Musei Capitolini | |
 The Capitoline Museums and the trapezoidal central square of the Campidoglio in 2007. | |
 Click on the map for a fullscreen view | |
| Established | 1734 (1734) open to public, 1471 (1471) bronzes donated by Pope Sixtus IV to the people of Rome |
|---|---|
| Location | Capitoline Hill, Piazza del Campidoglio 1, 00186Rome,Italy |
| Coordinates | 41°53′35″N12°28′58″E / 41.8931°N 12.4828°E /41.8931; 12.4828 |
| Type | Archaeology,art museum,historic site |
| Director | Claudio Parisi Presicce |
| Website | museicapitolini.org |
TheCapitoline Museums (Italian:Musei Capitolini) are a group ofart andarchaeological museums located on theCapitoline Hill inRome, Italy. Their principal buildings are the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo, which face each other acrossPiazza del Campidoglio, the square designed byMichelangelo in 1536 and completed over the course of the following centuries.[1][2]
The museums are primarily dedicated to theart andhistory of ancient Rome, with a particular emphasis onRoman sculpture. The collection include celebrated works such as theEquestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, theCapitoline Wolf and theDying Gaul, alongside inscriptions, coins, and other artifacts illustrating the civic and religious life of the city. The museums also includeRenaissance andBaroque paintings, as well as the richly frescoed walls of the Conservators' Apartment in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, which depict scenes from Rome's early history.
The Capitoline Museums traces the collection's origins to 1471, whenPope Sixtus IV donated to the people of Rome a collection ofancient bronzes from theLateran.[3] In 1734Pope Clement XII opened the museum to the public, making them among the earliest museums in the world accessible to all citizens.[4][5][6] Today, the Capitoline Museums continue to attract visitors from around the world, hosting temporary exhibitions alongside their permanent collections and serving as a major cultural landmark in Rome.
The history of the museum can be traced to 1471, whenPope Sixtus IV donated a collection of important ancient bronzes to the people of Rome, until then kept in theLateran Palace and donated to the Roman people: theCapitoline Wolf, theCamillus (statue),[7] theBoy with Thorn and two fragments of a colossal statue ofDomitian (the head and a hand holding a globe).[8] As the inscription preserved in the Palazzo dei Conservatori specifies, it is not a donation but a "restitution": «he judged that these remarkable bronze statues, testimony to the ancient greatness of the Roman people who had them made, had to be returned and donated without reservations» :[9] these works of art had constituted thethesaurus Romanitatis, representing a sort of heritage of the ancient world that the Church had collected and jealously guarded throughout theMiddle Ages.
Sixtus IV chose to house the bronzes on the Capitoline Hill, then dominated by the ancient Palazzo Senatorio, also built on the remains of theTabularium, home of the Roman archives. The Wolf is placed on the facade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori and becomes the symbol of Rome, replacing the group of the Lion slaughtering a horse, present until then, symbol of the legal functions of the senatorial authority and the only sculpture present on the Capitoline Hill before the donation of Sixtus IV.[10] This donation symbolizes the continuity between imperial Rome and the temporal power of the Church, affirming the predominance of papal power on the Capitoline Hill, making this ancient hill the very symbol of the historical memory of Rome, in contrast to the role of driving force of civil autonomy that the Capitoline magistrates later strenuously defended.[11]
The collection of antiquities was enriched over time by donations from various popes who increased the museum's collections. Between the end of the 15th century and the middle of the 16th century, important ancient sculptures, piled up in front of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, of immense historical and artistic value, flowed into the Campidoglio, confirming the role of the hill as a public museum of antiquities. Thus the gildedHercules, found in theForum Boarium at the time of Sixtus IV, quickly joined the original group of bronzes. Purchased by the conservators, it was placed on a high plinth in front of their palace as a "monument to the glory of Rome", before being moved to the courtyard, where it was represented byMaarten van Heemskerck (1532–1537), then transferred inside the palace to the apartment of the Conservators.[10]
