Nottingham’s significant collection of finds from the sanctuary of Diana, goddess of the hunt, at Lake Nemi, near Rome, has had a chequered history since its donation in 1886.
It was eagerly acquired, displayed and catalogued but later came to be seen as an archaeological anomaly in a museum that focused on fine and decorative art. There were even attempts to dispose of it on permanent loan.
Renewed interest in the collection has now culminated in this temporary exhibition, which returns it to display for the first time since 1997.
Nemi finds
Worship at the site began in the sixth century BC, and the Temple of Diana became one of the most important of the late Roman Republican period.
The site was excavated in 1885 by John Savile-Lumley, British ambassador in Rome, whose family seat was at Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire.
The 1,600-plus finds, which he donated to Nottingham Castle Museum, remain the most comprehensive archive from this significant site, which archaeologists still actively excavate and research today. Nemi also has an interesting afterlife in art and literature.
All these strands – the history and archaeology of the site, its excavation and its later reception – are woven through the Treasure of Nemi exhibition.
Exhibition curator Ann Inscker takes visitors on a pilgrimage through the site, from the Via Virbia or Sacred Way and the beauty of Lake Nemi, then into the temple with altars packed with votives and on to the niche rooms at the back of the temple.
Printed on the floor of the first room is a representation of the Via Virbia, which linked Nemi with the Via Appia leading from Rome, signalling the visitor’s own journey. The second room takes visitors into the sanctuary, focusing on the temple and the votives.
Four truncated columns conjure the impression of entering a temple, and also double as display cases for groups of coins, bronzes and other finds.
A fascinating model of an Etruscan temple provides a central focus and helps visitors to imagine the fifth-century temple.
Architectural fragments from the Etruscan and the later temple are attractively arranged on wall shelves. At the end of the room three cases reconstruct altars crowded with votive offerings.
Temple visit
Finally, visitors enter an evocation of the room niche in which Savile-Lumley discovered the exhibition’s star object, a fine marble herm sculpture of Roman matron Fundilia Rufa, dedicated by her former slave.
Photographs stand in for the other statues from the same niche, now housed in Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, since Nottingham Castle Museum could not afford to bring over the real objects.
Other sculptures from the site, of the gods Asclepius, Apollo and a cast of a mysterious double-headed figure, perhaps representing water deities, are also displayed.
At the exhibition exit, visitors are invited to leave their own votive messages, hung on an artificial oak tree. This is fun, and also subtly promotes reflection on the meaning of a visit to Nemi, encouraging identification with the ancient people who came to seek the goddess’s help.
The curator has tried hard to evoke the atmosphere of visiting such a sanctuary, within the restrictions of a traditional gallery space. Some strategies are more effective than others.
Photographs of the site, intended to convey its beauty, are too small to make much impact, but there is an evocative 17-minute video, The Priest of Nemi, produced by dramatist Michael Eaton. It offers creative reflections that drew me into the atmosphere, significance and meanings of the site.
Display elements highlighting the site’s artistic and literary afterlife include an audio extract from The Golden Bough, by early anthropologist James Frazer.
Frazer was inspired by the violent legend of the Rex Nemorensis, a freed slave who protected the sanctuary at Nemi. This King of the Woods periodically faced a challenge to the death from a newcomer who would seize a bough from the grove’s sacred oak tree.
It is a shame that Tate was unable to lend Turner’s painting, The Golden Bough, to which Frazer specifically refers.
However, Nottingham’s own art collection supplied a lithograph and painting of the goddess Diana, and Northampton Museum lent another. An atmospheric watercolour of Lake Nemi by John Robert Cozens was borrowed from Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.
Artistic responses are brought right up to date in the final room, with digital artist Theresa Caruana’s video installation, I am Fundilia.
Votive offerings
Most of the objects are concentrated in the three crowded altars. These are visually impressive and intellectually well-grounded, since votives regularly had to be cleared from altars and ritually buried, to make space for more.
There is something very immediate and touching about these offerings that make a request to the goddess or give thanks for her assistance in personal matters such as illness or maternity.
Terracotta models of a seated man and woman represent the couple’s wish or thanks for a child. In one example, the man’s arm rests protectively around the shoulders of the woman, who holds a baby on her lap.
Other votives are beautiful works of art, notably a head of Diana with finely modelled hair and remains of painted decoration.
The curator has made extensive use of Savile-Lumley’s 1885 photographs of the site and finds. The latter are strangely appealing sepia images, with groups of objects arranged in a kind of haphazard jigsaw puzzle.
They are displayed throughout the exhibition beside the artefacts and they provide a neat visual means of linking everything back to its original discovery and archaeological context.
The landowner Prince Orsini had no interest in archaeology and sold his share of the Nemi finds on the market, meaning many are now untraceable.
In contrast, Savile-Lumley ensured his share remained in the public domain. In this exhibition they are once again fulfilling their potential, both as archaeological evidence and works of art.
Vicky Donnellan is a museum consultant and is doing doctoral research at University College London on the role of collections of classical antiquities in regional museums in the UK
It was eagerly acquired, displayed and catalogued but later came to be seen as an archaeological anomaly in a museum that focused on fine and decorative art. There were even attempts to dispose of it on permanent loan.
