Among the masterpieces of the Centrale Montemartini Museum in Rome, we find this curious group of sculptures, commonly referred to as Togated Barberini (Togato Barberini in italian). It is not just a masterpiece, because observing it we can understand the real reason why the ancient Romans used to make several portraits of themselves. Follow me in this artistic travel, in order to discover one of the main wonders of the Centrale Montemartini Museum. Follow me, a local tour guide in Rome, in order to understand something more about the ancient Roman art and, more in generale, how art in the past had a strong political and social importance.

The entire masterpiece, datable around the I century b.C., is coming from the private collection of the famous Barberini family. It is a perfect example of the Roman republican art. We are in a context in which the roman men, especially the rich ones, the patrician or that ones who worked in public offices, used to use the forms and the naturalism of the art of Greek art to celebrate themselves. Why? Political purposes or to underline their social status. And the best technique to achieve these purposes was the portrait: we see a man in the center, standing in all his pride and wealth. His face is a realistic marble picture! The traits of the face, the frown, the shape of the head are the real ones, as the men of that time were able to observe. The roman men loved to show themselves in all their physical reality, often celebrating their social status (sculpting clothing items as specific as the toga, for example), or activities in life (often those who earned a certain fame in the military was portrayed with weapons and armor).

Moreover, the other characteristic that makes this group of sculptures particular, in front of us there is not the single marble representation of a single man: no, because here you can the the whole family and the past generations too! The faces hold by the central figure are the father and the grandfather. So, following a male line, they are the important ancestors of the main man who is completely depicted. The cult of the ancestors was much felt because it was a way to thank them for the richness and abundance, as well as the social prestige brought to the family. If you did not have noble birth, if you didn't have important senators, or prominent men in roman society in past generations, it was difficult to have enough credibility to be able to hope to occupy important positions in politics and the community of Rome. Once again this form of private worship was useful to celebrate, and to self celebrate, the social wealth of a family. Here at the Centrale Montemartini Museum there are several marble portraits that really are witnesses of the roman will to ascend and climb the social piramyd.