Antique & Vintage Postcards

Draped in flowing marble robes and gazing pensively over one shoulder, this exquisite ancient sculpture — tentatively identified on the card as "Polimnia?" (Polyhymnia, Muse of sacred poetry) — was photographed for the Musei Capitolini's own reserved edition during the Fascist era, when the Capitoline collections were rebranded as the "Museo Mussolini." The photograph is a true gelatin silver print (Vera Fotografia), lending exceptional tonal depth to the carved drapery; the figure leans against a rocky support in the pose associated with contemplative Muses, her curled hair and serene expression characteristic of Hellenistic-influenced Roman marble copies. The card's institutional pedigree — "Edizione riservata dei Musei Capitolini," printed by Stabilimenti Alterocca of Terni — dates it firmly to the 1930s Fascist period, giving it dual historical significance as both an art-historical document and a relic of Mussolini's cultural propaganda program.