The bronzes Rome made its own
Explore the Capitoline Museums, from the She-wolf to the ancient bronze of Marcus Aurelius, and see how sculptures from across Rome became part of the city’s civic life.
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Rome, Italy
INTRODUCTION
At the top of the Cordonata, the broad stepped approach to Piazza del Campidoglio, a bronze horse lifts one hoof in front of Rome’s city hall. The rider is Marcus Aurelius. The statue in the square is a replica, while the ancient bronze is inside the Capitoline Museums. The two share a setting that Rome’s civic authorities have used for centuries.
That pairing is a good place to begin. The museums grew from a gift of bronzes to the Roman people, and successive generations decided where to place them, whom they portrayed and what they said about the city. The collection preserves those decisions alongside the objects themselves.
This route crosses two palaces and looks back over the Roman Forum. For the wider city, see our Rome history and travel guide.
KEY HISTORICAL MOMENT
In 1471, Pope Sixtus IV gave the Roman people a group of bronzes that had been kept at the Lateran. They included the She-wolf, the Spinario and fragments of a colossal bronze Constantine. Placing them at the seat of Rome’s civic magistrates gave the city’s government a visible connection to its past. The gift became the nucleus of the museums.
ORIGINS
In antiquity, the Capitoline was the site of the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, one of Rome’s most important sanctuaries. The hill overlooks the Forum, where magistrates conducted public business below. By the Middle Ages, Rome’s civic authorities had established themselves on the hill itself.
The Palazzo Senatorio, which now houses city hall, stands above the ancient structure known as the Tabularium. From the Forum, the building’s massive Roman base and the palace above it are visible together. The long use of the site helps explain why the hill was a fitting home for the donated bronzes.
The first bronzes were displayed on the façade and in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, where civic magistrates had their offices. Their placement made them part of the building’s public face. As finds from excavations joined the collection, people could see objects from different parts of ancient Rome gathered in one civic setting.
SCULPTURE AND CIVIC POWER
In 1538, Pope Paul III ordered the bronze Marcus Aurelius moved from the Lateran to the Capitoline. It had long been taken for Constantine, the first Christian emperor. By the time of its move, the statue was already a rarity. Most of ancient Rome’s large bronze riders had disappeared.
The Roman Senate asked Michelangelo to refurbish the statue. His design made the rider the centre of the square, with the Palazzo Senatorio behind it and palaces to either side. The old bronze now stood where people approaching the seat of city government would see it.
Palazzo Nuovo was built across the square from the Palazzo dei Conservatori in the seventeenth century, following the design for a matching façade. It provided space for sculpture that had accumulated across the piazza. Its interiors allowed works to be arranged in groups, from imperial portraits to figures drawn from mythology. The long gallery still follows the arrangement devised for the opening by Alessandro Capponi.
Clement XII bought Cardinal Alessandro Albani’s collection of sculptures in 1733 and inaugurated the public museum the following year. Visitors can still see the effect of that purchase in the Hall of the Emperors, where the portraits sit side by side on shelves.
ACROSS CENTURIES
In the eighteenth century, Benedict XIV established a picture gallery using paintings from the Sacchetti and Pio collections. Its works by artists including Titian and Caravaggio widened the scope of a collection best known for sculpture. The gallery occupies the second floor of the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
When Rome became the capital of unified Italy, construction in new neighbourhoods brought more antiquities to light. The city opened additional display areas and established an archaeological store on the Caelian Hill. The museum’s growth followed the pace of building and digging in the city around it.
A twentieth-century underground passage linked the two palaces. Work on it revealed an ancient road and buildings, parts of which can be seen on the route. The passage now also displays inscriptions.
The modern glass-roofed Exedra, designed by Carlo Aymonino, gave the equestrian bronze a sheltered home. Moving it indoors reduced its exposure to the weather while a replica preserved the arrangement of the square outside.
INTERESTING FACTS
The twins beneath the She-wolf were added in the Renaissance, making the link to the story of Romulus and Remus explicit. The museum catalogue dates the wolf to the fifth century BCE. Radiocarbon tests on organic material from its casting core point instead to the eleventh or twelfth century CE. Both dates concern the wolf itself.