In 1513, two colossal statues of river gods, found in theBaths of Constantine (Rome) at theQuirinale, were placed next to the entrance to the palace: these sculptures from the era ofTrajan were added in 1588–1589, to those that already decorated the monumental staircase leading to the Palazzo Senatorio.[12]
In 1515, three large high-relief panels depicting scenes from the life ofMarcus Aurelius were purchased. They belonged to the sculptural decoration of an honorary monument erected to this emperor on the occasion of his triumph in 176 AD. Complete expressions of sculpture with a historical subject in Roman art, they serve to underline the ideal continuity between theancient world and theRenaissance in the Campidoglio.[12] As early as 1523, the Venetian ambassadors defined the Capitoline collections as "the most beautiful and most famous in the world".[13]
In 1541, on the main facade of the courtyard, in a niche overlooking the entrance, a large statue ofAthena was installed, discovered and donated to the civil magistracy at the time ofPaul III. It was used under Sixtus V as a central element of the decoration of the grand staircase of the senatorial palace designed by Michelangelo. Michelangelo, according to the testimony ofOnofrio Panvinio, contributed himself to the recomposition of the fragments found and to their architectural presentation in the Campidoglio: theFasti Capitolini, transferred in 1583 from the current room of theLouvre, were then recomposed according to the artist's design while undergoing, on this occasion, profound modifications.[14]
In 1566, Pius V donated a lot of thirty statues from thePalazzo del Belvedere (Vatican), considering it inappropriate for the successor of Peter (apostle) to keep pagan idols in his home. A considerable number of works of art thus arrived at the Campidoglio, where they enriched the "statuario", subsequently transferred to the ground floor of the Palazzo dei Conservatori. Some statues are placed on the former bell tower of Palazzo Senatorio and on the facade of the same building, thus realizing Michelangelo's project, as documented by the engravings ofÉtienne Dupérac.[14]In the second half of the century the collections included the two statues ofJulius Caesar andNavarch, theCapitoline Brutus and theLex de imperio Vespasiani.
The museum was opened to the public at the request of Pope Clement XII in 1734, making it the oldest public museum in the world, understood as a place where art could be enjoyed by all and not only by the owners.[15][16]
The enrichment of the collections resumed in the 18th century. In 1714 Pope Clement XI (1700–1721) donated to the museum five Egyptian statues found near the Porta Salaria. In 1733, under Pope Clement XII (1730–1740), the museum purchased the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani, including important pieces such as the Satyrs of the Valley, the Juno Cesi and a statue ofAntinous found inHadrian's villa, but also a series of portraits preserved today in the Hall of Emperors and Philosophers.
The end of the eighteenth century was not favorable to the museum: the foundation of the Pio-Clementino museum in theVatican Museums revived the competition between the municipal and papal collections. This caused an abrupt halt in the growth of the Capitoline archaeological collections: the attention of the pontiff was therefore entirely absorbed by this new museum. In 1797Napoleon Bonaparte imposed theTreaty of Tolentino which provided for the transfer of some of the most famous pieces to the Louvre Museum.Antonio Canova, delegated by the Holy Father for the so-called "recoveries", remedied theNapoleonic spoliations through obstinacy (or more probably the clauses of theCongress of Vienna), reported in 1815 after the fall of Napoleon theBoy with Thorn, theCapitoline Brutus, theDying Gaul and other works. Some, however, such as theSarcophagus of the Muses, already in the museums of the Campidoglio through the Albani collection, remain in the Louvre.
Pope Gregory XVI assigned the administration of the museums to the Roman city authorities in 1838.[17]
The transfer of the capital of the newKingdom of Italy to Rome in 1870 and the events of the end of the century marked a fundamental stage in the life and development of the city that led to the transformation and expansion of the museums of the Campidoglio.
The collections were reorganized in 1903 byRodolfo Lanciani according to more rigorous museographic criteria,[18] further highlighting the archaeological context of the works. The works are distributed in the rooms according to their original context, favoring a more careful reading of the archaeological data rather than an inspirational vision more linked to the aesthetic value of the sculptures as masterpieces of ancient art.
