GROUND FLOOR.
ENTRANCE HALL. Immediately on our left as we enter the Museum is the Roman Gallery, leading to the principal sculpture-rooms; on the right, a little farther on and opposite the principal staircase to the first floor, is the entrance to the Grenville Library; while straight in front, beyond the square piers, are the Hall of Inscriptions and the entrance to the Reading Room. In the Entrance Hall we may note, on the right, the statue of Shakespeare by Roubiliac (presented by Garrick) and a bust of Layard, the Assyrian explorer, and, on the left, a statue of Mrs. Damer, by herself.
The HALL OF INSCRIPTIONS contains, beside selected inscriptions, sculptures, mostly decorative, of very various merit. The inscriptions represent treaties, decrees of state, deeds of endowment, dedications, subscription lists, public epitaphs, and lists of honours.
WEST HALF. Decorative Grï¾µco-Roman vases, altars, etc; 2502. Large marble vase, with a graceful relief of satyrs making wine (from Hadrian's villa at Tivoli). EAST HALF. North-east corner, 1943. Fine portrait-statue of a Roman priest, from Cyrene. East wall, 1114. Greek sepulchral slab with relief and elegiac poem. In the middle, 1721. Mithras sacrificing a bull. Against the square pier, the 'Towneley Thalia.'
In order to visit the Collection of Greek and Roman Sculptures in the west wing we return to the entrance and enter the Roman Gallery. The collection is here described in the inverted historical order dictated by the position of the rooms; the unhurried visitor should begin with the Archaic Room and inspect the Greek sculptures before the Grï¾µco-Roman and Roman works.
Roman Gallery. Along the north wall is a series of busts of Roman Emperors and others, arranged chronologically, beginning with Julius Cï¾µsar (1870) at the west end (a modern work based on the coin-portraits). Other notable portraits are 1877. Augustus (once owned by Edmund Burke); 1988. Female portrait-statue ('Livia'; perhaps a priestess); 1887. Nero; 1890. Vespasian; 1999. Portrait bust of an aged priestess of Ceres; 1907, 1464. Marcus Aurelius; 1905. Faustina; 1917. Caracalla (note the turn of the head to the left, copied from Alexander the Great); 2009. Unknown lady, of the time of Elagabalus. Opposite the busts are Roman sarcophagi and other remains found in England and on both walls are Roman mosaics. On the north wall (near the west end) is the fine Grave Relief of L. A. Philomusus (acquired in 1920).
First Grï¾µco-Roman Room. In this and the two following rooms we reach the works executed by Greeks (probably often slaves or freedmen) for Roman patrons, to decorate their villas. Many of these works are copies of famous Greek originals and are of great service to the scientific study of Greek art; others are genre pieces and decorative reliefs, busts of great authors designed for libraries, and so forth. The clear distinction between Greek sculpture and its Grï¾µco-Roman imitation is a comparatively late development; for modern appreciation of the antique was of necessity based on the latter, as being the first to be discovered.
To the left of the entrance: 1606. Dionysos, a dignified figure of the 'Indian' type, which was conceived as mature, with flowing beard and ample drapery. To the right: 1747. Heroic figure from the Farness Collection; 1545. Demeter(?), with the attributes of Isis. By the south (left) wall: 1380. Apollo Citharï¾µdos, from Cyrene (the feminine element conspicuous in late Grï¾µco-Roman Apollos is here only slightly marked); 1751. Bust of Athene, with (modern) bronze helmet; 1578. Venus 'Pudica' (characteristic of the degradation of the type from its original, the Aphrodite of Praxiteles); Altar, of singularly fine marble, dedicated to Hercules; 1655, 1656. Graceful figures of satyrs; 1569 (south west corner), Bust of Minerva. Opposite (north), Colossal head of Faustina the Elder (?); 1746. Canephora.
