| Marphurius | |
|---|---|
| Italian:Marforio | |
.jpg) Palazzo Nuovo - Musei Capitolini | |
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| Year | 1st century AD |
| Type | Talking statues ofRome |
| Subject | Oceanus The name is a corruption of Latinmare in foro, "the sea in theforum" (inscribed near the statue's original location) |
| Location | Palazzo Nuovo,Capitoline Museums |
| Coordinates | 41°53′37.50″N12°28′59.77″E / 41.8937500°N 12.4832694°E /41.8937500; 12.4832694 |
Marphurius[1][2][3] orMarforio (Italian:Marforio;MedievalLatin:Marphurius,Marforius) is one of thetalking statues ofRome. Marforio maintained a friendly rivalry with the most famous talking statue,Pasquin. At the talking statues,pasquinades — irreverentsatires poking fun at public figures — were posted in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Marforio is a large 1st centuryRomanmarble sculpture of a reclining beardedriver god orOceanus,[4] which in the past has been variously identified as a depiction ofJupiter,Neptune, or theTiber. It was the humanist and antiquarianAndrea Fulvio who first identified it as a river god, in 1527.[5] TheMarfoi was a landmark in Rome from the late 12th century.[6]Poggio Bracciolini wrote of it as one of the sculptures surviving from Antiquity,[7] and in the early 16th century it was still near theArch of Septimius Severus, where the various authors reported it.[8]
The origin of its name is a matter of some debate. It was discovered with a granite basin bearing the inscriptionmare in foro,[9] but may take its name from the Latin name for the area in which it was discovered (Martis Forum), or from the Marioli (or Marfuoli) family who owned property near theMamertine Prison, also near the forum, where the statue was sat until 1588.
Pope Sixtus V had the statue moved to thePiazza San Marco, (in Rome) in 1588, and then to thepiazza del Campidoglio in 1592, where it decorates a fountain designed byGiacomo della Porta on a wall of theBasilica di Santa Maria in Ara Coeli, facing thePalazzo dei Conservatori. Part of the face, the right foot, and the left hand holding a shell were restored in 1594. In 1645, the building of the Palazzo Nuovo enclosed the fountain in its courtyard.
Media related toMarforio at Wikimedia Commons
| Preceded by Il Facchino | Landmarks of Rome Marforio | Succeeded by Fontana del Moro |