The Capitoline Museums and in particular the Palazzo dei Conservatori are remembered as the place where theTreaties of Rome were signed, which established theEuropean Economic Community, the precursor of today'sEuropean Union. The six states that were already members of theEuropean Coal and Steel Community took part in it, namelyBelgium,France,West Germany, Italy,Luxembourg and theNetherlands, which, after the success of this latter treaty, decided to expand their cooperation agreements to other sectors. To this day, they are among the most important documents in the history of the European Union.[19]
In 1997, a branch was opened in the former Centrale Montemartini, a former thermoelectric factory in theOstiense district, creating an original solution of fusion between industrial and classical archaeology. Its rooms allow in particular to present the grandiose remains of theTemple of Jupiter Capitolinus and the architectural complex of the temple of Apollo Sosianus with a monumental character.In 2005, a new wing of the museum, called theExedra of Marcus Aurelius, was added.[20]Today, the Capitoline Museums are part of the Civic Museums system of Rome.[21] Finally, at the beginning of the 21st century, the "Grand Capitole" project led to the redevelopment of a large part of the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
In 2016, the museum enclosed several of its nude statues in white-colored wooden panels ahead of a meeting betweenIranian presidentHassan Rouhani and Italian Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi that it hosted. The move was criticized by Italian Culture MinisterDario Franceschini as "incomprehensible," while the museum said that it had done so following a request from the prime minister's office, although Franceschini said that the government had not been informed of the matter in advance. Rouhani also denied asking Italian officials to cover up the artefacts but expressed his thanks to his hosts for making his visit "as pleasant as possible".[22]
In 2024, a complete reconstruction of theColossus of Constantine in 1:1 scale, designed and executed by Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation, was installed. Thanks to the few but evocative original fragments, preserved in the courtyard of Palazzo dei Conservatori, it was possible to reconstruct the statue in its imposing entirety, at the end of an archaeological, historical and functional analysis of the pieces, supported by the reading of literary and epigraphic sources. The imposing 13-meter-high statue depicting and dedicated to the emperorConstantine the Great, considered among the most notable achievements of late-ancient Roman sculpture. It is possible to admire the statue in the gardens of Villa Caffarelli.[23]
The Capitoline Collection is the oldest public collection in the world, covering an exhibition area of 12,997m².[24]
Among the most famous sculptures kept in the Capitoline Museums is theEquestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, originally located in the center ofPiazza del Campidoglio and transferred to the museums in 1990, in a specially set up glass room: theExedra of Marcus Aurelius, which is located where theRoman Garden used to be, between Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Caffarelli.[25] In the center of the square, in 1996, the statue of Marcus Aurelius was replaced by a copy, perfectly compliant in terms of volumes but not in terms of gilding.
There is also the symbol of the city, the bronzeCapitoline Wolf, believed to be anEtruscan work from the5th century BC; the original statue did not include the twinsRomulus and Remus, added in the 15th century and attributed to the sculptorAntonio del Pollaiolo.[27] Recently some restorers have hypothesized that the statue is not ancient, but medieval and that it dates back to the 12th century.[citation needed]
TheColossus of Constantine, visible in the courtyard, dates back to the 4th century. Other masterpieces of bronze sculpture are theHercules of the Forum Boarium and theBoy with Thorn.
A masterpiece of medieval sculpture is thePortrait ofCharles I of Anjou byArnolfo di Cambio (1277), the first lifelike portrait of a living character sculpted in Europe that has reached us from the post-classical era.
Over time, other and numerous historical collections were exhibited here, such as theProtomoteca (collection of busts andherms of illustrious men transferred from thePantheon to the Campidoglio by order ofPius VII in 1820); the collection of CardinalAlessandro Albani; the one donated by Augusto Castellani in the second half of the 19th century, consisting of archaic ceramic materials (from the 8th century BC to the 4th century BC), mainly of Etruscan area, but also ofGreek andItalic production.
The connection between the two museum locations, the Palazzo Nuovo and the Palazzo dei Conservatori, is guaranteed by the underground Galleria di conaccordo specially excavated in the 1930s and later used as a Galleria lapidaria, from which it is also possible to access thetemple of Veiovis and the gallery of theTabularium.
On the second floor of the Palazzo dei Conservatori is thePinacoteca Capitolina, which houses works byGuercino,Caravaggio,Rubens,Titian andVelázquez.
The Capitoline Museums are located on theCapitoline Hill, one of theseven hills of Rome, adjacent to the nearbyPiazza Venezia, theVictor Emmanuel II Monument, theImperial fora, in the heart of the city.[28] The Piazza del Campidoglio which houses the museum is a monumental square located on the top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome, it stands on theAsylum - the depression located between theArx and theCapitolium, the two summits of the Capitoline Hill - and below it is the Tabularium, visible from theRoman Forum.
Important works were carried out during the pontificate ofNicholas V, but the square took on its current appearance in the 16th century, whenPaul III commissionedMichelangelo Buonarroti to completely remodel it on the occasion of the visit to Rome ofEmperor Charles V.[1] The project included the renovation of the facades of thePalazzo Senatorio, built a few years earlier on the ruins of the Tabularium, and of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, the construction of the Palazzo Nuovo and the addition of several sculptures and statues, including that ofMarcus Aurelius, placed in the center of the square, and those depicting theTiber and theNile.
