Archaeological Museum

Description

Archaeological Museum Venice - Visiting hours
From 26 March to 1 November: 10.00am – 7.00pm
From 2 November to 25 March: 10.00am – 5.00pm 
Closed: 25 December and 1 January

(Entry via Correr Museum)

Founded way back in 1523 following a donation from Cardinal Domenico Grimani to the Republic of Venice, the National Archaeological Museum in Venice hosts important original findings, mainly from the Greek-Roman age, in addition to the archaeological collection of the Correr Museum which boasts exhibits from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, Egyptian and Assyrian-Babylonian antiques and also Greek, Etruscan and Roman art.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room I

Contains works from the Roman period, funerary steles and public inscriptions - mostly from Crete, and some male busts.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room II - Numismatic Collection

In the museum showcases, part of the rich numismatic collection is exposed (V century B.C.-XVII century): Greek coinage, Republican-Roman imperial coins minted in the provinces, examples of barbaric coinage and a collection of Byzantine coins from the V to the XIII centuries.  Renaissance medals and Republican money (late third century B.C.-27) are also on show.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room III - Sculptures from the first half of the fifth century. BC

On display are Roman copies of Greek works, now lost. Of particular interest: the 'twin' statues of the Caryatids - one from the island of Cres and the other discovered in Attica.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room IV - Original Greek works of the V and IV centuries B.C.

The room includes original examples of Greek sculptures, many of which retain traces of the Renaissance restorations removed at the start of the 900s. The figures cannot be identified with certainty: they are most likely to be votive statues from an island sanctuary.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room V - Sculptures of the V and IV centuries B.C.

Types and motifs of the Greek production of the IV century are illustrated with originals and Roman reproductions.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room VI - Greek Portraits and Roman reliefs

Portraits of the Hellenistic period (III-II centuries B.C.) which represent the main features of Greek portraiture, such as attention to symmetry and proportions based on geometric principles or designed according to the new optical and movement principles. Of particular interest: the Ara Grimani, original Hellenistic art possibly from Rome.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room VIII - Hellenistic Sculpture

In the sculptures of the Hellenistic period the neoclassical or archaic tendencies blend with pathos and naturalism. Of particular interest: the group of Venetian Galatians, part of the collection that Domenico Grimani had formed with works coming largely from some land he owned in Rome.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Rooms IX and X - Roman portraits

In this room the various aspects of Roman portraits are presented in relation to the iconography of the imperial family. There are also portraits of the XVI century that reflect iconographic and stylistic forms of the Roman era. Of particular interest: the female portraits in which it is possible to see the evolution of the hairstyles according to the fashion at the time.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room XI

Dedicated to the funerary sarcophagus with figurative decoration in relief on three sides. As for the scenes depicted, it should be noted the use of themes that were already developed in the Hellenistic period.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room XII

Of particular interest: the 'capsella of Samagher', ivory and silver reliquary decorated with subjects of Christian characters, dating from the V century A.D.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Room XIV

Funerary art from the Roman-imperial age: altars and urns with relief decorations, sides of sarcophagi, vases, marble replicas of the originals in metal.

• Archaeological Museum Venice – Room XV

In this hall Greek and Italic pottery (IX-III century B.C.) – mostly deriving from burials and funeral monuments of the Roman period.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Rooms XVII-XX

These rooms house several artefacts from various sources, grouped together in the Egyptian-Egyptian style section: finds of funerary and Templar character - mummies, vases, figurines, votive bronzes, a scalloped stele and statues of the Late Period (712-332 B.C.); and in the Oriental section: cuneiform inscriptions dating from the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, Assyrian reliefs from Nineveh and Nimrud and funerary and votive reliefs of Oriental-Greek origins. Also noteworthy: 'From the Nile to the Archaeological Museum' - a themed display to follow the findings related to Egypt through the different rooms - and the showcase 'Religion and Magic' - a sort of connection between the 'Egyptian style' Greek-Roman artefacts and the next Oriental-Egyptian section, which preserves several examples of amulets and two magical steles.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Rooms XVII and XVIII - Sculptures from the archaeological collection of the Venice Civic Museums

Of particular interest: important Greek-classic originals; the lions from the entry of the Arsenal, some male portraits – a synthesis between the traditional Egyptian sculptural forms and the iconography modules of the Roman- republican portrait; Roman copies of Greek originals.

• Archaeological Museum Venice - Public Statuary

Housed in the Entry Room of St Mark’s Library – the ancient headquarters of the Public Statuary of the Serenissima – it reproduces the original display of the museum reconstructed according to the drawings of Anton Maria Zanetti ‘il Giovane’.

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