Pagan versus Christian
Artemis of Ephesus
During the Grand Tour of the 18th century, thousands of artifacts were unearthed by amateur archaeologists, as travelers flocked to Italy to discover the epitome of Western civilization. Among these were the items exhibited in this room of the museum, including the statue of Artemis. Most of the artifacts in the Gallery of the Candelabra were crafted between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD. Originally the gallery was a grand arcade without a ceiling. By 1788, Michelangelo Simonetti roofed the ceiling and turned it into a six-sectioned gallery. The ceiling decorations were completed in the late 19th century, and so the pagan goddess Artemis stands in great contrast to the ceiling iconography, quite Christian in nature.
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