Despite initial abandonment in the early Middle Ages, the Tabularium had already been chosen as the seat of theMunicipality of Rome in 1144, making it theesttown hall in the world.[29]
The three mainRenaissance buildings of the Capitoline Museums are:
In addition, the 16th centuryPalazzo Caffarelli-Clementino, located off the piazza adjacent to the Palazzo dei Conservatori, was added to the museum complex in the early 20th century.[30]
The Palazzo dei Conservatori is located in Piazza del Campidoglio to the right of thePalazzo Senatorio and opposite the Palazzo Nuovo. The Palazzo dei Conservatori owes its name to the fact that it was the seat of the city's elected magistracy, theConservators, who together with the Senator administered Rome in the Middle-Age. The Palace in this position was erected byPope Nicholas V.Michelangelo Buonarroti, who had been commissioned to carry out the overall redevelopment of the square, designed the new façade, which he did not, however, see completed as he died during the works (in 1564). His project redesigned the medieval façade of the palace, replacing the portico with two orders: theCorinthian one formed by high pilasters placed on large full-height pedestals, and theIonic one that supports the vaults of the portico. Between these orders were placed a series of large windows, all of the same size.[31][32] The works were continued by Guido Guidetti and completed in 1568 byGiacomo Della Porta who followed Michelangelo's designs almost faithfully, deviating from them only to build a larger reception room on the first floor and, consequently, a larger window than all the others on the facade of the palace. There were also transformations inside the palace, both for the construction of a large monumental staircase and for the new redistribution of the rooms of the "Apartment of the Conservators", which led to the destruction of the cycle of frescoes from the early sixteenth century that decorated the rooms overlooking Piazza del Campidoglio.
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The courtyard and main staircase (ground floor); the Courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori has always represented, since the beginning, a point of attraction for the conservation of the memory of the ancient: the works that flowed into the palace represented that cultural continuity inherited from the ancient world, almost as if they represented a bridge in the virtual connection with a glorious past. The main works include theColossus of Constantine; the reliefs depicting the personifications of theRoman provinces from theTemple of Hadrian in Piazza di Pietra; two colossal statues of Dacians in grey-brown marble (fromTrajan's Forum), purchased byPope Clement XI in 1720 from the Cesi collection and placed at the sides; a statue of the goddessRoma seated, modelled on the Greek statues ofPhidias, which probably belonged to a 1st-century arch. In the shelves of the staircase that leads from the courtyard to the upper floors are inserted some reliefs from Roman antiquity. Three of them were part of a triumphal arch dedicated toMarcus Aurelius and arrived in the Campidoglio since 1515, three others dedicated to theemperor Hadrian welcomed by three personifications (goddess Roma, Senate and Roman People), comes from a discovery in Piazza Sciarra and was purchased by the Conservatori in 1573.[33]
From the staircase, one enters, from the front, the Conservatori Apartment, composed of 9 rooms. This "apartment" was closely linked to the function performed by theConservatori who, together with thePrior of the Caporioni, represented the threeRoman Magistrates starting from 1305.[34] The 9 rooms are divided into:
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These halls house the Modern Fasti, marble tables engraved with the names of the city's civic magistrates (senatores) from 1640 to 1870.
here are collected materials from excavations in theEsquilino area, betweenPiazza Vittorio Emenuele II and Piazza Dante. Among these, part of an alabaster floor and fragments of the architectural decoration inopus sectile of acryptoporticus, theEsquiline Venus and theCommodus as Hercules.
Here are exhibited among other things theMarsyas being tortured and the so-calledHead of Amazon, Rhyton of Pontios (neo-Attic fountain from theHorti Maecenatis.
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The exhibition space presents finds from the archaic temples of the 6th century before the common era, excavated in the mid-20th century in theSant'Omobono Area, and a section that illustrates the results of the most recent excavations carried out in the lower layers of this area of the Capitoline Hill, which document its occupation starting from the 10th century BC.
The Pinacoteca Capitolina (Capitoline Art Gallery), originally from the collection of the Sacchetti marquises and thePrincipi Pio di Savoia. family, is part of the Capitoline Museums complex, housed on theCampidoglio in thePalazzo dei Conservatori and in thePalazzo Nuovo.
