.JPG|Portrait of
Antoninus Pius from Hadrian's Villa File:Marcus Aurelius, from Villa Adriana (Hadrian's Villa), 160-169 AD, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome (12453821284).jpg|Portrait of Marcus Aurelius from Hadrian's Villa "Room I" contains works devoted to the image of the
Flavian emperors (69-96 A.D.),
Vespasian,
Titus and
Domitian, and of
Nerva (96-98), who initiated the
adoptive emperors (96-192). Among these portraits, one of the most important is that of Vespasian, found in the
Tiber (inv. 53), which belongs to the realist current, so cherished in the late republican period, in which the emperor is depicted old and wrinkled, in contrast to what had happened after the classicism of the Julio-Claudian age. The significance of this change in the style of this ruler is explained as a return to the ancient values of the
mos maiorum of the Republican period. File:Head of Vespasianus in Palazzo Massimo.jpg|Head of
Vespasian from
Ostia File:Head of Vespasianus in Palazzo Massimo (Rome).jpg|Head of Vespasian with civic crown from
Minturnae File:GiuliaDiTitoDaIsolaTiberina-MNRPalMassimo.jpg|Bust of
Julia, daughter of Titus (found on
Tiber Island, at Fatebenefratelli Hospital; inv. 121.215)One then enters "Room II," passing among loricate statues, where one finds representations of the two
principes Trajan (98-117) and Hadrian (117-138). Of the first emperor there is a portrait in which he is depicted as
Hercules and wearing a lion's skin (and probably also carrying a club). The crown of pine branches, however, represents another deity,
Silvanus, linked to the world of forests (perhaps of
Dacia). of his wife
Vibia Aurelia Sabina, as well as the latter emperor's favorite,
Antinous, depicted perhaps as a priest of the
Magna Mater. Also in this room is a relief from
Lanuvio that again depicts Antinous in the guise of Silvanus, cutting some bunches of grapes with a sickle. Female figures, on the other hand, were shown as models of devotion to their
princeps, as in the case of the statue of
Faustina the Younger, daughter of Antoninus Pius and wife of
Marcus Aurelius. File:AntoninoPio-MNRPalMassimo.JPG|Portrait of Antoninus Pius File:Antonino pio, da terracina. 138-161 dc..JPG|Heroized statue of Antoninus Pius (from Terracina; h. 174 cm; inv. 135.845) File:Egipto Hadrianeum.JPG|Relief of the Roman province of Egypt (Rome, Temple of Hadrian; h. 164 cm x 144 cm w.; inv. 428.497) From
Hadrian's Villa several works are on display. These include a statue of
Dionysus and one of
Athena (a copy from a bronze original from the fourth century B.C. from the
portico of the Villa Adriana's Pecile), a dancing maiden that derives from a Hellenistic original (from the portico of the
triclinium of the three
exedras), ornamental objects such as the classicist marble
krater decorated with cranes and snakes, a head of an Amazon, and two copies of the
Crouching Venus (without arms) from Doidalsas of
Bithynia (mid-3rd century BCE. C.): a first in Parian marble, from Via Palermo, near the Viminal Palace (1913), originally with Eros and swan (mid-2nd-century A.D. copy); a second from the baths with
heliocaminus from Hadrian's Villa (1914) in Pentelic marble (?), a copy from the Hadrianic age. File:MNRPalMassimo-VenereAccovaccDue.jpg|Two copies of Doidalsas'
Crouching Venus: left in Parian marble (from Palermo Street, Rome) and right from the baths of
Hadrian's Villa. File:Hermes Ludovisi Massimo.jpg|
Hermes, 1st-century B.C.E. Roman copy from 5th-century B.C.E. bronze original attributed to a young
Phidias (Ludovisi collection) This room is dedicated to sculptures used to reconstruct the atmosphere of the
gymnasium (
ornamenta gymnasii). In the center of the room are two Roman copies from the Hadrianic period of the famous
Discobolus of
Myron (5th century B.C.): the Lancellotti Discobolus, from the 1781 Esquiline excavations (from Villa Palombara), and the headless Castelporziano Discobolus. Also part of the room are the ephebe athlete Monteverde, two heads of
Praxiteles' Lycian-type Apollo, other copies of statues of athletes, including a head of
Lysippos and a torso (copy from an original of the
Polyclitean school). and one in citharist costume, the Artemis armed with a headless quiver,
Dionysus in the guise of Sardanapalus (from the
Appian Way and probably derived from an original from the late 4th century BCE. B.C.) and a bronze youth (from the banks of the Tiber, of Hadrianic age that was inspired by models from the fourth century B.C.), Athena, Pan, Crouching Venus (marble copy from the bronze original by Doidalsas), the Eros archer by
Lysippos (
Villa dei Quintili on the
Appian Way), a
Thetis with a triton, and finally the
Sleeping Hermaphrodite. The front view, on the other hand, shows the erect male sex organ, which reveals the identity of the
Hermaphrodite. According to the Latin poet
Publius Ovidius Naso, he was a boy of great beauty who was transformed into an androgynous being with a dual sexual identity through a supernatural union with the
nymph Salmacis. File:Roman statue of young African acrobat.jpg|Statue of an African acrobat and sister of
Hippolyta,
Antiope and
Melanippe. File:Statue of Eros in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (Roma).jpg|Eros archer (from
Lungotevere in Sassia; 2nd-century AD Roman copy from Greek original by
Lysippos) File:Head of Heracles in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme (Rome).jpg|Portrait of Hercules (late 2nd century AD; ancient theater at
Nemi) and were found in
Lake Nemi. They adorned two large ships found between 1895 and 1932 (71.30 x 20 meters and 73 x 24 meters, respectively), which were destroyed during World War II. They were used for the emperor's feasts and banquets, showing unrestrained pageantry of the time, and were connected to a villa that Caligula had on the lake (formerly belonging to
Gaius Julius Caesar), adjoining the Latian shrine of Diana Nemorense (the seat of the
Latin League dissolved in 338 BC). The ships echoed the Hellenistic tradition of parade boats, as was the case among the
Ptolemies. They had marble and mosaic flooring, were decorated with the bronzes on display, and covered with gilded tiles. Regarding the bronzes that have come down to us: a balustrade supported by small pillars adorned with Dionysian herms, some animal heads (four wolves, three lions, and a leopard), and a
Medusa. File:Bronces de Nemi 01.JPG|Wolf-shaped bronze from the
Nemi ships;
Caligula era, 37-41 AD.
