The presentation ceremony of the restoration of the Sala degli Imperatori of the Capitoline Museums was held today in the Campidoglio, reopened to the public after the recovery works which have restored its ancient royalty to the walls and the rich sculptural ornamentation. Present were the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi, the Chief Executive Officer of Enel Green Power, Francesco Venturini, the Councilor for Cultural Growth, Luca Bergamo and the Capitoline Superintendent of Cultural Heritage, Claudio Parisi Presicce.
The restoration work was promoted by the Capitoline Superintendence and supported by Enel Green Power.
The closure of the Hall for the restyling works also offered the opportunity to temporarily bring 20 busts of Roman emperors to the Fred Jones jr. Museum of Art of the University of Oklahoma, as part of the "Immortales" exhibition, promoting an important opportunity for cultural exchange in a wide-ranging collaborative framework that now looks to the future.
According to the press release issued by Enel Green Power: “Among the possible developments of this important public-private synergy aimed at the recovery and enhancement of sites of pre-eminent archaeological and historical-artistic interest in Rome, the availability of Enel Green Power to take part in the recovery and enhancement project of the area called Villa Caffarelli, in particular of the external areas (Giardino Caffarelli and Giardino De Vico) and the restoration and restoration of the three fountains”.
As regards the restoration of the Hall of the Emperors, some eighteenth-century gilding and other hitherto unknown decorative details were discovered during the works. The rediscovery of the original leaf gilding of the pods and whorls have given new light to the stucco frames of the bas-reliefs.
The original colour, significantly compromised by the action of time, has been restored to the plasters. In particular, the shades adopted in the XNUMXth century have been restored, recovering the ash-blue colors (“color of the air”) of the walls and the delicate ivory white adopted for the architectural design, the pilasters with vegetable decorations, the crowns oak leaf. An accurate recovery intervention concerned the six ancient bas-reliefs set in the walls, among which the one depicting the myth of Perseus who frees Andromeda, the one with Endymion asleep on a rock and the one dedicated to the Nymphs stand out. In fact, freed from the thick layer of dust and incrustations, lightened by the heavy and invasive grouting, they are today appreciable in all their formal and aesthetic quality, fully confirming the admiration aroused in past centuries among artists and scholars. Of particular interest is the discovery of the eighteenth-century terracotta integration present in the sarcophagus with a Dionysian combat, created to mimetically complete the gap in the original. The restoration of the eight busts on the shelves and the optimal restoration of the counters supporting the imperial portraits, masterfully made in stucco and decorated with imitation marble, are also certainly effective.