The credit for the creation of the Art Gallery must be shared between the pontiffBenedict XIV and his secretary of state, CardinalSilvio Valenti Gonzaga, one of the main patrons and collectors of eighteenth-century Rome. In 1748, over 180 paintings were purchased from theSacchetti family, owners of one of the most important Roman collections, the Sacchetti collection, formed during the seventeenth century by Marcello Sacchetti and his brother, CardinalGiulio. Over time, the Pinacoteca's collection has increased significantly thanks to the arrival of numerous paintings, which arrived in theCampidoglio through purchases, bequests and donations. With the Cini donation of 1880, numerous decorative art objects entered the collection, including a notable collection of porcelain. Administered, in the first hundred years of its life, by the pontifical structures of the Camerlengato and the Sacred Apostolic Palaces, the Capitoline Art Gallery has been under the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Rome since 1847. The collection contains paintings byCaravaggio,Titian,Peter Paul Rubens,Annibale Carracci,Guido Reni,Guercino,Mattia Preti,Pietro da Cortona,Domenichino,Giovanni Lanfranco,Dosso Dossi andGarofalo.
The palace was built only in the 17th century, probably in two phases, under the direction ofGirolamo Rainaldi and then of his sonCarlo Rainaldi who completed it in 1663. However, the project, at least of the façade, must be attributed toMichelangelo Buonarroti.[35] Built in front of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, it was used as a museum since the 19th century; numerous finds fromHadrian's Villa toTivoli.
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The internal space on the ground floor hosts a portico with large statues (such as that of Minerva orFaustina the Elder-Ceres), which once belonged to the Vatican Belvedere Collection and were later donated to the city of Rome.
In the middle of the atrium is the courtyard, where the fountain is located, surmounted by the statue known as theMarforio, so called following its discovery in the sixteenth century, in the Forum ofMars (Martis Forum, a name that the ancients attributed to theForum of Augustus). Two statues of Satyrs carrying a basket of fruit on their heads: they are two mirror-image statues depicting the godPan, probably used astelamons in the architectural structure of thetheatre of Pompey. Also on display is a colossal statue ofMars, found in the 16th century in theForum of Nerva. There is also a group featuringPolyphemus, who holds a young prisoner at his feet.
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During the pontificate ofClement XI, a series of statues found in the area of the Villa Verospi Vitelleschi (Horti Sallustiani) were acquired, which decorated the Egyptian pavilion built by the emperorHadrian. There were four statues, which were placed in the Palazzo Nuovo. Later, however (from 1838), almost all the Egyptian sculptures were transferred to the Vatican.
Today, the Hall of Egyptian Monuments is accessed through the courtyard; behind a large glass wall are the large granite works. Among the most representative works are a large bell-shaped krater from Hadrian's Villa and a series of animals symbolizing the most important Egyptian deities: the crocodile, two cynocephali, a sparrowhawk, a sphinx, a scarab, etc.
The name "ground floor rooms" identifies the three rooms on the ground floor to the right of the atrium, which houses works including fragments of "post-Caesarian"Roman calendars showing the new year, whichCaesar defined as 365 days, as well as lists of magistrates called "Fasti Minori", in relation to the more famous "Fasti consulares", preserved in thePalazzo dei Conservatori. The first room contains numerous portraits of Roman private individuals, among which one stands out, perhaps that ofGermanicus Julius Caesar or his fatherDrusus the Elder; the cinerary urn of T. Statilius Aper and Orcivia Anthis; the Sarcophagus with reliefs depicting an episode from the life of Achilles.
The Gallery, which runs longitudinally along the first floor of the Capitoline Museum, connecting the various rooms and offering visitors a large and varied collection of statues, portraits, reliefs and epigraphs arranged by the eighteenth-centuryConservatories.
Numerous statues are preserved in the Gallery, such as that of Hercules, restored as Hercules Killing the Hydra (marble, a Roman copy of a Greek original from the 4th century BC, found during the renovation of thechurch of Sant'Agnese in Agone and restored in 1635); the fragment of the leg of Hercules fighting the Hydra (heavily reworked in the seventeenth-century restoration); the statue of a wounded warrior, also called the Capitoline Discobolus (of which only the torso is ancient, perhaps a copy of theDiscobolus by Miron, while the rest is the work of the restoration carried out between 1658 and 1733 byPierre-Étienne Monnot perhaps on the model of the statues of Pergamon known as the "little barbarians"); the statue ofLeda with the swan (perhaps a Roman copy of the 4th century BC group attributed toTimotheus); statue of a young Hercules strangling the serpent (ca. 150–200, from the collection of CardinalAlessandro Albani), in which recently it has been suggested that a youngCaracalla or evenMarcus Annius Verus Caesar;Eros with the bow (Roman copy ofLysippos, fromTivoli); statue of anOld Drunkard, marble sculpture dating back to around 300-280 BC and known from Roman copies, the best of which are the one in theGlyptothek inMunich (h 92 cm) and the one in the Capitoline Museum.