Room XII (first floor) "Room XII" was set up for the so-called
Portonaccio sarcophagus. This is a
Roman sarcophagus found in 1931 in Via delle Cave di Pietralata, near Portonaccio, a neighborhood of Rome along the
Via Tiburtina. It can be dated to around c. 180. All the scenes illustrate the
virtutes of the deceased (possibly Aulus Julius Pompilius Titus Vivius Laevillus Piso Berenicianus), who stands in the center of the sarcophagus in the act of fighting against the barbarians. On the elevation of the lid, on the other hand, four scenes from the deceased's life are engraved that also celebrate his virtues: the presentation of the newborn to his mother; his education and
sapientia (due to the presence of the
Muses); marriage and
concordia; and the
clementia reserved toward the barbarians. The sarcophagus must have been the tomb of a Roman general engaged in
Marcus Aurelius's
Germano-Sarmatian campaigns of the years 172-175, with influences related to the trends of the
Aurelian Column. File:Julia Domna, Empress and wife of Roman Emperor Lucius Septimius Severus, 200 – 217 AD, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome (12967363173).jpg|
Julia Domna, wife of Emperor
Septimius Severus (193-211) The collection continues with a portrait of Caracalla in Greek marble, from the Via Cassia (found in 1948), which instead has a very short beard and shows an early shift toward what was his father's imperial image. There are also a number of portraits of his brother
Geta, most notably a statue in which he is depicted as a young Apollo. Geta had initially been associated with the throne by his brother in 211 upon the death of his father, and then in 212 had been assassinated, while his statues suffered
damnatio memoriae. Another image showing the evolution of the imperial portrait is a colossal head of Severus Alexander, which appears frontally and with solemn composure. Matteo Cadario also believes that there were important changes in the artistic conception of this period, which he summarizes as follows: The room displays a series of sarcophagi from the 3rd century: the sarcophagus of the Muses shows the heroization of the deceased through culture, represented by the Muses enclosed within small niches; the sarcophagus of the Annona is in the popular style with symbolic depiction of the trade and distribution of grain (alluding to Flavius Arabianus' office of
praefectus annonae), decorated with eight figures in relief against the background of a
parapetasma (curtain), with two spouses celebrating the
dextrarum iunctio in the center, above a small altar; the sarcophagus of Acilia, which, in the figure-portrait of the youth, has been recognized as Emperor
Gordian III (238-244), according to the identification of
Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, while other scholars, with less persuasive arguments, recognize the youth
Nigrinian, son of Emperor
Marcus Aurelius Carinus, or a personification of the
processus consularis. With the establishment of Christianity, a number of works from the fourth century are displayed in the room, including a number of sarcophagi, a krater made of chalky marble, a slab with scenes of miracles, and the statuette of the seated Christ teaching, as an example of Theodosian classicism. Christ is depicted as a "wonder boy" who, with his right hand raised, explains the text contained in the half-open scroll. File:BalbinoProvIgnotaDonoMelecchi-MNRPalMassimo1.jpg|Portrait of
Decimus Caelius Calvinus Balbinus (238) File:Gordian III Massimo.jpg|Portrait of
Gordian III (238-244) File:AurigaPiazzaChiesaNuovaGallienico-MNRPalMassimo.JPG|Charioteer from the age of Gallienus (from Piazza Chiesa Nuova, Rome) File:Head of bearded man in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.jpg|Head of bearded man File:Head of Man in Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.jpg|Head of a man File:0 Sarcofago delle Muse - Pal. Massimo alle Terme (1).JPG|Sarcophagus of the Muses (280-290 A.D.;
Villa Celimontana, Rome) File:Sarcofago dell'annona, dalla via latina, 270-280 dc..JPG|Annona sarcophagus (270-280 A.D.; inv. 40,799) File:0 Sarcophage de Marcus Claudianus - Pal. Massimo alle Terme (1).JPG|Sarcophagus of Marcus Claudianus (330-335 AD). == Second floor ==