Round Hall

The great red basin in the centre gives your eye something to measure the room against. Around it, colossal figures stand in niches and large busts rise between them. Above, a rounded vault recalls the form of the Pantheon in Rome. Architect Michelangelo Simonetti completed this hall in 1779. Its setting gathers ancient materials into an eighteenth-century arrangement. The floor combines Roman mosaics found at Otricoli and Sacrofano. The basin, carved from red porphyry, also came from ancient Rome. Its exact original setting remains uncertain. Among the sculptures, Hercules Mastai offers a different surface from the marble figures. This gilded bronze was found near Campo de’ Fiori in 1864. It had received a ritual burial after a lightning strike, which helped preserve it underground. The Braschi Antinous has its own history of discovery and restoration. Here, the ancient objects share a room designed many centuries later to stage their scale, colour and materials.