Rome’s Capitoline Museums are often considered to be the oldest public museums in the world. They started off as a papal collection, then Pope Sixtus IV returned some significant ancient bronzes to the people in 1471. Pope Clement XII felt that art belonged to the people, so he opened the entire collection on Capitoline Hill for all to see in 1734. Over time, more popes, cardinals, and patricians added to it, and as more archeological discoveries were made, the collection continued to grow until it became the outstanding assemblage of statues, busts, high relief panels, paintings, sarcophagi, tapestries, frescoes, and paintings that one sees today.
The location of the museum complex was quite strategic. In ancient Rome, Capitoline Hill was the geographical and ceremonial center of the empire. It overlooked the Roman Forum, which was the governmental center and the primary marketplace, and behind it was the Campus Martius, where the people gathered to vote and attend religious festivals, and where soldiers and boys would practice battle tactics and armies would gather before marching off to war. But by 1471, Capitoline Hill was mostly ancient ruins and had largely been abandoned.
People needed to be reminded of their proud heritage. Utilizing that space for the Capitoline Museums would advance that goal. The museums’ collections are mainly dedicated to the art and history of ancient Rome. By housing the collections here, the popes also hoped to emphasize the connection between ancient Rome and the temporal power of the church.
In ancient times, the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus had been on Capitoline Hill, and it was the largest and most important temple in Rome. It dominated the skyline. Part of one of the museums sits on top of the site of that temple, and excavations are ongoing. The Tarpeian Rock is also there. People were thrown off that rock as a form of execution. The Tabularium, home of the Roman archives, was also on that hill, and indeed part of the remains of that building have been incorporated into the museum complex.
One of the many things I love about the complex is that it surrounds the Piazza del Campidoglio, which was designed by Michelangelo. He also designed the facades of the buildings that face it. I’m a huge fan of his, and had I known that this piazza, with its geometric flower-like design, was his creation when I was there, I’d have taken better pictures. But here’s a 3-d image from google maps.
Next, I’ll show you some of the most noteworthy pieces in the Capitoline Museums’ collections, plus a few others that caught my eye.
The pride and joy of the museum has to be the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. It used to sit in the center of the piazza that Michelangelo designed, but toward the end of last century, it was determined that it was becoming too damaged by being outdoors, so they built it its very own room. (There’s now a replica of it in the piazza.)
This original is made of gilded bronze, and it was erected sometime between 176 AD, the year of Marcus Aurelius’ triumph over the German tribes, and 180 AD, the year he died. There were quite a few equestrian statues in Rome at the time, but this is the only one that has survived to the present day. For a long time it was mistaken for a depiction of Emperor Constantine, which is probably why it was never melted down.
The Capitoline Wolf is the iconic symbol of Rome’s legendary foundation. Oddly enough, the twins, Romulus and Remus, were only added to the statue in the 15th century. The wolf was thought to be Etruscan, from the 5th century BC, but some recent restorers think that it actually only dates back to the 12th century. No consensus about its age has been reached at this time. This is the original statue. You can find replicas all over the world, including a smaller version on a pillar just outside the Capitoline Museum Complex grounds.
The Dying Gaul is actually a marble copy of the original bronze Greek Hellenistic statue that has since been lost. The original was made around 230 BC. (How anyone knows all of this is beyond me.) It is known for its remarkable realism and pathos. There is documentation that this version existed since at least 1623. As we are discovering with many Roman statues, at one point it may have been painted. It used to have long hair, but it broke off. In 1797 it was taken by Napoleon’s forces, and was housed in the Louvre until its return to Rome in 1816. It was loaned to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC for 3 months in 2013/2014, and has been back at the Capitoline Museums ever since.
The Capitoline Venus shows Venus gracefully and modestly emerging from her bath. No one knows the exact date of this statue’s creation, but it was found standing in someone’s garden in the 1670’s, and a pope purchased it for the museum in 1752. It was taken by Napoleon and returned in the same years as the Dying Gaul. It was also modeled after a Greek statue that has been lost. It was also loaned to the National Gallery in DC for 3 months, but this time in 2011. (They have so much in common that if statues weren’t inanimate, I’d swear these two were having an affair.)
When I saw Spinario, aka Boy with Thorn, I was captivated. The statue looks alive and it tells a story. I got closer, half expecting to see a teeny tiny thorn sticking out of the poor kid’s foot. It may be bronze, but I expected it to move at any second. There’s a marble version of it in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was first documented in the 1160’s and a few times after that, and then it mysteriously drops off the radar for the next 300 years until it pops up in the Capitoline Museums. It has been imitated hundreds of times. But none of that mattered to me. What mattered to me, in that very intimate moment, was my intense desire to say, “Hey kid, what are you doing? Wow, that must hurt. Do you need any help? And more importantly, what are you doing out here, stark naked, sitting on a stump? You’re going to have splinters in more places than your foot if you’re not careful!” But he probably wouldn’t have heard me. He was concentrating.
One of the first things that hits you right in the feels when you enter the museum complex is the Colossus of Constantine, or rather, the fragments thereof. This statue must have been awe-inspiring in its heyday. Its big toe is as big as my head. But that’s fitting for someone who was considered one of Rome’s greatest emperors. (He was the first to officially recognize the Christian religion.) It is believed that the rest of this statue consisted of scaffolding draped with either gilded bronze or precious colored marble. It was apparently pillaged for its metal sometime in late antiquity. A modern reconstruction was made based on the exact 3-D measurements of the remaining fragments, so that we could see what it may have looked like when intact. The reconstruction is now in the outdoor patio area of the museum complex, but we couldn’t get to it because there was a private wedding going on. So I’ll include an image from Wikipedia below.
