Legals

appraisal
In the Palace there is still a small collection of six portrayed heads – one in the entrance hall past the courtyard
and the other five over the stairs – which were part of the collection of the Albertoni Paluzzi family,
collectors of ancient artwork. The Paluzzi Albertoni collection was merged in the 1600’s with the remarkable
Altieri collection, enriching the family mansion and other properties including villas on the Esquilino
and at Porta Salaria. The busts to be found today in the Albertoni Spinola palace are “two ancient marble
heads – one of a young woman and one of Antinous – mended in part; another ancient marble head – a
priest of Isis – reworked in the Renaissance era as a portrait of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus; two
marble portraits reconstructed during the Renaissance era – one of Julius Caesar and another probably of
Hesiod or Zeno of Elea –; and a plaster cast of the head of Julius Caesar (probably of the Pacca and not
of the Paluzzi family) taken from the statue preserved in the Senatorial Palace on the Capitoline Hill” (G.
SPINOLA 1995, p. 15) (Fig. 5, 6, 7).
Fig. 5 – Renaissance bust of Greek (Palazzo Albertoni Spinola): front view and profile
(Spinola 1995 TAV. V)
Renaissance bust of either Greek poet Hesiod or philosopher Zeno of Elea.