Altar Dedicated to Fortuna Salutare
This altar was mentioned in 1700 by Montelatici in the storerooms of the Villa Borghese, where it was kept until 1832, when it was reported in its current location in the portico.
The four-sided sculpture has complex moulding at the top and bottom and, on the sides, representations of the tools used for ritual sacrifice, a patera and a small pitcher. The front bears an inscription dedicated to Fortuna Salutare, who the Romans venerated as a tutelary divinity who protected the destiny of men.
The sculpture is roughly datable to between the first and second centuries CE.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Medium
Dimensions
height 79 cm; width 61 cm; depth 58 cm; letter height 5.5-5.8 cm
Provenance
Borghese Collection, cited for the first time by Montelatici in the ‘stanze sotterranee’ (‘underground rooms’; 1700, p. 309). Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, C., p. 42, no. 13. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1994-95 - Abacus di Nicoletta Naldoni and G. Tautschnig
- 2008 - Consorzio Capitolino of Elisabetta Zatti and Elisabetta Caracciolo
Commentary
The socle of this four-sided altar is composed of a listel, a cyma reversa, an astragal and a band worked coarsely with a claw chisel. The moulding at the top is composed of a listel, below which are a cyma recta followed by a listel and a cavetto, distinguished below by a step. On the front, the inscription is framed by a listel, a cyma reversa and a step. The three-line funerary inscription is dedicated to the personification of Fortune:
FORTUNAE
SALUTARI
SACRUM
On the right and left sides are, respectively, a bowl for libations called a patera and a small pitcher called an urceus.
In 1700, the altar was mentioned by Montelatici in the ‘Stanze sotterranee’ (‘underground rooms’; p. 309). In the inventory of 1762, it is listed as a support for a ‘Fortuna a sedere senza braccie’ (‘seated Fortune without arms’; pp. 207–208). Nibby cited it for the first time in 1832 on view in the Villa Borghese’s portico (pp. 10–11). Until 1873, it was used as a base for the statue of Mercury seated with a turtle. In 1893, Venturi mentioned it as the base for the fragment of the statue of Apollo (Indicazione 1854 (1873), p. 5 no. 2; Venturi 1893, p. 9). The cult of the goddess Fortune was particularly popular among the Romans, who venerated her as the force that guided and determined the fate of men, distributing happiness, comfort and wealth. Nibby mentioned a speech by Plutarch, “De Fortuna Romanorum”, dedicated to this goddess (pp. 10–11). The sculpture is roughly datable to between the first and second centuries CE.
Giulia Ciccarello
Bibliography
- D. Montelatici, Villa Borghese fuori di Porta Pinciana con l’ornamenti che si osservano nel di lei Palazzo, Roma 1700, p. 309.
- A. Nibby, Monumenti scelti della Villa Borghese, Roma 1832, pp. 10-11.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano della Villa Borghese, Roma 1840, p. 5, n. 1.
- A. Nibby, Roma nell’anno 1838, Roma 1841, p. 909, n. 1.
- Indicazione delle opere antiche di scultura esistenti nel primo piano del Palazzo della Villa Borghese, Roma 1854 (1873), I, p. 5, n. 2.
- Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum VI, I, 1876, p. 36, n. 201.
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 9.
- P. Moreno, Museo e Galleria Borghese, La collezione archeologica, Roma 1980, p. 6.
- P. Moreno, C. Stefani, Galleria Borghese, Milano 2000, p. 35, n. 1.
- P. Moreno, A. Viacava, I marmi antichi della Galleria Borghese. La collezione archeologica di Camillo e Francesco Borghese, Roma 2003, p. 60, n. 1.
- Scheda di catalogo 12/00147871, P. Moreno 1975; aggiornamento G. Ciccarello 2020.