To make things interesting, there are fragments of a Bronze Colossus of Constantine in the complex as well, but you don’t encounter it right away, so Colossus #1 will always be my first love, even though this one is nothin’ to sneeze at. In this one, the emperor is much older. It seems to have been made around 337 AD, according to the museum, and is one of the first pieces in their collection.
Medusa is a Baroque sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, probably made in the 1640’s. It’s kind of ironic that a mythical being whose gaze could turn people into stone is here forever made of marble. The emotion on her face is quite evocative, and it’s what causes this bust to stand out from so many others.
The city of Rome has six talking statues. I’ve written about them in detail here. They were places where 16th and 17th century Romans would post anonymous complaints or satires to lampoon public figures. One of these statues, Marforio, which depicts a river or ocean god, now resides in the Capitoline Museum complex. It was created sometime in the first century. It has been in several locations in Rome over the centuries, which is remarkable, given that it’s made of marble and is nearly 20 feet long.
One of the things I had been looking forward to the most during this visit was the tunnel between buildings that afforded an excellent view of the Roman Forum. As I mentioned earlier, the remains of the Tabularium, or Roman archives, are part of the complex. This tunnel was in the Tabularium. It had a very ancient feeling to it, no doubt. I actually got a little lost and frustrated trying to find the side hall that led to the views, but fortunately, I ran into someone who knew the way. This 3-D Google photo shows the Tabularium as it looks today, and the arrows indicate the windows we were able to look out of for these stunning photos of the forum.
This view, perhaps, is the most important museum display of all. I could have gazed at this forum for years. I could imagine all the buildings intact. In fact, they provided handy maps showing where everything would have been. The people who shaped the political aspects of that forum would probably be shocked to know how profoundly their actions still impact the world more than 2000 years later.
People often make the mistake of thinking ancient Rome was the birthplace of democracy, but you should really look to the Athenians for that. No. Rome at that time was actually a Republic with certain democratic qualities. It could be argued that more of the US Constitution is based on the Roman Republic than on Athenian Democracy.
Many of our institutions, legal principles and ideas of citizenship were developed in ancient Rome. The idea of a balance of power is extremely Roman. (Unfortunately, figuring out ways to circumvent that balance is also extremely Roman.) They came up with the idea of institutionalized opposition to protect minority interests in the form of the Tribune of the Plebs. They came up with predictable legal rights. They had the right to appeal. They shaped concepts like due process and legal precedent. They eventually established that political rights could be extended to people born elsewhere and/or of other ethnicities. The Romans provided us with the words senate, republic, veto, and citizen. You could say that ancient Rome added the institutional structure to democracy.
Americans seem to have taken on some of the same qualities as ancient Romans. Our dislike of kings. Our talent for corruption. Our bad habit of handing all the power to the rich. The arrogance to think that, simply due to our superior strength, we get to barge into other countries and take over.
Sadly, another thing that was born in Italy was Fascism, thanks to Benito Mussolini. Its roots lie in mass politics, industrialized warfare, nationalism, and fear of socialism and liberal democracy. Fascists idolize ancient Rome for its historical legitimacy, a sense of destiny and continuity, and an image of incontestable power. They cherry pick the traits about ancient Rome that they like, and ignore the ones they don’t. They emphasize authority and discipline, militarism, national unity over individual rights, and the expansion of empire. They are willing to destroy symbols of history that don’t align with their points of view. They counter opposition with violence and death.
Did you notice I was using the present tense while discussing Fascism? Just like Mussolini, Trump does everything mentioned in the paragraph above, with no exception. Unfortunately, Italy’s current government is creeping back in that direction as well.
What finally got me to turn my back on the forum and re-enter the rest of the museum complex was the thought that that forum, right there, started the ball rolling toward the clusterf**k of a political system we have right now. Suddenly I felt really tired. But in spite of all their flaws, I genuinely don’t think the ancient Romans would have wanted things to come to this. In fact if they knew, I suspect they would be appalled.
As Dear Husband and I left the Capitoline Museums, I realized that, of all the archeological sites we had visited during our time in Italy, of all the ancient Roman statues and mosaics we had seen, this collection would hold the most significance for me. It really made me fully comprehend the talent, the creativity, and the ingenuity of the ancient Romans. It was clear to me that they took everything from mortality to nature to politics to love to spirituality to history quite seriously.
I don’t agree with their economic inequalities, their warlike nature, or their political machinations. I wouldn’t want to exist at their level of scientific and medical ignorance. But I have always been fascinated by the ancient Romans. Now, after experiencing the Capitoline Museums, I walked away with a heightened respect for these complex people. That was something I hadn’t anticipated.
The Capitoline Museums are well worth the price of admission and well worth the time. For those who aren’t able to go to Rome, though, here’s the museums’ brochure, and they have an excellent website that allows you to explore the collection online, and even “walk” through the museums themselves thanks to Google Street Views.
And for a 2 minute video of even more sculptures that Dear Husband took during our visit, check this out. Enjoy!
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