The Spinario shows a boy bending over to remove a thorn. The bronze was among the first gifts to the Roman people. Its subject is far removed from the formal pose of an imperial portrait. Renaissance artists copied it, drawn to a figure whose concentration is conveyed by the tilt of his head and the position of his hands.
The bronze known as the Capitoline Brutus entered the collection in 1564. Antiquarians identified the sitter as Lucius Junius Brutus, traditionally one of Rome’s first consuls. The identification is unproven. The name shows how collectors attached a face to a figure from Rome’s early history when the sculpture itself left the sitter’s identity open.
In the Hall of the She-wolf, fragments of the Capitoline Fasti are set into the walls. Recovered from the Forum, these inscriptions list magistrates and triumphal victors. Follow the lines of names to see how Rome recorded office and public honours. A carved list could preserve a city’s account of its past as deliberately as a statue.
WHAT TO SEE & DO
Begin in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori. Look for the marble head and other fragments of a colossal statue of Constantine, recovered from the Basilica of Maxentius in the Roman Forum. The head alone is about 2.6 metres high.
Compare the scale of the face with the nearby fragments of hands and feet. The group gives an idea of how large the seated figure would have appeared in the basilica.
Continue through the palace to the glass-roofed Exedra. Look at the rider’s outstretched hand, then move to a side view of the horse and its raised foreleg. The museum setting lets you see details that are harder to make out from below the pedestal in the square.
The room also contains fragments of a bronze Constantine. Those pieces are from a different statue from the marble colossus in the courtyard.
Follow signs to the Galleria Lapidaria and take the branch to the Tabularium when open. The underground gallery displays inscriptions, while the openings in the Tabularium frame the Roman Forum below.
Pause at an opening and look along the Forum’s central space. The view puts the Capitoline Hill and the old civic square in the same frame. It also helps locate the Basilica of Maxentius towards the far end of the Forum.
Continue through the underground connection to Palazzo Nuovo. In the Hall of the Emperors, follow the rows of portraits from Augustus towards late antiquity. Compare hair, beards and expressions across several generations. Some of the names attached to the portraits remain uncertain.
In the Hall of the Galatian, look for the neck ring and shield of the Dying Gaul. The sculptor used such details to distinguish the wounded warrior from a Roman or Greek figure.
WHY VISIT?
These museums suit travellers who enjoy asking how objects arrived where they are. The setting supplies part of the answer. A Roman bronze can acquire a new audience when it moves into a city square, and an old inscription can take on new meaning when displayed beside the symbols of civic government.
Pair the museums with the Forum if time allows. Seeing the Basilica of Maxentius in its original setting and Constantine’s fragments in the courtyard links the scale of an imperial building to the scale of the ruler once portrayed inside it.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The museums are at Piazza del Campidoglio 1. From the Piazza Venezia area, approach the hill from Piazza d’Aracoeli and take the Cordonata up to the square. The main museum entrance is in the Palazzo dei Conservatori.
Buses stop around Piazza Venezia and Ara Coeli. Check ATAC’s transport maps and current service information before setting out, as works can change stop locations.
The museums generally open daily, with holiday exceptions and a last-admission cut-off. Check the official hours and notices before going, especially if your visit depends on access to a particular room. Use the official museum ticket information to check prices, eligibility for concessions and which exhibitions your ticket covers.
Allow roughly two to three hours for the sculpture route and the Forum view. Add time if you want to spend a while in the picture gallery or a temporary exhibition. These are editorial estimates. The route crosses buildings and levels, so allow time to find the passage between the palaces.
The museum publishes an accessible route covering both palaces, using lifts and stairlifts. It also lists uphill approaches to the square and dimensions for the smallest stairlift. Check the access guide before visiting if you use a wheelchair or need a route avoiding stairs, and ask staff about any temporary changes.
Location
Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome
Site type
Civic museum of sculpture, painting and archaeology
Founding gift
Bronzes donated by Sixtus IV in 1471
Public museum opened
1734, under Clement XII
Museum palaces
Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo
Civic emblem
Capitoline She-wolf
Original equestrian bronze
Marcus Aurelius Exedra
Suggested visit
2–3 hours for the sculpture route (editorial estimate)
Plan your visit to the Capitoline Museums and Piazza del Campidoglio.
EXPLORE MORE
Explore the city whose excavations and collections shaped the museums.
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