Renewed interest in the collection has now culminated in this temporary exhibition, which returns it to display for the first time since 1997.
Nemi finds
Worship at the site began in the sixth century BC, and the Temple of Diana became one of the most important of the late Roman Republican period.
The site was excavated in 1885 by John Savile-Lumley, British ambassador in Rome, whose family seat was at Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire.
The 1,600-plus finds, which he donated to Nottingham Castle Museum, remain the most comprehensive archive from this significant site, which archaeologists still actively excavate and research today. Nemi also has an interesting afterlife in art and literature.
All these strands – the history and archaeology of the site, its excavation and its later reception – are woven through the Treasure of Nemi exhibition.
Exhibition curator Ann Inscker takes visitors on a pilgrimage through the site, from the Via Virbia or Sacred Way and the beauty of Lake Nemi, then into the temple with altars packed with votives and on to the niche rooms at the back of the temple.
Printed on the floor of the first room is a representation of the Via Virbia, which linked Nemi with the Via Appia leading from Rome, signalling the visitor’s own journey. The second room takes visitors into the sanctuary, focusing on the temple and the votives.
Four truncated columns conjure the impression of entering a temple, and also double as display cases for groups of coins, bronzes and other finds.
A fascinating model of an Etruscan temple provides a central focus and helps visitors to imagine the fifth-century temple.
Architectural fragments from the Etruscan and the later temple are attractively arranged on wall shelves. At the end of the room three cases reconstruct altars crowded with votive offerings.
Temple visit
Finally, visitors enter an evocation of the room niche in which Savile-Lumley discovered the exhibition’s star object, a fine marble herm sculpture of Roman matron Fundilia Rufa, dedicated by her former slave.
Photographs stand in for the other statues from the same niche, now housed in Copenhagen’s Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, since Nottingham Castle Museum could not afford to bring over the real objects.
Other sculptures from the site, of the gods Asclepius, Apollo and a cast of a mysterious double-headed figure, perhaps representing water deities, are also displayed.
At the exhibition exit, visitors are invited to leave their own votive messages, hung on an artificial oak tree. This is fun, and also subtly promotes reflection on the meaning of a visit to Nemi, encouraging identification with the ancient people who came to seek the goddess’s help.
The curator has tried hard to evoke the atmosphere of visiting such a sanctuary, within the restrictions of a traditional gallery space. Some strategies are more effective than others.
Photographs of the site, intended to convey its beauty, are too small to make much impact, but there is an evocative 17-minute video, The Priest of Nemi, produced by dramatist Michael Eaton. It offers creative reflections that drew me into the atmosphere, significance and meanings of the site.
Display elements highlighting the site’s artistic and literary afterlife include an audio extract from The Golden Bough, by early anthropologist James Frazer.
Frazer was inspired by the violent legend of the Rex Nemorensis, a freed slave who protected the sanctuary at Nemi. This King of the Woods periodically faced a challenge to the death from a newcomer who would seize a bough from the grove’s sacred oak tree.
It is a shame that Tate was unable to lend Turner’s painting, The Golden Bough, to which Frazer specifically refers.
However, Nottingham’s own art collection supplied a lithograph and painting of the goddess Diana, and Northampton Museum lent another. An atmospheric watercolour of Lake Nemi by John Robert Cozens was borrowed from Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum.
Artistic responses are brought right up to date in the final room, with digital artist Theresa Caruana’s video installation, I am Fundilia.
Votive offerings
Most of the objects are concentrated in the three crowded altars. These are visually impressive and intellectually well-grounded, since votives regularly had to be cleared from altars and ritually buried, to make space for more.
There is something very immediate and touching about these offerings that make a request to the goddess or give thanks for her assistance in personal matters such as illness or maternity.
Terracotta models of a seated man and woman represent the couple’s wish or thanks for a child. In one example, the man’s arm rests protectively around the shoulders of the woman, who holds a baby on her lap.
Other votives are beautiful works of art, notably a head of Diana with finely modelled hair and remains of painted decoration.
The curator has made extensive use of Savile-Lumley’s 1885 photographs of the site and finds. The latter are strangely appealing sepia images, with groups of objects arranged in a kind of haphazard jigsaw puzzle.
They are displayed throughout the exhibition beside the artefacts and they provide a neat visual means of linking everything back to its original discovery and archaeological context.
The landowner Prince Orsini had no interest in archaeology and sold his share of the Nemi finds on the market, meaning many are now untraceable.
In contrast, Savile-Lumley ensured his share remained in the public domain. In this exhibition they are once again fulfilling their potential, both as archaeological evidence and works of art.
Vicky Donnellan is a museum consultant and is doing doctoral research at University College London on the role of collections of classical antiquities in regional museums in the UK
Project data
- Cost £20,000
- Main funder Arts Council England
- Curator Ann Inscker
- Exhibition design in-house (Russell Jenkins, with input from Tristram Aver)
- Exhibition ends 29 September
