In December 1736, Monsignor Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti, originally from Bergamo, purchased the excavation permit for just 500 scudi from the owner of the Accademia of Villa Adriana, Simplicio Bulgarini, who was convinced that there was nothing to discover on his land and was satisfied with a modest sum.
After a few days of excavation in the Belvedere of the Accademia, Furietti d
iscovered two extraordinary sculptures: an old Centaur and a young Centaur. The first was quite intact, the other more damaged and broken into several fragments.Monsignor Furietti decided to have them restored and already in January 1737 he sent the fragments of the old Centaur to Rome,
entrusting them to Carlo Napolioni, one of the most skilled restorers of the time. In April of the same year he also sent him the young Centaur, which was more damaged.
In the 18th century, ancient statues were only valuable if they were complete. Therefore, restorations reconstructed the sculptures in their entirety, redoing the missing parts, and were entrusted to highly skilled professional sculptors who used ancient marbles for the reintegrations.
The two Centaurs are in gray marble (marmo bigio morato), a precious marble that imitates bronze and have the names of the sculptors: Aristeas and Papias of Aphrodisias (Turkey). The city was in Asia Minor and for centuries was the center of excellence for Hellenistic sculpture in both marble and bronze. It continued to be so in Roman times, when sculptors created artworks like these, which probably copied bronze originals, perpetuating Hellenistic traditions.
The sculptures were intended for very rich Roman art lovers, including emperors like Hadrian, because owning works of art of that quality was a way of showing one's power and culture, a status symbol for the very few.
The quality of the two sculptures is exceptional: the beard, hair and even the fur of the animal part of their figures are chiseled in marble with extraordinary realism. Two masterpieces that only the emperor could afford to buy and import from Asia Minor.
Originally the Centaurs were ridden by a Cupid who symbolized the strength of Love
. The old Centaur has a suffering expression due to the pains of love and has his hands tied behind his back. The young Centaur instead triumphs over Love, because he is in the prime of vitality. There are other replicas of these sculptures in the Louvre Museum in Paris, in the Vatican Museums and the Galleria Doria Pamphili in Rome.
Furietti exhibited the two Centaurs in the audience hall of his Roman residence, in the palace of Montecitorio, together with the Mosaic of the Doves. They became very famous, a must-see for Italian and foreign visitors who loved the arts. Pope Benedict XIV tried in vain to buy them. Upon Furietti's death, pope Clement XIII refused his heirs permission to export them and bought them for 13,000 scudi. The heirs had to renounce an offer of 20,000 scudi from an English nobleman, perhaps on behalf of the King of England.
The two Centaurs were part of the Dionysian procession, and in fact a Faun and a young Dionysus were also found in the Accademia; they are both in ancient red marble.
They confirm that the Accademia was the sacred area of the Villa, the higher one, closer to the gods, a real Acropolis. Ita was linked to the cult of Dionysus and Osiris, as we discovered thanks to our studies of Archaeoastronomy published in the volume «Villa Adriana. Architettura Celeste. I Segreti dei Solstizi» (Italian language only). It is on sale in our website, and it is possible to download an abstract dedicated to the two Centaurs.