Sphinxes

The four winged Sphinxes, from an original group of six, of which two are now in the Villa of Federico Zeri in Mentana, come from the complex’s park. Set on a stone base, they stood, in pairs, at the entrance to the Villa.

After the entrance was demolished in the early 1900s, so that the Via Nomentana could be widened, the travertine sculptures, with their wings partially removed, were placed at the entrance to the House of the Princes.
The sculptures were made by Clemente Massimi and Girolamo Sartorio (three each), to a design by the architect Giuseppe Valadier, in the early years of the nineteenth century.