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The room takes its name from the famous floor mosaic: the mosaic of the doves, found at Hadrian's Villa and attributed to a Greek mosaicist namedSosus of Pergamon. The works contained here belonged mostly to the collection of CardinalAlessandro Albani, whose acquisition is at the origin of the Capitoline Museum. The arrangement of the male and female portraits (including a portrait of the emperorTrajan and a male portrait from the Republican era), along shelves that run along the entire perimeter of the wall of the room, dates back to an eighteenth-century layout project and is still visible, albeit with some imperceptible changes. An arrangement that has never been altered is that of the Roman sepulchral inscriptions affixed, in the mid-eighteenth century, to the upper part of the walls. Inside the room we remember:
This small polygonal room, similar to anymphaeum, frames the statue calledCapitoline Venus, found during the pontificate ofClement X (1670–1676) at thebasilica of San Vitale; according toPietro Santi Bartoli the statue was located inside some ancient rooms together with other sculptures.Pope Benedict XIV bought the statue from the Stazi family in 1752 and donated it to the Capitoline Museum. After being taken to Paris in 1797, following theTreaty of Tolentino, it was returned to the Capitoline Museum in 1816. The Venus has slightly larger dimensions than life (h. 193 cm) and is made of a precious marble (probablyParian marble); the statue is an example ofVenus pudica, represented emerging from the bath while covering her pubis and breasts. The sculpture, which is today one of the most famous in the museum, appears in all its beauty inside this 19th century room that opens onto the gallery, in an evocative and ethereal setting.
The Hall of the Emperors is one of the oldest rooms in the Capitoline Museum. Since the exhibition areas opened to the public in 1734, the curators wanted to arrange, collected in a single room, the portraits of theRoman emperors and the people of their circle. The current layout is the result of various reworkings carried out over the last century. The room houses 67 portrait busts, a seated female statue (in the center), 8 reliefs and a modern honorary epigraph.
The portraits are arranged on two levels of marble shelves; the tour route unfolds in a helical fashion and clockwise, starting from the upper shelf entering on the left, to end at the end of the lower shelf on the right. The visitor can thus chronologically follow the evolution ofRoman portraiture from theRepublican Age to theLate Antiquity, and appreciate the evolution in the differenthairstyles and beards).
In the center of the room is the statue ofFlavia Julia Helena,augusta of theRoman Empire,concubine (or perhaps wife) of theemperorConstantius Chlorus, as well as mother of the emperorConstantine I. Catholics venerate her as Saint Helena the Empress.
Among the most remarkable portraits are those of Augustus as a young man with a laurel wreath and Augustus as an adult of the "Azio type", of Nero, of the emperors of theFlavian dynasty (Vespasian, Titus and Domitian) and of theFive Good Emperors (Trajan,Hadrian,Antoninus Pius,Marcus Aurelius as a young man and as an adult,Lucius Verus,Commodus as a young man and as an adult).
TheSeveran dynasty is also well represented with portraits ofSeptimius Severus,Geta,Caracalla as well as those ofHeliogabalus,Maximinus Thrax,Trajan Decius,Marcus Aurelius Probus andDiocletian. The series ends withHonorius, son ofTheodosius.
As in the case of the "Hall of the Emperors", the Hall of the Philosophers was also born, at the time of the foundation of theCapitoline Museum, from the desire to collect portraits, busts andherms, of poets, philosophers and rhetoricians of antiquity. The hall contains 79 of them. The itinerary begins with the most famous poet of antiquity,Homer, represented as an old man with a beard, flowing hair and a dull look, indicative of blindness. Next comesPindar, another famous Greek poet,Pythagoras, with his turban on his head, andSocrates with a fleshy nose similar to that of aSilenus. The great Athenian tragedians are also present:Aeschylus,Sophocles andEuripides.
Among the many characters of the Greek world, some portraits from the Roman era are also exhibited; among theseMarcus Tullius Cicero, the famous statesman and man of letters, depicted as a little over fifty years old in the prime of his intellectual and political faculties.
