Austen Henry Layard e la collezione di rilievi assiri del Museo di Scultura Antica Giovanni Barracco

This paper focuses on both the Italian and European collecting context with specific attention to the Assyrian relief collections. In particular, this article looks into the figure and role of Giovanni Barracco, an important collector of sculpture from the major ancient Mediterranean cultures, and of Austen Henry Layard, a politician and academic, who discovered and excavated the major cities of the neo-Assyrian empire. The discovery that Barracco and Layard actually met prompts reflection and reassessment of some theories about Barracco’s purchases of the Assyrian collection, hitherto supposed to have been made solely on the Parisian antiques market.