VILLA ADRIANA - THE CENTAURS OF THE ACCADEMIA

In 1736 Monsignor Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti from Bergamo (northern Italy) was the author of one of the most successful excavations of his times. He gave to Simplicio Bulgarini, the owner of the site, 500 scudi to acquire the excavation permission in the Accademia of Villa Adriana, a cheap price.

He started exploring the Belvedere of the Accademia, a large monumental entrance pavilion that connected it with Roccabruna. After a few days he discovered two extraordinary sculptures depicting the Old Centaur and the Young Centaur, which were broken into several fragments.

He had them restored by reintegrating the missing parts, as was customary in the eighteenth century. He put them on display in his Roman residence at Montecitorio, where visitors from all over the world came to admire them.
Pope Benedict XIV tried in vain to purchase them; upon Furietti's death, Pope Clement XIII prohibited his heirs to export them to Bergamo and bought them for 13,000 scudi. The initial investment was therefore abundantly repaid.

The two Centaurs are made of precious bigio morato marble, which imitates bronze and have the names of the sculptors, Aristeas and Papias of Aphrodisias (Turkey), which is very rare. The details of workmanship are incredibly accurate. For centuries, Aphrodisia was in fact home to the most famous school of sculpture of antiquity. Its archaeological museum displays magnificent works of art.

Originally the Centaurs were ridden by a Cupid who symbolized the power of Love. The old Centaur has a suffering expression due to the pain of Love; his hands are tied behind his back. The young Centaur, on the other hand, is triumphant over Love, because he is in the midst of vitality. There are other replicas of these sculptures in the Louvre Museum, the Vatican Museums and the Doria Pamphilij Gallery in Rome.

The two Centaurs were part of the Dionysian procession, and in fact a Faun and a child Dionysus were also discovered in the Accademia, both made of Rosso antico marble. They confirm that the Accademia was the sacred area and the Acropolis of Villa Adriana, dedicated to the cult of Isis and Dionysus/Osiris, as we discovered thanks to our studies of Archaeoastronomy published in the book «Villa Adriana. Architettura Celeste. I Segreti dei Solstizi».