Lobby

Along the walls of the long porticoed ground-floor corridor opening onto the Courtyard there are large niches with statues, including colossal representations of Minerva and Mars.

Palazzo Nuovo - Atrio

From an architectural perspective, the space is divided into niches and false doors, enlivened with columns leaning against the walls; two ornamental conchs complete decoration.

Among the most notable sculptures are:
 - the “Pyrrhus”, or the colossal statue depicting Mars in military dress, from the Forum Transitorium, a Flavian copy of the original cult statue in the temple of Mars Ultor in Augustus’ Forum;
 - the Statue of Minerva, a copy after the Athena Parthenos by Phidias (fifth century BC); the colossal sculpture was discovered under Pope Paul III (1534-1549) and it was originally intended to decorate the niche at the centre of the stairway of Palazzo Senatorio, later it was replaced by the porphyry sculpture still in place;
 - the statue of the emperor Hadrian as Pontifex Maximus, with head veiled;
 - the statue of Faustina Major as Fortuna

Around the niches where the sculptures stand there are Roman inscriptions, mostly of funerary character.

Statua colossale di Marte: "Pirro"
Sculpture
110 - 138 century II AD
Statua di Minerva
Sculpture
150 BC - 50 BC
Statua di Faustina Maggiore come Dea Fortuna
Sculpture
112-140 AD - Rework from a prototype of 5th century BC
Statua di Polifemo
Sculpture
138 - 180 2nd century AD
Statua panneggiata acefala in porfido
Sculpture
1rst century AD