Interpreting the Torlonia Marbles: A Curatorial View

Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection (March 15-June 29, 2025) was the first major exhibition of ancient Greek and Roman art at the Art Institute of Chicago in forty-four years. It is one of few public presentations of this material in more than seventy years and the first outside of Europe. Comprising works previously known only to scholars and within the pages of textbooks, this exhibition offered the unparalleled opportunity to introduce Art Institute visitors to icons of Roman sculpture and provide a fresh perspective on visual culture in antiquity.

With this in mind, and aligned with long-term interpretive goals for the department of Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium, we sought to present this collection in ways that would surprise and engage visitors, many of whom had little preexisting knowledge of this material. Of the 622 sculptures in the collection, we selected 58 objects that would support our efforts to craft an approachable narrative. We invited interpretation staff to collaborate significantly earlier than is typical, and we closely integrated these discussions into the planning process. After two years of biweekly meetings and writing interpretive content together, the resulting exhibition has been publicly received as a fresh and compelling presentation of ancient Roman sculpture, which in turn has furthered the department’s curatorial mission of making the ancient past feel newly relevant to contemporary visitors. This discussion offers a curatorial perspective on the benefits of these innovative ways of working, and how they impacted the overall exhibition and visitor outcomes.