Pandora

Pandora
Author: 

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (Rome 1717 - 1799)

Type: 
Sculpture
Year: 
1744 (post) - 1799 (circa)
Material and technique: 
Marble of Carrara
Size: 
massima alt. 159 cm larg. 46 cm prof. 39 cm
Origin: 
From Palazzo Torlonia in Piazza Venezia, after in Villa Torlonia
Inventory: 
MCN 15

The “Torlonia Pandora” is a reproduction of the Capitoline Pandora that perhaps originally represented a priest holding a canopic vase. It was found headless in the “Palestra” in Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli and became the property of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este.
In 1753 Pope Benedict XIV purchased it for his Capitoline Collection. Asked to restore it, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi replaced the head that had been added in 1500 with an older one. While restoring the Capitoline Pandora, Cavaceppi took the opportunity to make the Torlonia copy with the head (later stolen) modelled on the one from the year 1500.

Masterpieces of the hall

The hall

Secondo vestibolo

The room next to the entrance is symmetrical to the one on the left side and very similar in appearance: it is lined with stucco marble in imitation of ancient yellow marble and has a coffered ceiling decorated with stucco rosettes and acanthus leaves.

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