1906/01/01 by H. Stuart Jones · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History #Classical Antiquity Studies #Archaeological and Historical Studies #Sculpture #Art #Visual arts #Period (music) #CONQUEST #Art history #History #Ancient history #Aesthetics
paper · doi:10.1017/s0068246200005006
openalex publication_date 1906/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
§ I.—That the three historical reliefs, of which two are immured in the north and south walls of the portico of the Villa Borghese, while the third rests on the ground to the left of the entrance, once belonged to a triumphal arch erected by Claudius in commemoration of his conquest of Britain, seems to be the accepted belief at the present time. The reliefs are published under this title in Brunn-Bruckmann's Denkmäler ; their provenance from the Arch of Claudius is affirmed without question by Helbig in his guide to the Roman collections, and has been assumed in all recent discussions of the history of Roman art. Nevertheless it has no foundation, save in a conjecture of Nibby, contained in his Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese , a work published in 1832. The Villa had been stripped of its principal treasures during the Napoleonic period—when some scores of statues and reliefs found their way to Paris, and now form no inconsiderable portion of the sculptures of the Louvre—and their places were partly filled by less important works gathered from the gardens of the Villa and from the other properties of the Borghese. It was thus that the reliefs in question came to be employed in the decoration of the portico; up till that time they had, as it would appear, lain neglected and scarcely noticed in the gardens of the Villa.