The Hall of Palazzo Nuovo is the most monumental space in the entire Capitoline museum complex. The large portal that opens into the long wall communicating with the Gallery, designed byFilippo Barigioni in the first half of the eighteenth century, is arched, with two winged Victories of fine workmanship. At the sides and in the center of the hall, on high and ancient bases, are the large bronze statues, among which the sculptures in gray marble of theOld Centaur and theYoung Centaur (found inHadrian's Villa and purchased byPope Clement XIII for the Capitoline collection in 1765) stand out. All around, on a second level, there are shelves with a series of busts (such as one of Trajan, a copy from the sixteenth century). There are also some statues of Roman emperors such as theMarcus Aurelius in military dress (dating back to 161–180, from the Albani collection), theAugustus holding the world in his hand (with a body copied from theDiadumenos byPolycletus) and theHadrian-Mars (from the Albani collection).
The Gallery also houses numerous other statues: Asclepius (in grey-brown marble, a 2nd-century copy of an early Hellenistic original; Albani collection); an Apollo of the Omphalos (from a Greek version of 470-460 BC by the sculptorCalamis; Albani collection); aHermes (a Roman marble copy of Lysippos, from Hadrian's Villa); a statue of Pothos, restored as Apollo Citharoidus (Kitharoidos, a Roman copy after a Greek original bySkopas); Marcus Aurelius andFaustina Minor (the parents of the emperorCommodus, revisited asMars andVenus and datable to about 187–189); a young satyr (2nd-century copy after a late Hellenistic original; Albani collection); a "hunter with hare" (dating to the time of Gallienus; found in 1747 nearPorta Latina);Harpocrates, son ofIsis andOsiris (found in the Pecile of Hadrian's Villa and donated to the Capitoline collection byPope Benedict XIV in 1744);Athenapromachos (copy of a prototype from the5th century BC attributed to Plicleto Albani collection); and many others.
The room takes its name from the sculpture that has been in the center of the room since 1817, the Red Faun from Hadrian's Villa. The statue of the Faun was found in 1736 and restored by Clemente Bianchi andBartolomeo Cavaceppi. It was purchased by the museum in 1746 and very quickly became one of the most appreciated works by visitors of that century. Among the epigraphic texts, theLex de imperio Vespasiani from the 1st century is important (a decree that confers particular power to the emperor Vespasian).
This Hall takes its name from the central sculpture, the "Dying Gaul", a 3rd-century Roman copy of the 3rd-century BC Greek bronze original, part of the Donarium of Attalus, a triumphal monument on the acropolis ofPergamon commissioned byAttalus I to celebrate his victory over theGalatians. Purchased in 1734 by CardinalLudovico Ludovisi by Alessandro Gregorio Capponi, president of the Capitoline Museum, it was mistakenly believed to portray a gladiator in the act of falling on his shield and became perhaps the most famous work in the collections, replicated several times in engravings and drawings.
The Gaul is surrounded by other Roman copies of Greek originals of notable quality: theWounded Amazon, the statue ofHermes-Antinous (purchased by Cardinal Albani fromPope Clement XII around 1734, from Hadrian's Villa), and the Satyr at Rest (from an original byPraxiteles of the 4th century BC, donated byPope Benedict XIV to the Capitoline Museums in 1753), while against the window, the delightful rococo group ofCupid and Psyche symbolises the tender union of the human soul with divine love, according to a theme dating back to Platonic philosophy which enjoyed great success in artistic production since early Hellenism. Then there are the busts of thecaesaricideMarcus Junius Brutus and the Macedonian leaderAlexander the Great (marble, Roman copy of a Hellenistic original made between the 3rd and 2nd century BC approximately).
TheWounded Amazon (from an original of the 5th century BC, fromVilla d'Este inTivoli, within the perimeter of Hadrian's Villa) is also called the "Sosikles type", from the signature on this replica. Generally attributed toPolycletus (or toPhidias), it has slightly larger dimensions than life. The raised arm is the result of a restoration, perhaps originally brandishing a spear on which the figure was leaning. The head is turned to the right, the left arm instead raises the drapery showing the wound. It was donated byBenedict XIV to the Capitoline Museums in 1753.
The Tabularium building was intended to house the public archive of the State: the most important public documents of ancient Rome, from the decrees of theRoman Senate to thepeace treaties. These documents were engraved on bronze "tabulae" (hence the name "tabularium" for any archive in the Roman world). The name of the Capitoline Hill, however, derives from an inscription, preserved in the building in theRenaissance, which mentions an archive: it could be one or more rooms, not necessarily a so-called "State archive" which occupied the entire complex. The archives of the state administration, among others, were scattered in various buildings of the city.
