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Musei Capitolini Review

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Musei Capitolini

Address: Piazza del Campidoglio, Campidoglio, Rome | Map It
Phone: 06/39967800
www.museicapitolini.org

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: Ancient Rome

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Fodor's Review:

Surpassed in sheer size and richness only by the Musei Vaticani, this immense collection was the first public museum in the world. A greatest-hits collection of Roman art through the ages, from the ancients to the Baroque, it is housed in the twin Museo Capitolino and Palazzo dei Conservatori that bookend Michelangelo's famous piazza. Here, you'll find some of antiquity's most famous sculptures, such as the poignant Dying Gaul, the regal Capitoline Venus, the Esquiline Venus (identified as another Mediterranean beauty, Cleopatra herself), and the Lupa Capitolina, the very symbol of Rome itself. Although some pieces in the collection—first assembled by Sixtus IV (1414-84), one of the earliest of the Renaissance popes—may excite only archaeologists and art historians, others are unforgettable, including the original bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius whose copy sits in the piazza.

Buy your ticket and enter the museums on the right of the piazza (as you face the center Palazzo Senatorio), into the building known as the Palazzo dei Conservatori. Lining the courtyard are the colossal fragments of a head, leg, foot, and hand—remains of the famous statue of emperor Constantine the Great, who believed that Rome's future lay with Christianity. These immense effigies were much in vogue in the latter days of the Roman Empire. Take the stairs up past a series of intricately detailed ancient marble reliefs to the resplendent Salone dei Orazi e Curiazi (Salon of Horatii and Curatii) on the first floor. The ceremonial hall is decorated with a magnificent gilt ceiling, carved wooden doors, and 16th-century frescoes depicting the history of ancient Rome. At both ends of the hall are statues of the Baroque era's most charismatic popes: a marble Urban VIII (1568-1644) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) and a bronze Innocent X (1574-1655) by Bernini's rival, Algardi (1595-1654). The renowned symbol of Rome, the Capitoline Wolf, a 6th-century BC Etruscan bronze, holds a place of honor in the room; the suckling twins were added during the Renaissance to adapt the statue to the legend of Romulus and Remus.

Marcus Aurelius Status

The centerpiece and, indeed, heart of the museum is the Exhedra of Marcus Aurelius (Sala Marco Aurelio), a large, airy room with skylights and high windows, which showcases the spectacular original bronze statue of the Roman emperor whose copy sits in the piazza below. Created in the 2nd century AD, the statue should have been melted down like so many other bronze statues of emperors after the decline of Rome, but this one is thought to have survived because it was mistaken for a likeness of the Christian emperor Constantine, rather than of the pagan Marcus Aurelius. Also under the glass roof of the Sala are the spectacular remains of a colossal bronze statue of Constantine.

The room segues into the area of the Temple of Jupiter, with its original ruins rising organically into the museum space. A reconstruction of the temple and Capitol Hill from the Bronze Age to present day make for a fascinating glance through the ages. On the top floor is the museum's pinacoteca, or painting gallery, which has some noted Baroque masterpieces, including Caravaggio's La Buona Ventura (1595) and San Giovanni Battista (1602), Peter Paul Rubens's (1577-1640) Romulus and Remus (1614), and Pietro da Cortona's (1627) sumptuous portrait of Pope Urban VIII. Adjacent to the Palazzo dei Conservatori is Palazzo Caffarelli, where temporary exhibitions are mounted. Here, set on the Piazzale Caffarelli, the new Caffè Capitolino offers a spectacular vista over Rome (looking toward St. Peter's)—it is open daily (except Monday) 9 to 8 in the evening.

To reach the Palazzo Nuovo section of the museum (the palace on the left-hand side of the Campidoglio), take the stairs or elevator to the basement of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, where a corridor called the Galleria Congiunzione leads to the Tabularium, holding a poignant collection of ancient gravestones, connects the two buildings underground. But before going up into Palazzo Nuovo, be sure to take the detour to the right to the Tabularium Gallery with its unparalleled view over the Roman Forum.

Room of the Emperors

Inside the Palazzo Nuovo is the noted Sala degli Imperatori, lined with busts of Roman emperors, along with the Sala dei Filosofi, where busts of philosophers sit in judgment—a fascinating who's who of the ancient world, and a must-see of the museum.Although many ancient Roman treasures were merely copies of Greek originals, portraiture was one area in which the Romans took precedence. Within these serried ranks are 48 Roman emperors, ranging from Augustus to Theodosius (AD 346-395). On one console, you'll see the handsomely austere Augustus, who "found Rome a city of brick and left it one of marble." On another rests Claudius "the stutterer," an indefatigable builder brought vividly to life in the history-based novel I, Claudius by Robert Graves. Also in this company is Nero, one of the most notorious emperors—though by no means the worst—who built for himself the fabled Domus Aurea. And, of course, there are the standout baddies: cruel Caligula (AD 12-41) and Caracalla (AD 186-217), and the dissolute, eerily modern boy-emperor, Heliogabalus (AD 203-222). In the adjacent Great Hall, be sure to take in the 16 resplendently restored marble statues.

Downstairs at the center of the courtyard near the exit is the gigantic, reclining figure of Oceanus, found in the Roman Forum and later dubbed Marforio, one of Rome's famous "talking statues" to which citizens from the 1500s to the 1900s affixed anonymous satirical verses and notes of political protest.

Cost: EUR 6.50 EUR
Open: Tues.-Sun. 9-8

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