The Capitoline Museums (Musei Capitolini)

As mentioned in a previous post, our tour guide, Federica, took us to one of her favorite museums in Rome, The Capitoline Museums.

The Capitoline Museums are on top of one of Rome's seven hills, the Capitoline Hill at Piazza del Campidoglio.  They are called the Capitoline Museums (plural) because they encompass three separate but connected main buildings:

• Palazzo Senatorio - originally a 12th-century building that was eventually modified by Michelangelo to fit in with the other two.  (Palazzo Senatorio is the home of Rome's town hall, so it is not part of the visitor route in the Capitoline Museums)

• Palazzo dei Conservatori - built in the mid-16th century and redesigned to Michelangelo's specifications.  The collections here are ancient sculpture, mostly Roman but also Greek and Egyptian.

• Palazzo Nuovo - built in the 17th century to match the design of Palazzo dei Conservatori and to face it symmetrically on the piazza according to Michelangelo's designs.  Statues, inscriptions, sarcophagi, busts, mosaics, and other ancient Roman artifacts occupy two floors of the Palazzo Nuovo.

The museum’s collections began in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome.  This was an important moment, as it meant that art was able to be seen and enjoyed by the people, not just the art owners and elite.  Over the years the collection grew, and today the Capitoline Museums exhibit statues, art, jewelry, coins, and many more artifacts, mostly from ancient Rome.  The museum also boast a stunning collection of medieval and Renaissance art inside the painting gallery.  In 1734 the museums opened to the public on the Capitoline Hill under Pope Clement XII.  The Capitoline Museums are currently owned and operated by the municipality of Rome and are considered to be the oldest museum collection in the world!

There is an extraordinary wealth of art and other wonderful statues in these galleries and it's worth taking the time to visit them.

Colossal statue of Constantine

Constantine's left foot

Colossal statue of Oceanus

Left: Colossal statue of Constantine, 313-324 CE

The marble fragments of this original statue of Constantine were stumbled upon in ancient buildings by explorers. The large head, arms and legs of this statue were carved from white marble, while the rest of the body consisted of a brick core and wooden framework.  It was possibly covered with gilded bronze but if so, the statue was likely pillaged in Late Antiquity for the bronze to be used elsewhere, as none remained.  The fragments of the statue indicate how large the original statue was (approximately 40 feet high), and you can see a replica of the statue in the last picture to get an idea of how “colossal” this statue was!

Middle: Constantine's left foot

Right: Colossal statue of Oceanus or Marfurio, the river god.

Left: Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii

The Great Hall of the Capitoline Museums is often called the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii, after one of the spectacular frescoes by Giuseppe Cesari in this space. The magnificent cycle of frescoes in this exceptional room was commissioned in 1595 and finished in 1640 after a break of twenty years.  There are six artworks that tell the legend of the founding of Rome, beginning with the tale of the She Wolf and finishing with Romulus Tracing the Boundaries of Rome.  The Great Hall was originally the space where public hearings of Rome's governing council were held and is an amazing room to spend time in.

Middle: Spinario (Boy with a Thorn)

Boy with a Thorn, or the Spinario, is a fascinating bronze sculpture. One of several examples of a popular figure from the Hellenistic period, it is believed to date to the 3rd century BCE and depicts a young boy removing a thorn from his foot. The subject is a messenger, a simple shepherd boy, who ran to the Roman Senate to deliver his message.  Only after his duty did he stop to remove the thorn.  This example has been identified as a Roman copy, and is a particularly fine one.

Right: Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, 176 CE and Capitoline She Wolf, 5th Century BCE

This is the original bronze statue that previously stood in the Campidoglio piazza

The great leader is depicted upon a horse in magnificent detail.  The original sculptor is unknown, however we know that Michelangelo was commissioned to restore the statue in around 1539, shortly after the equestrian statue was moved to the wonderful square on Capitoline Hill.

The story of the She Wolf saving the lives of Romulus and Remus, having found them abandoned on the bank of the River Tiber, is well-known in Roman myth.

Left: Flayed Man sculpture, Roman imperial period copy of 2nd century BCE Greek, original

In Greek mythology, the satyr Marsyas challenged Apollo to a contest of music and lost his hide and life. He was flayed alive in a cave near Celaenae for his hubris to challenge a god. The artist used a mix of white and red marble for a particularly gruesome depiction of his flayed skin.

Middle: Marble sarcophagus with a scene of the Calydonian boar hunt

Right: Bust of Medusa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1638-1648

Left: Bronze Hercules, 2nd century BCE

This Bronze Hercules is believed to date from the 2nd or 4th century BCE and is a typical depiction of the young mythological figure. It is thought that the statue was originally located in a temple dedicated to Hercules that was originally in the Forum Boarium near the Tiber river. Hercules is sculpted with exaggerated muscular features and (deliberately to enhance the height) a head slightly smaller than the proportions we would expect.

Middle: Mosaic with Orestes and Iphigenia, from The Gardens of Maecenas, 2nd-3rd century CE.

Right: Commodus in the guise of Hercules, 192 AD

Left: Seppellimento di Santa Petronilla (burial of Saint Petronilla), Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, Cento 1591 - Bologna 1666), 1621 - 1623

This massive altarpiece was painted for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for a chapel dedicated to the saint and containing her relics. It was later transferred to the Quirinal Palace, before being taken to Paris by Napoleon's troops.

Middle: The Fortune Teller, Caravaggio, c. 1594

Caravaggio was remarkable in his time for often painting ordinary people rather than religious subjects, showing them as they actually were rather than an idealized version. In this painting the young Romanian girl, the Fortune Teller of the title is holding the hand of a Roman noble, presumably telling his fortune. The magic of the painting is that it takes a minute to realize that she is removing a ring from his finger, taking the scene to another level of interest.

Right: St. Bartholomew and St Mary Magdalen by Bartolomeo Bulgarini (1300-1310 – 1378), one of the most renowned painters in mid-14th century

Left: Lapidarium

The Lapidarium, or Galleria Lapidaria, is a lengthy tunnel connecting the two elements of the Capitoline Museums. This was built upon the ancient Roman Tabularium, the ancient state archive. The Tabularium was used for the conservation of the bronze tabulae containing the laws and the official deeds of the Roman State. Along the tunnel is the museum's fascinating collection of ancient written artifacts displayed in an underground gallery.

Middle: This location outside of the Tabularium is a lesser known area that offers fantastic views of the Roman Forum! It was also recently featured in the movie “Book Club: The Next Chapter”. Right: The replica of the Colloso of Constantine shows what the original statue looked like when it was intact. This replica was done using modern 3D scans of the remaining body parts that were found, and was erected in February of this year.

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Some of the well-known art you can see at the Capitol Museums that we didn’t get pictures of are:

• Capitoline Venus sculpture, from an original by Praxiteles (4th century BC)

• The Dying Gaul, a copy of a now lost Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC)

• Painting of St. John the Baptist by Caravaggio, c. 1602

• Sculpture of Cupid and Psyche, a 1st or 2nd century Roman copy of a late Hellenistic period  original

• The Halls of Emperors and Philosophers containing the busts of poets, philosophers and orators from the classical era.