Chefs-D'oeuvre De La Collection Torlonia

Exhibition at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, 26 June - 11 November 2024

The Torlonia Collection was built up in Rome at the very end of the 18th century by the banker Giovanni Torlonia, and later by his son Alessandro. It is the largest private collection of Roman antique sculpture in existence today.

This exhibition catalogue draws a parallel between the Torlonia collection and that of the Louvre, at the roots of European taste and the history of museums: on the one hand, a princely collection, enriched by successive acquisitions of entire collections; on the other, a public museum of antique sculpture opened during the French Revolution. This collection of works of the highest artistic level provides an opportunity to study Roman sculpture through its major genres (notably the portrait), production methods (Roman copies of Greek originals and the assimilation of their models) and specifically Roman typologies (sculpted sarcophagi).

A series of essays by leading specialists in the field retrace the stages and issues involved in collecting, while shedding light on the striking beauty of these unique works.