Description
The Capitoline Museums are Rome's civic museums, on the Piazza del Campidoglio designed by Michelangelo. They gather ancient sculptures, mosaics and paintings in the Palazzo dei Conservatori and the Palazzo Nuovo, linked by an underground gallery.
In the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori the fragments of the colossal statue of Constantine stand out: the head, 2.60 meters high on its own, the hands and the feet, enormous. It was meant to reach 12 meters and stood in the Basilica of Maxentius, in the Forum. Inside, the Marcus Aurelius on horseback, the bronze original, is displayed indoors in a large glass hall.
Then there is the Capitoline Wolf, the symbol of Rome, in the room that takes its name from her: the twins beneath the wolf were added in the 1400s. On the walls of the same room are carved the Fasti Capitolini, the lists of the consuls and triumphs of ancient Rome.
In the Palazzo Nuovo, reached through the underground gallery, are famous sculptures such as the Dying Gaul, a Roman copy of a Greek bronze, and the Capitoline Venus. The Halls of the Emperors and of the Philosophers line up dozens of portraits: Augustus, Nero, Trajan, but also Homer and Socrates. Another stop is the mosaic of the doves, found at Hadrian's Villa.
The Pinacoteca, on the second floor, has two paintings by Caravaggio, the Fortune Teller and St. John the Baptist, and works by Guercino, Rubens, Titian and Velázquez.
From the upper floor the gallery leads under the square, among the arches of the Tabularium, which look out over the Roman Forum from a vantage point few other places offer.
In 1734 a pope did something that then seemed strange: he opened an art collection to everyone. Not just to princes and cardinals, but to anybody. That is why the Capitoline Museums are considered the first public museum in the world.
The pope was Clement XII, and he had just bought the antiquities of Cardinal Albani, which were about to end up with English collectors. The works stayed in Rome: a far from obvious principle at the time.
The story had begun earlier, in 1471, when Sixtus IV gave the Roman people some ancient bronzes from the Lateran. Napoleon later carried off the best pieces, like the Dying Gaul and the Spinario: they returned to Rome thanks to Antonio Canova.
The Palazzo Nuovo was built in the 1600s, on a facade designed by Michelangelo, and in the 1700s Benedict XIV added the Pinacoteca with works on Roman subjects. On the main floor of the Palazzo dei Conservatori you walk through frescoed halls such as the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii and the Hall of the Captains, as far as the Hall of the Wolf.
Don't miss
• The Marcus Aurelius.
• The Capitoline Wolf.
• The fragments of Constantine's statue.
• The Dying Gaul.
• The Pinacoteca.
Did you know?
• According to some restorers the Wolf is not Etruscan but medieval, from the 12th century.
• The Marcus Aurelius on the square is a copy: the original has been in the museums since 1990.
In the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori the fragments of the colossal statue of Constantine stand out: the head, 2.60 meters high on its own, the hands and the feet, enormous. It was meant to reach 12 meters and stood in the Basilica of Maxentius, in the Forum. Inside, the Marcus Aurelius on horseback, the bronze original, is displayed indoors in a large glass hall.
Then there is the Capitoline Wolf, the symbol of Rome, in the room that takes its name from her: the twins beneath the wolf were added in the 1400s. On the walls of the same room are carved the Fasti Capitolini, the lists of the consuls and triumphs of ancient Rome.
In the Palazzo Nuovo, reached through the underground gallery, are famous sculptures such as the Dying Gaul, a Roman copy of a Greek bronze, and the Capitoline Venus. The Halls of the Emperors and of the Philosophers line up dozens of portraits: Augustus, Nero, Trajan, but also Homer and Socrates. Another stop is the mosaic of the doves, found at Hadrian's Villa.
The Pinacoteca, on the second floor, has two paintings by Caravaggio, the Fortune Teller and St. John the Baptist, and works by Guercino, Rubens, Titian and Velázquez.
From the upper floor the gallery leads under the square, among the arches of the Tabularium, which look out over the Roman Forum from a vantage point few other places offer.
In 1734 a pope did something that then seemed strange: he opened an art collection to everyone. Not just to princes and cardinals, but to anybody. That is why the Capitoline Museums are considered the first public museum in the world.
The pope was Clement XII, and he had just bought the antiquities of Cardinal Albani, which were about to end up with English collectors. The works stayed in Rome: a far from obvious principle at the time.
The story had begun earlier, in 1471, when Sixtus IV gave the Roman people some ancient bronzes from the Lateran. Napoleon later carried off the best pieces, like the Dying Gaul and the Spinario: they returned to Rome thanks to Antonio Canova.
The Palazzo Nuovo was built in the 1600s, on a facade designed by Michelangelo, and in the 1700s Benedict XIV added the Pinacoteca with works on Roman subjects. On the main floor of the Palazzo dei Conservatori you walk through frescoed halls such as the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii and the Hall of the Captains, as far as the Hall of the Wolf.
Don't miss
• The Marcus Aurelius.
• The Capitoline Wolf.
• The fragments of Constantine's statue.
• The Dying Gaul.
• The Pinacoteca.
Did you know?
• According to some restorers the Wolf is not Etruscan but medieval, from the 12th century.
• The Marcus Aurelius on the square is a copy: the original has been in the museums since 1990.