Roman Sculpture - Gardens and Baths

Gardens and Baths

A number of well-known large stone vases sculpted in relief from the Imperial period were apparently mostly used as garden ornaments; indeed many statues were also placed in gardens, both public and private. Sculptures recovered from the site of the Gardens of Sallust, opened to the public by Tiberius, include:

• the Obelisco Sallustiano, a Roman copy of an Egyptian obelisk which now stands in front of the Trinità dei Monti church above the Piazza di Spagna at the top of the Spanish Steps
• the Borghese Vase, discovered there in the 16th century.
• the sculptures known as the Dying Gaul and the Gaul Killing Himself and His Wife, marble copies of parts a famous Hellenistic group in bronze commissioned for Pergamon in about 228 BC.
• the Ludovisi Throne, found in 1887, and the Boston Throne, found in 1894.
• the Crouching Amazon, found in 1888 near the via Boncompagni, about twenty-five meters from the via Quintino Sella (Museo Conservatori).

Roman baths were another site for sculpture; among the well-known pieces recovered from the Baths of Caracalla are the Farnese Bull and Farnese Hercules and over life-size early 3rd century patriotic figures somewhat reminiscent of Soviet Social Realist works (now in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples).

Found in the Gardens of Sallust

• Falling Niobid, discovered in the site in 1906 (Museo Nazionale Romano)

• Borghese Vase

• Dying Gaul, sometimes called The Dying Gladiator at the Capitoline Museum entered by way of the Campidoglio

• Ludovisi Throne (Palazzo Altemps); probably an authentic Greek piece in the Severe style