Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
The Palazzo Massimo alle Terme is the largest of the Museo Nazionale Romano. There are numerous collections on this site; the jewels, coins and other types of ornaments are kept in the basement houses while the ground and first floor contain sarcophagi, reliefs, and original Greek sculptures as well as Roman copies of Greek originals. Colorful Roman frescoes are placed on the second floor along with a vast collection of mosaics. Worth mentioning are the frescoes from the Villa of Livia that depict a naturalistic garden filled with birds and vegetation. This is where my bias will jump out again because I am incapable of not ranting about sculptures and no I will not be fangirling over The Boxer even though his face is practically looking up and begging me to “admire” him. And just to be fair, I will focus on one female sculpture and one male sculpture, both of which call the viewer to admire their beauty.
We’ll start with the statue of Aphrodite carved by Menophantos. To anyone who gazes upon her, Aphrodite looks as if she is attempting to cover her breasts with her hands and her navel with the drapery she is pulling from the floor. But for anyone who knows Aphrodite, that’s probably as far away from reality as it could possibly get. Her facial expressions reveal her teasing nature, almost as if she is daring the viewer to look at her. She isn’t actively trying to keep her decency, on the contrary, she is purposely moving slowly to show the viewer as much of her smooth, curvy skin as possible. And you can even walk around her to admire every nude inch of her erotic beauty.
The second sculpture, the Discobolus Lancellotti by Myron, can also be admired from any perspective. Because it is marble, you’d expect it to look still, but the figure is anything but that. The fluidity of his movements mixed with the tense muscles of his chest and the popping veins of his arms and hands bring the sculpture to life. You can almost expect the disk to be thrown any moment.  Even his calves look strained. Surprisingly, the most erotic feature of the sculpture is the thrower’s face because if his body exudes “energy,” his face yells “calmness.” There is just something beautiful about a strong body, relying on the plasticity of its joints to throw a heavy discus, showing little to no emotion because it isn’t taking too much energy to bring the action to an end.
