This head of a Dacian prisoner is among the highlights of the Imperial Fora in Rome exhibition at the Italian Academy

From Feb. 9 through Feb. 28, the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America at Columbia will host an exhibition of 20 recently discovered sculptures and other ancient objects from the Imperial Fora in Rome. These works and fragments will be shown for the first time to the public.

They include the magnificent statue and head of a Dacian prisoner from Trajan's Forum, which will be displayed along with smaller busts and fragments; all are examples of the extraordinarily high quality of Roman imperial sculpture. Two third-century marble slabs, incised with portions of an ancient map of Rome (the forma urbis), are landmarks in the history of cartography and urban planning. The exhibition will also include small, everyday pieces such as lamps, little weights, a spoon for cosmetics and two styluses for writing, which give insight into the daily life of ancient Romans.

All the objects in the exhibition, with the exception of two medieval fragments excavated in the Forum of Nerva in 1995, were found in Rome between the end of 1998 and 1999. David Freedberg, director of the Italian Academy, said, "Although the Imperial Fora surely count amongst the most excavated sites in Rome—and also among those most damaged by misconceived projects for urban renewal —the exhibition provides eloquent testimony to the kinds of objects that may still come to light, even in the course of a few years."

The largest of the objects on view in the exhibition is a magnificent two-meter high statue of a Dacian prisoner from the main portico in Trajan's Forum; its head, detached at some point in the past, will also be shown.

A series of smaller heads demonstrate the skill of Roman sculptors of the first and second centuries A.D. in depicting both physiognomies and psychological characterization, while the fragment of a caryatid, resembling the prisoner, demonstrates the extent to which Roman art was indebted to Greek sculpture in its flowing, deep-cut representation of drapery.

For viewers interested in the history of urban planning, the exhibition offers two fragments of the forma urbis, an ancient map of the city. They provide striking testimony to the precision with which Trajan's Forum, and the so-called Basilica Ulpia in particular, was planned.

Two further works, perhaps the most beautiful in the exhibition, have also been lent by the Roman Soprintendenza. They were excavated at the time of Mussolini's violent replanning of the city. The first is a beautiful well-curb (puteal) of pentelic marble, with lovely low-relief carvings of dancing satyrs and maenads, and the second is the base of a candelabra, with graceful relief sculptures of Apollo, Latona and Minerva adorning three of its sides. Both works come from the Augustan period, and provide evidence of the subtlety, elegance and high classicism of sculptural reliefs at the time.

The exhibition was first suggested by Consul-General Giorgio Radicati in the context of events celebrating the relationship between Rome and New York at the beginning of the third millennium, and then supported and encouraged by Mayor Francesco Rutelli of Rome. The selection of works was made by Professor Eugenio La Rocca, director of the Sovraintendenza ai Beni Culturali in Rome and Silvana Rizzo, director of the Imperial Fora. Architect Francesco Stefanori, who has made a distinguished contribution to the display of ancient sculpture in Rome itself, has worked to ensure the best disposition of works in the limited ground floor spaces of the Academy.

The Imperial Fora ("Fori Imperiali")

In addition to the works of art and artifacts, the exhibition will include a large model (3.5 x 2 meters) of the Imperial Fora, to enable visitors to gain a clearer sense not only of the scale and ambition of the project, but also of the location of the individual finds.

The Imperial Fora ("Fori Imperiali") together constitute the most monumental urban complex in all of ancient Rome. They constitute the northward expansion of the original Roman Forum, the main public square of republican Rome.

This expansion began when Julius Caesar started clearing away the private constructions surrounding the Forum Romanum. Thus began a major project of urban renewal: temples, porticoes, basilicas, shops and spaces for ceremonies and commercial activities of all kinds. First came the so-called "Forum Iulium" of 54-46 B.C., to be followed by the Forum of Augustus (31-32 B.C.), the Forum of Vespasian (of which the center was the Temple of Peace, 71-75 AD), the Forum of Nerva (98) and finally Trajan's massive forum of 107-113, with its many markets, cultural centers and other fine buildings. Aside from its famous market and the temple that formed its centerpiece, this Forum also contained the vast meeting space known as the Basilica Ulpia. It was dominated by Trajan's magnificent sculpted column, still standing, built between two libraries.

Much of this extraordinary urban conglomeration was destroyed when Mussolini decided to drive the Via dei Fori Imperiali through it in 1932, one of several major urban planning projects by Mussolini that destroyed much of the fabric of ancient, Renaissance and Baroque Rome.

Located at Casa Italiana, 1161 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY., the exhibition is free and open to the public weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For recorded information, call 854-4437.