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 Palazzo Nuovo - Atrio](https://museicapitolini.org/sites/default/files/storage/images/musei/musei_capitolini/collezioni/percorsi_per_sale/palazzo_nuovo/atrio/7651-24-ita-IT/atrio.jpg)
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.