To the right, from S. Andrea della Valle runs the Via della Valle, on the right of which is the Palazzo Vidoni (formerly called Caffarelli, and Stoppani), the lower portion of which was designed by Raphael, in 1513, the upper floor being a later addition. There are a few antiquities preserved here, among them the "Calendarium Prænestinum" of Verrius Flaccus, being five months of a Roman calendar found by Cardinal Stoppani at Palestrina. At the foot of the stairs is a statue of Marcus Aurelius. At one corner of the palace on the exterior is the mutilated statue familiarly known as the Abbate Luigi, which was made to carry on witty conversation with the Madama Lucrezia near S. Marco, as Pasquin did with Marforio.
To the left from St. Andrea della Valle runs the Via S. Pantaleone, on the right of which, cleverly fitting into an angle of the street, is the gloomy but handsome Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, built c. 1526 by Baldassare Peruzzi. The semi-circular portico has six Doric columns. The staircase and fountain are peculiar and picturesque. In the loggia is a fine antique lion.
The palace is not often shown, but is a good specimen of one of the smaller Roman princely houses. In the drawing-room, well placed, is the famous Statue of the Discobolus, a copy of the bronze statue of Myron, found in 1761, upon the Esquiline, near the ruined nymphæum known as the Trophies of Marius. This is more beautiful and better preserved than the Discobolus of the Vatican, of which the head is modern.
"Le tête du discobole Massimi se retourne vers le bras qui lance le disque, απεστραμμἱνον εἱς τἡν δισκοφὁρον. Cette tête est admirable, ce qui est encore une resemblance avec Myron, qui excellait dans les têtes comme Polyclète dans les poitrines et Praxitèle dans les bras."—Ampère, iii. 271.
The entrance-hall has its distinctive dais and canopy adorned with the motto of the family "Cunctando Restituit," in allusion to the descent which they claim from the great dictator Fabius Maximus, who is described by Ennius as having "saved the republic by delaying."
"Napoléon interpella un Massimo avec cette brusquerie qui intimidait tant de gens: 'Est il vrai,' lui dit-il, 'que vous descendiez de Fabius-Maximus?'
"'—Je ne saurais le prouver,' répondit le noble romain, 'mais c'est un bruit qui court depuis plus de mille ans dans notre famille.'"—About.
On the second floor is a chapel in memory of the temporary resuscitation to life by S. Filippo Neri of Paul Massimo, a youth of fourteen, who had died of a fever, March 16th, 1584.
"S. Filippo Neri was the spiritual director of the Massimo family; it is in his honour that the Palazzo Massimo is dressed up in festal guise every 16th of March. The annals of the family narrate, that the son and heir of Prince Fabrizio Massimo died of a fever at the age of fourteen, and that St. Philip, coming into the room amid the lamentations of the father, mother, and sisters, laid his hand upon the brow of the youth, and called him by his name, on which he revived, opened his eyes, and sate up—'Art thou unwilling to die?' asked the saint. 'No,' sighed the youth. 'Art thou resigned to yield thy soul to God?' 'I am.' 'Then go,' said Philip. 'Va, che sii benedetto, e prega Dio per noi.'—The boy sank back on his pillow with a heavenly smile on his face and expired."—Jameson's Monastic Orders.
The back of the palace towards the Piazza Navona is covered with curious frescoes in distemper by Daniele di Volterra.