Currently theTabularium is part of the Capitoline Museum complex and is accessible from the Galleria Lapidaria that connects Palazzo Nuovo to Palazzo dei Conservatori. The 73.60m long base, with walls in VolcanicTuff from theAniene and blocks ofPeperite, supports the current Palazzo Senatorio, seat of the municipality of Rome. At first it was possible to access the Tabularium from the Forum via a staircase of67 steps, still well preserved, but at the time ofDomitian with the construction of theTemple of Vespasian the entrance to the forum was blocked.[36][37][38]
The Galleria Lapidaria is an underground gallery, excavated in the 1930s under the Piazza del Campidoglio to connect the Capitoline buildings.[39] On both sides of the gallery are exhibited130 inscriptions from theGreco-Roman civilization period. Among the numerous inscriptions, that of theex-voto to the goddess Celestis for a good journey (3rd century) is preserved. The text of the dedication reads: "A Caelestis victoriosa Iovinus fulfilled his vow".
In the underground, at the end of the Galleria Lapidaria, there are also the Tabularium and the remains of the temple of Veiovis.
The sixteenth-century Palazzo Caffarelli al Campidoglio stands behind Palazzo dei Conservatori, on the southern side of the hill once occupied by theTemple of Capitoline Jupiter.[40] To reach it, you have to walk along Via delle Tre Pile, at the end of which Piazzale Caffarelli, in front of the building, offers a view of Rome. From the belvedere, crossing a portal, you enter the Caffarelli Garden and from there the ground floor of the building; on the external corner of the building, ancient Roman bas-reliefs are reassembled, in particular the remains of the tomb of Publius Elio Gutta Calpurniano, a Roman charioteer from the 2nd century AD, discovered in the 19th century nearPorta del Popolo.
Since 2020, the ground floor has been reopened to the public as part of the Capitoline Museums dedicated to temporary specialized exhibitions, in an exhibition route that is divided into various rooms and ends by connecting to the first floor of Palazzo dei Conservatori in the area of the Temple of Jupiter and the exedra of Marcus Aurelius.
The first of these exhibitions exhibited statues from theTorlonia Collection (14 October 2020 - 27 February 2022).[41]
The oldest part of the building, improperly calledPalazzo Clementino in modern times, is adjacent to the second floor of Palazzo dei Conservatori and was included in the museum itinerary at the beginning of the 21st century.
This is where theMedagliere Capitolino, the collection of coins, medals and jewels of the Municipality, is located. The medal collection was created following a bequest by Ludovico Stanzani in 1872 and was constituted following the interest of Augusto Castellani. Two other groups were subsequently added to the collection: one of Roman and Byzantine aurei and solidi (from theCampana collection) and one of republican denarii (from the Giulio Bignami collection). It was found during the demolitions for the construction of Via dell'Impero (nowVia dei Fori Imperiali) in the home of an antique dealer who had hidden it in his own house. The treasure consisted of 17 kilos of gold, including coins and jewels. The medal collection was opened to the public in 2003.[42]
Adjacent to the medal collection are three other rooms, with the original wooden coffered ceilings and frescoed wall decorations, which arrived in precarious conditions due to the historical events of Palazzo Caffarelli and were later restored and included in the museum itinerary; in particular, theSala di San Pietro (from the subject of one of the frescoes, a miracle performed in Jerusalem by Saint Peter). From this last room you enter theHall of the Fronton, so called because it offers a reconstruction of the terracotta decorations that originally decorated the pediment of a Roman temple from the 2nd century BC, found in Via diSan Gregorio and reassembled here in 2002.
The second floor of Palazzo Caffarelli - like its ground floor - is dedicated to hosting temporary exhibitions.
The Centrale Montemartini[43] is a former power station ofAcea (active as a power-station between the 1890s and 1930s) in southern Rome, between thePyramid of Cestius and theBasilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, close to theMetro stationGarbatella.
In 1997, the Centrale Montemartini was adapted to temporarily accommodate a part of the antique sculpture collection of the Capitoline museums, at that time closed for renovation; the temporary exhibition was so appreciated that the venue was eventually converted into a permanent museum.[44]
Its permanent collection comprises 400 ancient statues, moved here during the reorganisation of the Capitoline Museums in 1997, along with tombs, busts, and mosaics. Many of them were excavated in the ancient Roman horti (e.g. theGardens of Sallust) between the 1890s and 1930s, a fruitful period for Roman archaeology.[45]
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