La Lupa e la Sfinge. Roma e l’Egitto dalla storia al mito

Rome and Egypt: an intense relationship that left indelible marks on Rome’s urban fabric which are still clearly visible today to anyone walking through the city. The ground beneath Campo Marzio, for instance, where the Government buildings now stand, is scattered with artefacts from the Temple of Isis and, a little further on, toward the slopes of the Quirinal, was the Serapeum. Then there are the countless obelisks (Egyptian or copies from the Roman era) marking the centres of almost all the city’s important squares, the majestic Egyptian lions that welcome visitors at the bottom of the steps on Capitoline Hill, the mysterious Porta Magica (Magic Door) in Piazza Vittorio and the Pyramid of Cestius which, since the 17th century, has become one of the city’s identifying symbols.

This exhibition of carefully selected works dating from the Faraonic Egypt to the Age of Enlightenment, housed at the Castel Sant’Angelo for this special occasion, celebrates that age-old love between the banks of the Tiber and those of the Nile. Among the exhibited works is the Antinous Farnese from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples - an absolute masterpiece appearing in Rome for the first time - which testifies to Emperor Hadrian’s love of Egypt and of this beautiful young man who drowned in the Nile. The precious Artemis of Ephesus from the Capitoline Museum is further evidence of Rome’s love for cult mysteries originating from the East, while the myth of Cleopatra, another of Rome’s great, undying passions, is witnessed by the presence of a painting from Rome’s Montemartini Museum and the Sphinx from the Viterbo Civic Museum documents the interest in this mysterious creature in the Middle Ages. The magnificent Bembine Tablet from the Egyptian Museum in Turin testifies to the Renaissance fascination with the obscure rituals of Isis and Osiris while the beautiful Oriental Drawing shows the Egyptian influence even inside the Borgia Apartment of the Vatican and the Flight into Egypt from the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, a masterpiece by French master Nicolas Poussin, one of the greatest artists of the 17th century, who lived in Rome, contributes to this fabulous collection.

The exhibition finishes with one of the oldest works of art in Italy’s national collections, the “Dama di Napoli” (Lady of Naples) statue from 2600 B.C., from Cardinal Borgia’s 18th century collection, and two beautiful statues from the Louvre, previously housed in the Egypt room of Rome’s Villa Borghese Museum, which show how the taste and sharp logic of Neoclassicism were, in reality, fuelled by myths and ancient legends relived and made immortal by the exquisite notes of Mozart’s Magic Flute.